Storj Labs, the leader in decentralized cloud storage, announced that Katherine Johnson has joined its international board of directors. Johnson's experience will be critical to Storj as it works towards the production launch of its V3 network in fall of 2019. Her role on the board will support the company as it expands its initiative of leading the industry in token governance and transparency, continues building its strong reputation for trust within its community, and enters its next phase of growth.

With deep experience in both the financial services and cryptocurrency industries, Johnson currently serves as Director of Compliance Regulation at Coinbase where she supports the company's regulatory and bank partner relationships, oversees regulatory exams, and coordinates policy management with internal teams. Her efforts are especially critical as the cryptocurrency industry continues to mature, and Coinbase leads the way.

"One of the biggest challenges in the emerging decentralization and blockchain landscapes is that we are venturing into uncharted legal and compliance territory; having the expertise of someone like Katherine to help guide us through legal and regulatory hurdles will be extremely valuable as clarity unfolds from regulators world-wide," said Ben Golub, executive chairman and interim CEO at Storj Labs. "Our community has been appreciative of our transparency around our product, development, and other internal team endeavors, and our goal is to also be a leader in token governance and regulatory compliance. We look forward to leveraging the talents of Katherine to help us achieve these goals, and much more, in the years to come."

At Coinbase, Johnson has helped grow the company's compliance program and reorganize the broad team, steering it through a period of hyper growth. She has also supported the roll out of the digital currency exchange in new countries; assisted with the launch of new tools and services; and worked to ensure the company complies with local and global regulations. She also helped launch the People of Color Employee Resource Group (ERG) at Coinbase, which supports people of color in the blockchain and decentralization areas, both internally at the company as well as externally within the broader industry. Johnson also brings nearly 20 years of legal and regulatory experience to the Storj Labs team, having worked at Ernst and Young, Credit Suisse, BNY Mellon, and several law firms throughout her career.

"Storj exemplifies necessity being the mother of invention, and its model illustrates how we can use decentralization to provide smart solutions to increasingly complex data storage challenges," said Johnson. "Like most people, I've experienced my own issues with data privacy and storage. The Storj team understands the exponential data storage challenges ahead of us, and has devised a sustainable solution. The platform is already growing in a smart and secure way, and I look forward to helping it continue in that direction."

Johnson's appointment to the board comes at a critical time for the company, as it prepares for the launch of its V3 network and migrates its community from its previous platform, which scaled to 150 petabytes of data stored. With storage node operators running Storj network nodes in more than 180 countries and territories, and regulation around blockchain, cryptocurrency and decentralization unfolding across the world, Johnson's experience will be critical.