COTI was founded in 2017 by a team of Israeli entrepreneurs with backgrounds in fintech, cryptography, and decentralized infrastructure. The project emerged during a wave of experimentation focused on solving scalability and usability issues in blockchain-based payment systems. From the beginning, COTI positioned itself as a solution to make crypto payments faster, cheaper, and more merchant-friendly.
The team behind COTI included developers, economists, and technical architects who recognized that blockchain systems lacked the efficiency needed for everyday transactions. The project was formally incorporated and initially focused on building a proprietary Layer 1 network called Trustchain, supported by a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure. This enabled high-throughput transaction processing and real-time settlement, which was rare at the time.
The most prominent figure associated with COTI is Shahaf Bar-Geffen, who serves as the project’s Chief Executive Officer. He has led COTI since its inception and played a central role in shaping its long-term vision and direction. Bar-Geffen previously co-founded other tech ventures and brought both business leadership and technical insight to the COTI initiative.
COTI's advisory and development circles have included figures from early Cardano and ADA Pay collaborations, though it has always functioned independently from the Cardano Foundation. The connection helped the project gain early visibility, particularly in the ecosystem of decentralized financial tools.
In 2023 and 2024, the team behind COTI initiated a full protocol transformation with the launch of COTI V2, pivoting from payments infrastructure to private computation on Ethereum. This evolution was driven by the same founding team and reflects a broader shift in the role of utility tokens in Web3. The development of COTI continues to be managed by the COTI Foundation, which oversees upgrades, staking models, developer engagement, and governance planning. While many crypto projects are anonymous or fragmented, COTI has operated with transparent leadership and long-term continuity.
In summary, COTI was created by a structured, public-facing team with deep experience in fintech and blockchain design. It was not a community fork or protocol clone. It was a purpose-built project aimed at solving real-world problems, and continues to evolve through the same leadership that launched it.
EXPLORE MORE :
1. What does COTI stand for?
2. How much will COTI be worth?
3. Does Coti have a future?
4. What is the total supply of COTI?
5. COTI FAQ
