Who Is Josh Benaron? The Founder Behind Irys

Josh Benaron is the founder of the Irys data chain who made 189 of the 473 commits in Bundlr's bundling library, the most of any account. Irys began in 2021 as Bundlr, and on the newer Irys Layer 1 node his 77 commits were 5.07% of 1,519 at the late-October close.

Benaron opened that library with an initial commit on 4 July 2021. His 189 commits there come to 39.96% of its history, and 186 of them landed in 2021. The node tells a team story. His 77 commits there fall between 18 October 2024 and late January 2025, and at the late-October close his whitepaper co-authors led it, Jesse Cruz Wright with 558 and Dan MacDonald with 331.

Josh Benaron at a Glance

Who Is Josh Benaron?

Josh Benaron is the founder of Irys and one of the first developers to write its code. Irys's homepage describes the project as "a blockchain that stores large volumes of data onchain, with flexible storage durations and verification built into the network."

Benaron's public case for Irys is an argument against centralised storage. Crypto Briefing's July 2024 report on the Irys Layer 1 reported his view that centralised data storage systems are flawed and insecure and that a shift to blockchain-based systems is inevitable. The same report called him "founder and CEO of Irys".

Bundlr ran on top of Arweave, a blockchain built to keep data permanently. Phemex Academy's explainer on Arweave (AR) and its data storage services covers the blockweave design that Bundlr's uploads landed on.

Josh Benaron's Career: From Bundlr to Irys

Benaron's GitHub account dates from November 2020. On 4 July 2021 he made the initial commits of a library for ANS-104, the Arweave standard for bundled data, and its first merge record shows it began as a repository named ans104 under his own account. The library's README calls it a low-level library for creating and verifying bundles.

The GitHub organisation that holds his code dates from 19 August 2021. Its merge records carry the name Bundlr-Network from October 2021 to October 2023 and Irys-xyz from January 2024, and Crypto Briefing's report says Irys "began as Bundlr Network, a permanent data storage solution on Arweave."

The move to a chain of its own came in 2024. Cruz Wright marked the bundling library deprecated in September 2024, and its README sends users to Irys. On 18 October 2024 the Irys Layer 1 node repository opened with Cruz Wright's initial commit, and Benaron's "Base code" commit landed the same day.

For the difference between a base chain and the networks built on it, Phemex Academy sets out what the blockchain layers are.

The token followed in November 2025. Irys's tokenomics post of 19 November 2025 set a 10 billion cap with 20% of supply circulating at launch, and the project promised that team and investor tokens would stay locked for the first year. Its airdrop claim window opened on 25 November 2025.

Who Is the Founder of Irys?

Josh Benaron founded Irys, and his GitHub profile in late October 2026 reads "Founder IRYS" with IRYS as his company. As the founder of Irys, a crypto project that began as Bundlr, Benaron also comes first on the author line of its whitepaper.

That paper names Benaron, Dan MacDonald and Jesse Cruz Wright as its authors and doesn't give any of them a title. It presents Irys as a Layer 1 that joins high-performance storage with an EVM-compatible execution layer, so smart contracts can read and act on the bytes stored on the chain.

The CEO title is the one that needs a date. Crypto Briefing printed it in July 2024, and the profile Benaron keeps on GitHub carries only the founder line.

Benaron's path from a storage tool to a full chain resembles that of Juan Benet, the Filecoin creator, who created IPFS as well as Filecoin.

Did Josh Benaron Write Irys's Code?

Benaron wrote much of the bundler and a small share of the chain. His GitHub account made more commits to Bundlr's bundling library than any other account, and a twentieth of those on the Irys Layer 1 node.

The library was his from its first day. Only three of his commits came after 2021, two in January 2022 and one in May 2022. Cruz Wright's account is second with 180. The library's last commit was Cruz Wright's September 2024 notice that the package "has been deprecated and is no longer actively supported".

The node is a different build. Benaron made 26 commits there in October 2024, 30 in November and 21 in January 2025. Its default branch shows no commit from his account from February 2025 to the late-October close. At that close the branch held 1,519 commits, and 933 of them are dated 2025. Cruz Wright's 558 and MacDonald's 331 led its 13 contributor accounts, a bot among them.

In plain terms, the founder was the bundler's biggest committer, and a team writes the chain. If you hold IRYS, the accounts that matter on GitHub are Cruz Wright's and MacDonald's. Between them they made 58.53% of the node's commits to the late-October close, and Cruz Wright's account made the last ones before it.

Method: the counts take every commit on each repository's default branch, merges included, and credit each one to the GitHub account behind its author email. GitHub's own contributor counts give the same 189 and 77. Three more library commits under the name "Josh Benaron" come from a second account, and counting them lifts his share to 40.59%.

How Do You Trade Crypto Futures on Phemex?

Phemex delisted its IRYS perpetual in June 2026, about six months after it listed the contract in November 2025. The coin kept moving after that, and IRYS closed late October 2026 at $0.07566 on CoinMarketCap, up 267.1% from the previous day's close of $0.02061.

Filecoin is another storage network, and its FIL/USDT perpetual is listed on Phemex. If you want the network behind it first, Phemex Academy has a guide to Filecoin's decentralized cloud storage.

1. Open the futures page from the button below and pick a USDT-margined perpetual.

2. Choose the leverage and the margin mode before you size the order.

3. Place a limit or market order, then set a stop-loss on the position.

Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Josh Benaron the CEO of Irys?

Crypto Briefing's July 2024 report on the Irys Layer 1 launch named Josh Benaron founder and CEO of Irys. In late October 2026 his GitHub profile describes him as the founder of IRYS and gives no other title.

What is the IRYS token?

IRYS is the native token of the Irys network. Users spend it on data storage and on execution, and miners stake it to secure the chain, according to the project's November 2025 tokenomics post.

Who wrote the Irys whitepaper?

The Irys whitepaper lists three authors, Josh Benaron, Dan MacDonald and Jesse Cruz Wright. Across Bundlr's bundling library and the Irys Layer 1 node together, their three GitHub accounts made the most commits.

When did Josh Benaron start building Irys?

Benaron made the first commits of Bundlr's bundling library on 4 July 2021, weeks before Bundlr's GitHub organisation existed. Bundlr later became Irys, and his first commit to the Irys Layer 1 node followed in October 2024.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.