{"id":"daniel-marin","title":"Daniel Marin","content":"Daniel Marin is the founder and CEO of [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) ([Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) Labs), a [Layer 1](https://iq.wiki/wiki/layer-1) blockchain and zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) network based in San Francisco, founded in 2022 to enable verifiable computation at global scale. His personal motto — \"Building a future of mathematical truth\" — appears on his personal website and LinkedIn. Marin has led the company since its inception, culminating in the launch of the [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) [mainnet](https://iq.wiki/wiki/mainnet) in May 2026. He studied Computer Science, Theoretical Physics, and Mathematics at Stanford University, where he was advised by cryptography professor Dan Boneh, a Stanford professor widely recognised for his foundational work in applied cryptography, including co-creating the BLS signature scheme. Marin was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Science category in 2025.[\\[6\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) Prior to founding [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus), he was a two-time bronze medalist at the International Physics Olympiad and completed software engineering internships at Google and Stanford's DAWN AI Lab.[\\[4\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n## Early life and Education\n\nDaniel Marin studied Computer Science with a specialisation in artificial intelligence, Theoretical Physics, and Mathematics at Stanford University. This interdisciplinary background directly informed his later work on zero-knowledge virtual machines. Prior to university, Marin earned bronze medals at the International Physics Olympiad in 2018 and 2019.[\\[1\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\nWhile at Stanford, Marin interned as a software engineer at Google and at the DAWN AI Lab, gaining experience in machine learning and systems engineering. Inspired by the Nova paper from Microsoft Research and research at the Stanford Cryptography Lab, he conceptualised [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) and founded the company in 2022 to develop general-purpose verifiable computing.[\\[4\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n## Career\n\n**Founding Nexus (2022)**\n\nIn 2022 Marin established [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) Laboratories, Inc. in San Francisco with the mission of creating a \"Verifiable Internet,\" where computations can be cryptographically validated. The initial concept was a distributed 'verifiable supercomputer' that leverages unused computational capacity globally to run [zero-knowledge proofs](https://iq.wiki/wiki/zero-knowledge-proof) at scale. Shortly after founding, [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) closed a $2.2 million seed round led by [Dragonfly Capital](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dragonfly-capital), with participation from Alliance, SV Angel, and [Blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) Builders Fund.[\\[5\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n**Building the zkVM and Proof Network**\n\nMarin and his team developed the [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) zkVM, an open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine written in Rust that can prove computations performed on a RISC-V processor. Marin co-authored the [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) 1.0 [whitepaper](https://iq.wiki/wiki/whitepaper), published in January 2023.\\[7] In June 2024, [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) raised a $25 million Series A co-led by [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://iq.wiki/wiki/lightspeed-venture-partners) and [Pantera Capital](https://iq.wiki/wiki/pantera-capital),\\[5] and simultaneously open-sourced zkVM 1.0 under an MIT licence. As part of this growth, the team recruited Jens Groth as Chief Scientist — the inventor of the Groth16 zkSNARK scheme and former Director of Research at DFINITY.[\\[3\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n**Testnet and Mainnet (2024–2026)**\n\n​[Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) ran three public [testnet](https://iq.wiki/wiki/testnet) phases between December 2024 and 2025. [Testnet](https://iq.wiki/wiki/testnet) III attracted over 3 million users and 6.7 million prover nodes across 190 countries. By March 2025, [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) released zkVM 3.0, built on StarkWare's Stwo STARK prover, which delivered substantial performance improvements over earlier versions. On May 20, 2026, Marin launched the [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) mainnet alongside the NEX token. The mainnet launched with [EVM](https://iq.wiki/wiki/evm) compatibility and generated over $111 million in first-day trading volume across major exchanges including [Coinbase](https://iq.wiki/wiki/coinbase), [Kraken](https://iq.wiki/wiki/kraken), and [Binance](https://iq.wiki/wiki/binance).[\\[1\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n## Philosophy and Public Views\n\nMarin has described his core motivation as building \"a future of mathematical truth,\" where cryptographic proof, rather than institutional trust, underpins digital systems.