Steve Ellis

Co-founderCo-Founder of Chainlink; CTO of Chainlink Labs

USA· Active

About Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis is a co-founder of Chainlink and serves as Chief Technology Officer of Chainlink Labs. His background is rooted in software engineering and secure infrastructure, developed through work at SmartContract.com, the predecessor entity from which Chainlink grew.

Ellis and Sergey Nazarov co-founded Chainlink in 2017 to address the oracle problem: smart contracts running on blockchains could not securely access data or systems outside their own network. The Chainlink whitepaper outlined a decentralized oracle network that would allow smart contracts to reliably interact with real-world data, APIs and payment rails. Since mainnet launch in 2019, the Chainlink network has expanded from price feeds to a suite of services including Automation, Proof of Reserve, Functions and the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

As CTO, Ellis oversees the engineering and technical direction of Chainlink Labs. The broader Chainlink network operates through independent node operators, with Chainlink Labs as the primary development organization. Information last checked: August 2026.

Projects Founded

Chainlink

Career Timeline

Pre-2017

Worked at SmartContract.com alongside Sergey Nazarov on secure smart-contract infrastructure.

2017

Co-founded Chainlink; Chainlink whitepaper published; successful token sale.

2019

Chainlink mainnet launched on Ethereum; decentralized price feeds began powering DeFi protocols.

2021

Chainlink 2.0 whitepaper published; expanded vision for hybrid smart contracts and expanded oracle services.

2023

CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) launched, enabling cross-chain messaging and token transfers.

2024–2026

Chainlink expanded institutional integrations, including WBTC, Kraken and major financial-market infrastructure partnerships. Ellis continued as CTO of Chainlink Labs.

Key Contributions

Chainlink Co-Founding

Co-founded Chainlink alongside Sergey Nazarov, establishing the organization and engineering foundations of the decentralized oracle network.

Oracle Network Engineering

Led technical development of the Chainlink node infrastructure, data-feed architecture and on-chain/off-chain computation model.

CCIP Development

Contributed to the technical direction of the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, a standard for secure cross-blockchain messaging.

Chainlink Labs CTO

Oversees engineering strategy and technical execution across Chainlink Labs' product portfolio as Chief Technology Officer.

DeFi Infrastructure

Chainlink's oracle services underpin a large share of decentralized finance protocols, providing reliable on-chain data for lending, derivatives and stablecoins.