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@ChristopherA

Christopher Allen

ChristopherA
SF Bay Area, CA

I believe in human dignity over system efficiency, consent over coercion, agency over control.

That's the thread connecting everything I do — from co-authoring the TLS standard that secures web commerce, to writing the 10 Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity, to testifying before legislators about why your private keys deserve legal protection.

My work operates on two interdependent tracks: pragmatic policy engagement (working with governments and standards bodies to improve existing systems) and radical technological alternatives (building infrastructure that doesn't require permission or institutional trust). I see these as complementary approaches in an ecology of change — inside reformers create space for outside radicals, while bridge-builders prepare paths for fundamental transformation.

On the policy side, I've helped pass Wyoming's identity definition law and private key protection law, and I'm currently advising on Switzerland's e-ID implementation. On the technology side, I founded Rebooting the Web of Trust and lead Blockchain Commons, building open infrastructure for digital autonomy. In standards bodies like the W3C and IETF, I represent the voices that often get drowned out when large vendors dominate.

Right now, I'm focused on #RevisitingSSI — a year-long effort to revisit and refine the original SSI principles for their 10th anniversary in April 2026. We're bringing together technologists, lawyers, advocates, and academics to wrestle with hard questions: What did we get right? What did we miss? What must change for the next decade?

This work doesn't have a business model. It has patrons — people who believe that human dignity in digital systems is worth fighting for. When you sponsor me, you're not buying a product. You're joining a movement and making it possible for me to keep doing this work independently, without corporate conflicts or institutional constraints.

More about my design philosophy: How My Values Inform Design

Current sponsors 4

@afomi
@RyanSinger
Private Sponsor
@kimdhamilton
Past sponsors 17
@georgantas
@RhettCreighton
@jason-me
@Rspigler
@flip-abagnale
@timopaehrisch
@statusquont
@dergigi
@matthewjosef
@modl21
Private Sponsor
@cryptocliffy
Private Sponsor
@jamesob
@shakepay-sponsor
@cerebrumcom
Private Sponsor

Featured work

  1. BlockchainCommons/SmartCustodyBook

    Manuscript for Book "#SmartCustody: The Use of Advanced Cryptographic Tools to Improve the Care, Maintenance, Control, and Protection of Digital Assets"

  2. BlockchainCommons/Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line

    A complete course for learning Bitcoin programming and usage from the command

    Jupyter Notebook 3,385

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Sustaining Patron: Everything above, plus quarterly calls where we discuss emerging policy and technical directions relevant to your work. You're not just funding the work — you're in conversation with it. I pay attention to where your priorities intersect with mine, and I'm proactive about sharing discoveries and responding to questions between calls.

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Strategic Partner: Bi-weekly 90-minute calls — these aren't status updates, they're thinking sessions. Use them however serves you: ecosystem strategy with your CEO, architecture review with your team, security priorities with UX. Between calls, I'm responsive and proactive about sharing relevant insights. I pay attention to your priorities where they intersect my work across companies, standards bodies, and research. As one CTO put it: "Sometimes you don't know what you need to know. You don't even know what you're missing. That's where Christopher comes in. How many engineers would it take to match his advice? It would take us forever to learn enough to replicate that."