Sam Trautwein (born September 26, 1995) is an American technology entrepreneur in the blockchain industry. He is well known for his role as the chief executive officer of Carbon-12 Labs, a company that creates price-stable cryptocurrency. ^{[6] [1] [4]}

Samuel Trautwein was born in the city of San Francisco and moved around several cities during his early life. ^[4] He lived in the Dominican Republic and also attended high school in Chicago. ^[7]

During his time in the Dominican Republic he experienced first hand the consequences of high inflation during the Hipolito presidency.

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Trautwein is a graduate of Stanford University and is a class of 2018, where he majored in Computer Science with an AI concentration. He dropped out of college in his last semester in order to complete his project with Carbon-12 Labs. ^[1]

During his time in college, he was a part of the Stanford Ski Team, Stanford Men's Crew, Stanford Concert Network, Engineering for a Sustainable World, Stanford Space Initiative.

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For many years, Sam worked construction and demolition as a contractor.

He also worked as a translator to foreigners to professionals such as doctors while he lived in the Dominican Republic.

Before starting college at Stanford University, he was an Engineering Intern for an organization called Vida Para Los Niños República Dominicana.

He worked on developing an affordable low maintenance aquaponics system, relying exclusively on locally source-able critical components with an emphasis on automation potential.

In Palo Alto, he became the CS Lead for a startup company called, Shore. He helped design and develop an education technology platform that seeks to simplify the logistics around school by leveraging peer to peer information and textbook exchange.

He has also founded the startup called Tristero, an encrypted messaging app relying on a unique encryption algorithm, leveraging Soviet research.

He was in the first group of employees and a founding member of the CS team at Plenty, an AI hydroponics company backed by Softbank, Bezos Expeditions and Innovation Endeavors.

^[7]

He ran development of the data pipeline, helped design system architecture, participated in hiring decisions and engaged in market research.

^[7] Sam has focused on the intersection of system design and tech, concentrating mainly on distributed systems and encryption.

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Sam is the chief executive officer and founder of Carbon-12 Labs, a price-stable cryptocurrency that is creating a more efficient and inclusive global economy. ^[6] He started the company while in his last year of college and after raising funds, he had no choice but to drop out in the last semester and focus on the project. ^{[11] [8]}