Samson Mow Exits Blockstream to Focus on Nation-State Bitcoin Adoption

Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow said he’s departing the blockchain technology company after about a five-year run.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Mow praised Blockstream’s bitcoin infrastructure development along with layer 2 scaling technologies. With the company “in a very good place” after a recent funding round, he said, now is the right time to exit.

Mow and Blockstream have been key figures in designing El Salvador’s bitcoin-backed bonds (so-called Volcano Bonds), which are set to be issued this month on Blocksteam’s Liquid platform. “With everything happening at light speed in El Salvador, and more and more countries interested in adopting bitcoin, I found my time each day just no longer enough anymore,” Mow said.

Mow’s departure may ramp up speculation about which country in Latin America (or another region) might follow El Salvador into bitcoin. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has hinted that two other nations will adopt bitcoin as legal tender this year.

Mow also took note of more time being demanded by Pixelmatic as the beta nears of its game, Infinite Fleet. (Mow is founder and CEO of Pixelmatic.) In 2019, Mow aimed to bridge the world of crypto and online gaming by launching a token that would see Pixelmatic use Blockstream’s new platform for launching security tokens on Bitcoin via its sidechain Liquid.