Sam Williams is the founder of Arweave, a decentralized data storage protocol that leverages blockchain technology to enable permanent and sustainable data storage through a serverless web. He is also the founder of Minimum Spanning Technologies and is involved with organizations outside of the blockchain space such as Techstars and the LAG Foundation. ^[1][2]

Education

In 2011, Sam Williams enrolled at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2014 with a First-Class Bachelor of Science with Honors (BSc Hons.) in Computer Science. Later, Sam pursued a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science at the University of Kent. ^[3]

Career

Sam Williams' professional career began with a position at the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom as an Assistant Lecturer from September 2014 to May 2017. ^[4]

Following his academic tenure, Sam got into the technology sector, co-founding Minimum Spanning Technologies in May 2017. As the CEO and Co-Founder, he played a key role in the development and management of the Archain blockweave project, focusing on decentralized technologies. ^[4]

Blockchain Career

Sam Williams developed an interest in blockchain technologies during his PhD, which led him to build distributed operating systems following his doctoral studies. However, as he observed a global shift towards authoritarianism, he recognized the need for a new project. ^[5]

"I was building distributed operating systems since my PhD at the time that I started Arweave, I had been tracking blockchains for a long time so when I encountered the problem and I would say the problem is, the world is heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction in the west and the east I would say."

In early 2017, Williams delved into extensive readings on the creation of concentration camps, exploring books that included, "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, and "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" by Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot. Through these readings, he realized the importance of truthful information and the preservation of knowledge and identified blockchain technology as a potential solution to address this issue, ultimately leading to the inception of Arweave. ^[5]

"In early 2017, The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and the Aquariums of Pyeongyang which are all books about the creation of concentration camps."

"If you see in history the most important things that those regimes need to do in order to establish themselves is to gain control of the information space so to control the way people think about the present and you can do that by controlling the way that we think about the past and that subsequently changes the way that they act in the future"

"I was always fascinated by authoritarian regimes I suppose but it was but it was through Reading those things that I realized quite how serious and how bad things can get and from that created this I'd say boundless motivation which led to the creation of Arweave."

Arweave

In May 2017, Sam became the Founder of Arweave. At Arweave, he worked on defining the vision and development of the project, contributing to its growth and success in the Berlin Metropolitan Area. Initially, Arweave was created as a means of storing news but Sam and the team shortly realized that all types of data can be stored on the platform which led Arweave to becoming a decentralized data storage protocol that enables users to build applications on as well. ^[4][5]

"Initially intended to just store newspaper articles and we realized that actually you know you can store all types of data on top of that and then we realize oh, applications themselves turns out are just data. So it wasn't long before people started to build full web applications on the top of the system that were fully decentralized and ownerless"

Minespider

Since October 2018, he has served as a Technical Advisor at Minespider in Berlin, Germany, offering his expertise to enhance the technical aspects of the organization. ^[4]

Other Current Roles

Since December 2018, Sam has been a Voting Member of the LAG Foundation, based in Melbourne, Australia, supporting people and organizations in need. ^[4]

Since January 2019, Sam has been a Mentor for Techstars, a pre-seed investor, providing mentorship to early-stage businesses and entrepreneurs. ^[4]