Screenshot of Luis Iván Cuende’s website. https://luisivan.net/
His education is curiosity about the world
Luis Iván Cuende is a Spanish coder who has launched many enterprising and innovative projects without having studied anything beyond compulsory secondary education.
In his nearly 23 years of life, Luis Iván Cuende (Oviedo, 1995) has had time to found applications and launch start-ups with which he has earned a lot of money, to publish a book, and to be chosen as the best coder in Europe, among many other things.
The story of Luis Iván Cuende is not only an example of creativity, talent, and inspiration, but also a critique of the Spanish educational system. Keep reading to learn more about this entrepreneur whose passion is the world.
Luis Iván Cuende: coding an idea
If we look at his description on the social network Linkedin, Luis Iván Cuende defines himself as a lover of free software and a hacker, while also being a champion of the motto to enjoy life and empower freedom.
The truth is that in the many interviews he gave to the media, Cuende always criticized the Spanish educational system and the little creativity it allows students to have and exercise to complete their education freely.
That is one of the reasons why he has become a defender of self-taught learning and has never wanted to start any university degree.
In fact, at 18 years old (2014) he published a book titled “I’m 18 years old and neither study nor work: I start companies and live doing what I like!” (Gestión 2000), in which he told of his experience since winning the award for best young coder in Europe in 2011 in Berlin and launching one of his first companies, “Holalabs,” a project that failed.
"I realized I had been alienated for six years by a completely outdated educational system. I rebelled against that system and decided to dedicate my time to my passion", begins the story of Luis Iván Cuende.
From his biography, this coder stands out not only for having been chosen as the best coder in Europe and included in the Forbes list, but also for having been consultant to the vice presidency of the European Commission, a kind of “council of wise men” whose role is to advise the organization on technology and the digital ecosystem.
Present and future of Luis Iván Cuende
Currently, Cuende is the cofounder of Aragon, a Spanish start-up created in 2016 that was born, according to their website, to “bring transparency and independent governance to the forefront of managing an organization”.
More specifically, Aragon is dedicated to building “tools” for the next generation of companies that will take advantage of the changes generated by the development of blockchain and the Internet. In fact, Aragon claims to have created a “digital jurisdiction” without national borders.
“Companies exist to create value by using resources to make products or provide services. However, intermediaries and third parties, such as governments, reduce the performance of those organizations by imposing restrictions and creating complex regulatory frameworks,” Aragon argues.
According to the prestigious magazine Forbes, which included him a few years ago in the Forbes 30 under 30 list—the ranking of the 30 brightest young people under 30 in the world in the technological field—Aragon is not the only project Luis Iván Cuende has dedicated to blockchain technology and bitcoin.
Cuende is using bitcoin’s blockchain technology to authenticate documents, emails, and contracts online with his start-up Stampery, which acts as a digital notary to link and guarantee online communication, including business contracts, wills, or intellectual property.
At Stampery, Luis Cuende is also cofounder and consultant, but he applies that same advisory work to other enterprising projects in the digital ecosystem with which he currently collaborates, such as “district0x,” Primitive, Status, Decentraland, Keep, or Gems.
In the past, Cuende worked on the development and launch of the software Asturix, his first project which consisted of a free and open operating system based on Linux, although he has also been a developer of Firefox OS for Telefónica.
He is also cofounder and chief executive of a crowdfunding platform that gathers efforts to invalidate incorrect patents.
It should be noted that most of the start-ups he advises are dedicated to seeking and developing applications for blockchain and the bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies, a tool many consider the future of finance.
We do not know what Luis Iván Cuende’s next project will be, but what is clear is that his skills as a coder and as a manager of information technologies will be increasingly necessary in the potential blockchain technology ecosystem and the future applications of the techno-financial system (fintech).
