Josh Stark is a member of the management team at the Ethereum Foundation and a co-founder of ETHGlobal. A lawyer by training, he is a prominent figure within the Ethereum ecosystem, known for his work in ecosystem development, his public speaking, and his influential writings on Ethereum's core value proposition, scaling solutions, and the principles of Web3. ^{[1] [2]}​

Education

Stark is a lawyer by training. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from The University of British Columbia, which he attended from 2006 to 2011. He subsequently pursued a legal education at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 2014. ^{[2] [3]}​

Career

Early Career and Transition to Tech

After completing his law degree, Stark worked as a Student-at-Law at the Canadian law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP from July 2013 to May 2014. His first major role at the nexus of technology and operations was at Lendified, a Toronto-based fintech startup, where he served as Head of Operations & Legal from August 2015 to September 2016. ^[2]​

Stark entered the cryptocurrency industry in October 2016, joining Ledger, a prominent hardware wallet company, as Head of Operations, a position he held until December 2017. During this period, he also held the role of Operations Lead at L4, a venture building and research firm focused on Web3. Some sources also identify him as a co-founder of Ledger Labs, a legal technology startup. ^{[2] [3]}​

ETHGlobal

In January 2018, Stark co-founded ETHGlobal, an organization that runs a global series of hackathons and events for the Ethereum community. He served in a leadership capacity at ETHGlobal until March 2021. The organization is widely recognized as the world's largest community for Ethereum developers and has been instrumental in onboarding a significant number of developers into the ecosystem. The hackathons organized by ETHGlobal have served as a launchpad for numerous Web3 projects and have become a cornerstone of the community's growth and innovation. ^{[1] [2]}​

Ethereum Foundation

Stark joined the Ethereum Foundation in March 2021, where he serves on the management team. In this capacity, he leads a team focused on community and ecosystem development. His responsibilities involve guiding the non-profit's efforts to support public goods and helping the Ethereum network navigate the challenges and opportunities associated with becoming a global, open-source infrastructure for a new internet. He is a key contributor to communicating Ethereum's long-term vision and strategic direction. ^{[1] [2]}​

Philosophy and Contributions

Ethereum's "Hardness"

Stark's primary intellectual contribution is the concept of "hardness" as Ethereum's most essential characteristic. He defines "hardness" as the platform's ability to provide strong, credible guarantees of predictability and immutability for applications built on it. In his view, Ethereum's core function is to ensure that code, once deployed, will execute exactly as written without interference from corporations or governments. This creates a reliable foundation for digital property rights and contracts. ^[4]​