Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟)

Co-founder @tenprotocol | Full-time blockchain enthusiast | Part-time beekeeper

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

My story.

My first brush with technology came as a 7-year-old boy dismantling toys to build a robot to carry a cup of tea to my dad. It mostly worked, with only about 20% spillage. A few years later, I was “coding” (copying text from a computer magazine) to play games with friends on a Commodore 64. A keen interest in robotics and software was blossoming. This ultimately led me to graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I regret being dissuaded from studying robotics and AI, although writing an app to design wind turbine blades was fun.

Graduating during the dotcom boom, my first real job was in IT, building strategies and techniques to roll out thousands of computers around the world. This came from being employed by a global telecoms firm just as the Internet took off. Trips to offices in Amsterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney left me with fond memories. Around this time, I blew off steam with some easy-going DJ gigs, spinning deep house on the 1210s.

Moving to banking in London’s City district took me to a Japanese bank, where I learned how hierarchy and an abundance of caution can slow progress to a snail’s pace. Looking for something more upbeat, I shifted to electronic broking, where high speed was the underlying principle behind many decisions. By then, I was running a global engineering team and hogging the office ADSL for BitTorrent downloads (Sickbeard, I owe you!).

A couple of acquisitions and promotions later, I was shipping a $5 million platform for the world’s largest interdealer broker, where for the first time UX was in the driving seat. Excellent UX is now, rightly, baked into every builder’s psyche. This platform ended up being quite successful.

Then blockchain came into my life. What started as an interest became an obsession. Having worked with many expensive, centralised, mission-critical backend systems, blockchains felt like a perfectly logical evolutionary step forward. The deeper I got into the business, the more I realised blockchains are not only logical, they’re crucial for globally connected businesses to remain profitable. Swallowing the BTC pill in 2016 (wish I’d swallowed more) sealed the deal, and I knew my future would be at the cutting edge of web3. Some boxes ticked so far: build an enterprise-grade blockchain, form a DAO, launch a web3 startup, do something totally new (I’m helping UK lawmakers navigate digital assets), successfully overwinter at least 2 honey bee colonies (that's not a web3 thing). This list will keep growing.

Feel free to follow along, join the conversation, or just lurk silently and pretend you know what I’m talking about. Either way, glad you’re here.

[TEN (🔟/🔟) @tenprotocol]

" What would I do today if I were an L2?
- Identify a value add other than "scaling". Examples: (i) non-EVM specialized features/VMs around privacy"

We've said this years for years - L2s should not be just for scaling

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

A well-considered and unsensational opinion from @0xCais on Bitcoin vs quantum computing

https://t.co/EJHd1rlScl

[Blockchain Reporter @blockchainrptr]

Exclusive interview with TEN Protocol on privacy, verifiable execution, and how confidential computing could reshape Ethereum applications.
https://t.co/OLkVnJJ0vc

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

Witnessing the Internet evolve throughout a 25 year career, where I have more often than not been deeply embedded in the technology, as a consumer I've been increasingly uncomfortable with the ruthlessly efficient data harvesting. In this opinion piece I describe an alternative Internet.
https://t.co/la20iLMYPh

[TEN (🔟/🔟) @tenprotocol]

Privacy on Ethereum shouldn’t mean opaque black boxes. With compute in confidence, TEN lets builders decide what’s public and what stays private - while preserving Ethereum security and settlement.

Read the @CryptoSlate's interview with @0xCais 👇
https://t.co/lBiCvTYQPm

[TEN (🔟/🔟) @tenprotocol]

https://t.co/bSlq3VqBDd

[Blockhead @blockhead_co]

🎙️ New Episode: Blockcast 82

➤ Decentralization & Privacy: Featuring @tenprotocol co-founder Cais Manai @0xCais with host @taka_shibayama , discussing ...

➤His crypto journey, blockchain privacy evolution, and why Ethereum L2 programmable privacy is key for global finance.

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

Privacy being top of the list is not unexpected. We're still early.

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

It's time for our annual big ideas.

Here are 17 things that various a16z crypto partners (plus a few guest contributors) are excited about for what’s ahead in 2026.

On topics ranging from agents and AI; stablecoins, tokenization, and finance; privacy and security; to prediction markets, SNARKs, and other applications… to how we’ll build.

Find the full post here: https://t.co/6rAWuZ1YkU

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

@MFrismint51603 @tenprotocol https://t.co/2kK0u0MjQ9 is correct: mainnet release candidate this month (Dec), launching in Jan.

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

We keep building.

[TEN (🔟/🔟) @tenprotocol]

https://t.co/GMvvAQiJ1q

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

I want to speak directly to everyone following today’s events. It’s been an extremely difficult 2 days, both personally and professionally. I’ve spent the last 5 years building TEN because I genuinely believe Ethereum needs encryption - and that belief hasn’t changed.
I know today’s communication about TEN wasn’t as clear as it should have been, and I understand the frustration and uncertainty that created. So let me state this plainly: the mission remains. We are committed to bringing privacy to Ethereum, and the team is still here. No one on the TEN team has sold tokens. I’m sharing the screenshot and link below mentioned during the call for full transparency because trust matters - especially now.
This moment is challenging, and it’s not what any of us hoped for at this stage. But it doesn’t change the work ahead or the vision that started this. We’re here, we’re accountable, and we’re continuing to build.
Thank you for holding us to a high standard - we intend to meet it.

https://t.co/Ayvlqz9HWG

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

@navlld @tenprotocol Right now we are dealing with the immediate challenges, but yes, considering the contributions of long term community advocates is crucial. I cannot say right now what that looks like.

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

TENSGIVING... literally!!

[jose carvo 🔟/🔟 @carvo82753]

@Gavin_Chain Been a wild ride team... super excited for all things TEN.

Happy TENSGIVING everyone

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

In a few hours TEN will exist. Launching any product is daunting and takes a huge amount of effort particularly in the last mile. And the TEN community did it!
TEN is not here to scale transactions. TEN is here to unlock applications that couldn't exist.
Now it starts.

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

@0xfindjoy @tenprotocol @0xCais Absolute pleasure working with you. Joy by name... 🙂

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

Privacy is everything

[Reve|at|on (🔟/🔟) @0xCais]

Privacy is everything

[Gavin Thomas (🔟/🔟) @Gavin_Chain]

https://t.co/3msB6ZQGx1