David A. Johnston

Chief AI Officer

David A. Johnston is the Chief AI Officer of BasedAI, where he brings deep expertise in decentralized and open-source AI infrastructure to commercialize powerful open-weight models and make agentic AI practical, sovereign, and accessible at scale.

A pioneering technologist, David coined the term "Decentralized Applications" (Dapps) in his 2013 whitepaper, "The General Theory of Decentralized Applications," and in 2023 developed the Smart Agents framework for connecting Web3 wallets, smart contracts, and LLMs. An active open-source contributor, he serves as a maintainer of Morpheus, a decentralized peer-to-peer network for powering open-source Smart Agents and generative AI.

David co-founded BitAngels Network in 2013, one of the earliest angel investment groups dedicated to Bitcoin and blockchain projects, and the Dapp Fund in 2014, an early venture fund focused on decentralized applications. In 2016 he launched Yeoman's Capital, his family office focused on open-source and permissionless technologies; in 2018 he co-founded one of the first blockchain venture studios; and in 2021 he led strategy at DLTx, a public blockchain company. He has also held board leadership roles, including Chairman of Factom, Polymath, and the Fox Foundation.

An early serial entrepreneur, David founded his first multi-million-dollar company at age 19 in the biofuels industry — a $5.9 million renewable-energy project — and co-founded seven tech startups before age 30, spanning internet software, aerospace, biotech, machine learning, natural language processing, and personal data aggregation.

A dedicated decentralist and advocate for human freedom through technology, David has been passionate about Bitcoin and blockchain since 2012 and continues to focus on the convergence of open-source AI, decentralized systems, and agentic technologies that expand individual sovereignty.