Blockchain pioneer Meinhard Benn is taking a stake in neoFIN Hamburg GmbH. Benn is considered a driver of the decentralised finance ecosystem from the very beginning. He has been involved with new technologies and alternative economies for many years. Since 2011 also explicitly with cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications in the financial sector.

In 2014, he founded SatoshiPay. His company was one of the first German start-ups in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and quickly took on a pioneering role in the local crypto scene. SatoshiPay quickly attracted the attention of renowned investors, including Börsenmedien AG, Axel Springer Plug and Play. Also the blockchain organisations Aeternity, Aergo and the Stellar Development Foundation are among the investors.

Together with his team at SatoshiPay, Benn developed a blockchain-based nanopayment system for monetising web content. Furthermore he set up DTransfer as an international instant payment solution. In 2021, he and his team also founded Pendulum. Pendulum brings the open-source Stellar protocol to a broader DeFi ecosystem and optimises currency exchanges on the blockchain. Stellar is superior to other protocols, especially in its application for international digital payments.

In January 2022, Meinhard Benn handed over his position as CEO of SatoshiPay to co-founder Alexander Wilke. He has since been active in the role of Chairman. Meinhard is also in demand as a consultant for numerous blockchain projects.

Benn sees tokenisation as a milestone for financial inclusion

“I have long pursued the goal of global financial inclusion, and tokenisation of assets is a significant milestone on the way there,” says Meinhard Benn. “It makes it easier for investors to participate in the capital markets. Failing due to the usual hurdles such as banks or high entry sums is no more risk. Therefore it leads to more self-determination. That is why I am firmly convinced of the potential of neoFIN.”

“Meinhard Benn is one of the most accomplished experts and innovators in the field of distributed ledger technologies (DLT),” says Patrick Schütze, founder and CEO of neoFIN Hamburg. “We have known and appreciated each other for a long time. I am very happy that we can intensify our cooperation by participating in neoFIN. We will benefit from his immense knowledge around blockchain technology.”

Meinhard Benn also has a lot to share outside of his blockchain know-how. Find out more about why he started programming at the age of 12. And: how he fulfilled his dream of getting to Japan overland on a folding bicycle (Podcast interview in German language).