- Yannik Schrade built Arcium to process encrypted data without revealing it, pushing privacy in blockchain.
- His personal reflections on ethics and technology reveal a rare sense of responsibility in the crypto startup space.
At an age when most teenagers are busy playing games, Yannik Schrade is busy tinkering with them. He is not just a player, but a modifier. That’s where his long journey began. Perhaps at that time no one would have thought that this young man from Germany would one day lead a cutting-edge technology company that plays at the intersection of blockchain, AI, and data security.
His initial leap was quite unique. He had studied law at Heidelberg University, but then changed direction. Logically, it turned out to be more comfortable in the world of numbers and codes, not articles and verses. He then moved to the Technical University of Munich to study computer science and mathematics.
His decision opened a new path—to the world of cryptography and complex distributed systems, which eventually led him to the heart of the blockchain industry.
Yannik Schrade: Building Arcium, Breaking Traditions
Yannik’s name began to be widely known when he released an iOS application called Shiftscreen in 2020. The idea was simple but powerful: turning the iPad into a professional work screen. Without relying on hype, the application exploded, attracting more than a hundred thousand paying users and being covered by major media. But for Yannik, it was just a stepping stone.
In 2022, he founded Elusiv with three colleagues—which was renamed Arcium two years later. This is where Yannik really entered the big leagues. Arcium is no ordinary blockchain project. They built a decentralized confidential computing infrastructure.
So, data can be processed without having to be opened first. It’s like you can check the contents of a box without having to open it first. It’s a bit like magic, but based on cryptography.
However, what makes Yannik and Arcium interesting is not just the technology. They also dare to go against the grain. Many companies still rely on Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) systems, which actually leave gaps for centralization. Yannik is moving away from that model. He fully believes in a pure cryptographic approach that doesn’t store centralized vulnerabilities.
Furthermore, Arcium is growing fast. They launched an initiative called the Encrypted Ecosystem, which is already used by over 25 projects across sectors—from decentralized finance to health and gaming. Even for the initial stage, they chose to launch on the Solana network. But that doesn’t mean that Arcium is just stuck there. In fact, they are preparing cross-chain support, in order to target a wider market.
A CEO Who Questions More Than He Promotes
Outside the office, Yannik is also active in talking about digital privacy. He is not the type of CEO who only appears at big events. He often appears in community discussions, developer forums, and even the World Economic Forum.
On various occasions, he emphasizes that privacy is not just an additional feature, but a basic need in the digital era. Every now and then, he throws out a provocative question: if everyone has a digital wallet, do we still need banks?
On the other hand, Yannik also has a fairly human approach. His personal site is not a portfolio show-off, but more like a digital venting space. He shares his thoughts, challenges, and even doubts about the future of the technology he is building. Once he wrote that strong technology without ethics will only create new chaos. That sentence, although it sounds simple, reflects something that is rarely found in the startup world: reflection.
Things didn’t always go as planned for him. Yannik also has to face the classic challenges of the blockchain industry—unclear regulation, volatile markets, and sometimes too high community expectations. But he keeps going. And like most engineers, he prefers to prove himself through products, not words.
