Mina Foundation, a public benefit corporation servicing zero-knowledge (ZK) blockchain Mina Protocol, has appointed deep-tech lawyer and senior legal executive Daniel Schoenberger as its general counsel, effective immediately.
Schoenberger brings more than two decades of legal and policy experience from across Web2 enterprise, Web3, and education. He joins from the Web3 Foundation where he served as chief legal officer, overseeing legal and regulatory requirements for development teams across the Polkadot ecosystem. Schoenberger led numerous public policy initiatives on behalf of Polkadot, including testifying before the United States House of Representatives on the benefits of blockchain and decentralized technology and contributing to the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT 21).
Before his time within Web3, Schoenberger held the roles of head of legal Switzerland & Austria and EMEA legal lead for AI policy at Google, serving as lead attorney and heading up Google’s legal department for Switzerland and Austria, as well as co-drafting Google’s AI policy.
“I am thrilled to join the extremely talented team at Mina Foundation at such a pivotal stage in the project’s journey,” Schoenberger said. “Following the completion of its recent major mainnet upgrade, Mina Protocol is poised to capitalize on years of diligent groundwork to launch programmable zero-knowledge applications.
“Mina Protocol’s universal ZK proof layer will have a major impact on how we approach multiple areas that I have a keen interest in such as data protection, regulation, and proof of identity. Having always worked at the edge of emerging technologies, I’m excited to help the foundation and the protocol community advance a new era of a secure, private, and verifiable internet.”
Mina Foundation also named former CEO Evan Shapiro as chief product and strategy officer. Having moved from CEO to the roles of chairman of the board and advisor to the Mina Foundation in 2023, Shapiro will return to work closely with the foundation and projects across the Mina community to help enable the growth and development of useful applications built on Mina with ZK.
“We are thrilled to have someone of Daniel’s calibre join the team,” Shapiro said. “With a wealth of knowledge in key areas such as the intersection of AI and blockchain, data protection, crypto assets, and market regulation, Daniel’s experience and guidance will be invaluable in Mina Protocol’s continued journey. As I step into a more hands-on role steering ZK product development that makes an impact, momentum is building in the ecosystem with users primed to experience the benefits of ZK tech for the first time in a meaningful way.”
