Dietz is a serial entrepreneur, an intellectual historian, a researcher, a writer, and has been described by his peers as someone who has been involved with some of the most important projects in the realm of blockchain, including projects that examine how blockchain can impact society, culture, and the future of humanity.

Dietz was a precocious child who started programming computers when he was six years old. He was thereafter awarded a scholarship to Arcadia University to study computer science when he was thirteen years old. He later completed a B.A. at Brown University, an M.A. at University of Pennsylvania, and was enrolled in a second M.A. at Hebrew University in Jerusalem (although he was unable to finish due to the death of his father). He is currently a research fellow at M.I.T.

Over the years, Dietz has split his academic efforts between technology and computer science topics, on the one hand, and various humanities, philosophy, and language endeavors, on the other hand (Dietz speaks Mandarin, German, French, Italian, has studied Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and early in his career served as an interpreter in various capacities).

Dietz balanced his focus on humanities and languages with a focus on computer science. For example, early in Dietz’s career he won many programming competitions, while maintaining various academic efforts in philosophy and economics.

In 2011, Dietz developed an interest in cryptocurrency and the economics around digital currencies, as well as the legal hurdles involved in creating digital currencies. At this time Dietz founded a digital “ecocurrency” startup called Evergreen, which focused on helping co-working spaces and off-grid communities transact in a digital currency backed by rainforest land.

In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures in the realm of cryptocurrency and blockchain, Dietz co-organized the first conference on the law and cryptocurrency in 2015 at Harvard and MIT, spurred by the emerging securities law challenges with issuing cryptocurrency tokens.

Dietz began to focus on Bitcoin in 2013 and was a fan of the writings of Vitalik Buterin, the future creator of Ethereum, in Bitcoin Magazine. This interest in the writings of Buterin starting in 2013 influenced much of Dietz’s crypto-related entrepreneurial ventures for the next decade.

Joel Dietz has never referred to himself as a founder of Ethereum, and, since late 2021, has always given specific instructions to journalists not to refer to him as a founder of Ethereum -- instead, he has always preferred to be called a founding contributor or founding member. His involvement consisted of hosting Vitalik Buterin and other key developers, creating educational materials, and organizing educational seminars and meetups. For this work, he was one of 50 or so people given a special allocation in the Ethereum Genesis Block.

Dietz’s professional career has been highly oriented towards non-profit and charitable activities, starting with a tutoring program he started for inner-city kids while in college, to serving as the managing director of a conflict resolution program that has now been running continuously for over fifteen years, to more recent projects like organizing sound healings and managing the supply chains behind soup kitchens through a charity started by his brother.

Dietz has also been highly involved in the development of the emerging science of meditation and somatic health, including being a licensed yoga teacher, has been a long-time supporter of the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University, and has hosted and facilitated hundreds of sound healings. Dietz is also a competitor in numerous fitness challenges, including the Cross Fit Open, the Hyrox Championship competitions, and the 300 Workout challenge.

On August 1, 2023, Joel Dietz sued Consensys, Aaron Davis, Joe Lubin, and Dan Finlay, alleging that Dietz was an original founder of the project that was renamed, MetaMask, and that the defendants acted together to deny Dietz his ownership stake and the associated profits. A copy of the Complaint is HERE.