Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, is a former U.S. Army Green Beret who transitioned from military service to a career in blockchain and cryptocurrency after witnessing the profound challenges in conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. After earning an MBA from Stanford, his industry career began at GGV Capital, Coinbase, and a16z crypto before joining (and ultimately leading) Aleo, a company that pioneered the first permissionless, privacy-preserving smart contract blockchain powered by zero-knowledge proofs. He is now the founder and CEO of Project Eleven, a company building the critical infrastructure and cryptographic tooling for bridging all digital assets and protocols into the post-quantum world.