PAVEL KRAVCHENKO is a technology entrepreneur, cryptographer, software architect, blogger, public speaker and relentless dreamer.

Pavel studied information security since 2003, including topics in advanced cryptography. He then won a series of all-Ukrainian academic competitions (2005 -2007) and received awards for producing the best student research in 2007 and 2008.

Pavel received his PhD in Cryptography in 2012 from the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics, after publishing a groundbreaking thesis on securing public infrastructure. 

From 2006 to 2009, Pavel worked as a security engineer at the leading security company in Ukraine, was involved in a SAP security project, and built out the PKI infrastructure in Ukraine. From 2009 to 2013, Pavel was the team leader and project manager for several IT projects, including being responsible for Rabobank’s mobile application development. Pavel started his blockchain and cryptocurrencies career and research at Silicon Valley startup, Stellar.

In 2014 Pavel cofounded Distributed Lab, a venture dedicated to advancing the cryptocurrency and blockchain state of the art through independent R&D, government projects, collaborations with national universities, and standard-setting initiatives. Beyond operating as a successful business, Distributed Lab has as a core mission developing cutting-edge enterprise tokenization solutions, laying the groundwork for the coming “Financial Internet”. Distributed Lab now has 50 full-time and highly dedicated employees. 

Distributed Lab organizes dozens of events every year for the Crypto community – ranging from intensive small-format meetups and hackathons, to large scale international conferences which draw 1000+ attendees. Pavel himself travels around the world to speak at conferences and give seminars. Pavel has conducted over ten full-term courses in universities on blockchain technology and related topics since 2014.

Currently, Pavel serves the Pre-Launch of Karma Kiev Chapter as the Founding Vice President.