MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian dies at 29 in Puerto Rico

Nikolai Mushegian, a co-founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform MakerDAO and the decentralized Dai (DAI) stablecoin, was discovered useless in Puerto Rico final week.

Mushegian died as a consequence of drowning after being dragged by sea currents on the Condado seaside in San Juan, the native newspaper El Nuevo Día reported. Mushegian had no important indicators by the point his physique was rescued.

The Condado seaside is considered one of many world’s most harmful locations for swimmers, reportedly taking the lives of at the least eight folks in 2021.

The unlucky occasion was reported to native authorities on the morning on Oct. 28. In keeping with a police report, Mushegian was a resident of San Juan. The scene was reportedly investigated by the San Juan Murder Division and a neighborhood prosecutor.

Mushegian was an necessary determine within the cryptocurrency neighborhood, contributing to a number of business initiatives, with some referring to him as a “DAI architect.” The 29-year-old crypto developer is thought for his work with MakerDAO forks Rico and Rai, in addition to the proof-of-stake blockchain community BitShares. Mushegian can also be a co-founder of the automated market maker Balancer.

MakerDAO founder and CEO Rune Christensen took to Twitter on Oct. 31 to say that Mushegian contributed necessary inputs to the Maker growth and has finished some essential work for the reason that early days of Ethereum.

Nikolai was one of many solely folks within the early days of Ethereum and good contracts who was capable of predict the potential of good contract hacks and invented the security-oriented method to good contract design we all know at the moment. Maker would have been toast with out him

— Rune (@RuneKek) October 31, 2022

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson wrote on Twitter that he knew Mushegian from again within the Bitshares days. “He was a really younger and intensely shiny man who had a really big selection of pursuits from sport concept to Urbit,” Hoskinson mentioned, including that the coder had a deep understanding of expertise.

Tether co-creator Craig Sellars noted that Mushegian’s demise got here only a few days after MakerDAO community voted to approve custody of $1.6 billion in USD Coin (USDC) with Coinbase crypto alternate.

Associated: MakerDAO revenue tumbles 86% on Ether and Wrapped BTC woes

Mushegian was an lively neighborhood member on social media. His Twitter account, Delete_shitcoin, has about 5,500 followers on the time of writing. His final tweet was published only a few hours earlier than his demise, referring to strategies of alleged blackmail from the Central Intelligence Company and Mossad. Mushegian beforehand made related statements on Twitter, hinting at a possible “suicide” by the CIA as one in every of his attainable futures.