[\\[2\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​[\\[3\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) He has argued that zero-knowledge proofs are foundational for trusted computing across domains — from verifying AI model outputs to authenticating media in the era of deepfakes. He has expressed a vision in which [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) nodes run on every device globally — computers, tablets, and smartphones — forming a global computation network. On finance, he has said: \"We think everything will become a market, and everything will be traded with leverage and through synthetic assets,\" which informed [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)'s on-protocol exchange design.[\\[2\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​[\\[3\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​\n\n## Recognition\n\nIn 2025 Marin was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Science category for his leadership at [Nexus](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) and his work on enabling identity verification without requiring users to disclose personal information, using zero-knowledge proofs.[\\[6\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus) Forbes described Marin as someone who \"dreams of an internet where a user's identity can be verified without risking giving up any of their own information.\"[\\[6\\]](https://iq.wiki/wiki/nexus)​","summary":"Daniel Marin is the founder and CEO of Nexus, a San Francisco-based Layer 1 blockchain and zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) network; he holds degrees in Computer Science and Theoretical Physics from Stanford and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 202","images":[{"id":"QmachpjsGbHaTUKNn9t2E8SL2cM4dhXeT9LKBmkexwRagW","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}],"categories":[{"id":"people","title":"People in crypto"}],"tags":[{"id":"Ethereum"},{"id":"Founder"},{"id":"Researcher"},{"id":"Speaker"}],"media":[{"id":"Qmd7u7C2EGwFDpZE51HHzLPqrnrzEAMV3C4uwScVS5TVUS","size":null,"name":null,"type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"},{"id":"QmatNWN5nj5tdQMi2dWAQFr8oCo7pwixCirnAukPzYdRcT","size":null,"name":null,"type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"},{"id":"QmachpjsGbHaTUKNn9t2E8SL2cM4dhXeT9LKBmkexwRagW","size":null,"name":"5e4b6629-257e-4160-a6c0-75ff9deadb08_thumb.webp","type":null,"source":"IPFS_IMG"}],"metadata":[{"id":"website","value":"https://danielmarin.xyz/"},{"id":"twitter_profile","value":"https://x.com/danielmarinq"},{"id":"linkedin_profile","value":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmarinq/"},{"id":"github_profile","value":"https://github.com/nexus-xyz"},{"id":"references","value":"[{\"id\":\"f6505a1c-33d3-4b9c-a57a-ccfef460c81b\",\"url\":\"https://blog.nexus.xyz/nexus-mainnet-is-live/\",\"description\":\"Nexus mainnet launch announcement (Nexus blog)\",\"timestamp\":1781707024261},{\"id\":\"ab288348-b506-410f-9278-f5d7b94972ba\",\"url\":\"https://cryptonews.com/exclusives/daniel-marin-founder-of-nexus/\",\"description\":\"CryptoNews podcast interview (April 2025)\",\"timestamp\":1781707024261},{\"id\":\"62b58066-2978-45a2-9ceb-4292c7463011\",\"url\":\"https://blog.nexus.xyz/recap-verifiable-internet-layer-built-for-finance/\",\"description\":\"Digital Asset News interview recap\",\"timestamp\":1781707024261},{\"id\":\"f17045f2-9ac4-4041-beb3-773c1be3293f\",\"url\":\"https://danielmarin.xyz/\",\"description\":\"Personal website\",\"timestamp\":1781707024261},{\"id\":\"f64ed28c-ba0b-4b4a-b3ec-5ba302518772\",\"url\":\"https://nexus-xyz.github.io/assets/nexus_whitepaper.pdf\",\"description\":\"Nexus 1.0 whitepaper\",\"timestamp\":1781707024261},{\"id\":\"3c9f8f27-2526-4cfa-a620-daabf71e1dff\",\"url\":\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nexus-closes-25m-series-a-to-enable-verifiable-computation-via-zero-knowledge-cryptography-302168070.html\",\"description\":\"Series A announcement (PR Newswire)\",\"timestamp\":1781707024262},{\"id\":\"b9ec344a-48cd-4153-a6c2-60ac64a56bb2\",\"url\":\"https://blog.nexus.xyz/forbes30under30/\",\"description\":\"Forbes 30 Under 30 announcement (Nexus blog)\",\"timestamp\":1781707024262}]"},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"\"https://ipfs.everipedia.org/ipfs/Qmd4SLERTqpXEFPLEw7ryeuM2oywsrU9Pk6vcvHFMpoSSe\""},{"id":"commit-message","value":"\"Removed Daniel Marin founder/CEO Nexus biography and launch details\""},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"Qmd4SLERTqpXEFPLEw7ryeuM2oywsrU9Pk6vcvHFMpoSSe"}],"events":[],"user":{"id":"0x8af7a19a26d8fbc48defb35aefb15ec8c407f889"},"author":{"id":"0x8AF7a19a26d8FBC48dEfB35AEfb15Ec8c407f889"},"operator":{"id":"0x04e4a72e18b46EC55Ba1361CEFcEF0404b520f47"},"language":"en","version":1,"linkedWikis":{"blockchains":[],"founders":[],"speakers":[]},"recentActivity":"{\"items\":[{\"id\":\"21675093-f46d-4bd4-8b81-cbc03cd36ad9\",\"title\":\"Daniel Marin\",\"description\":\"Daniel Marin is the founder and CEO of Nexus, a San Francisco-based Layer 1 blockchain and zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) network; 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