The Thiel Foundation last week announced the names of 20 people, who have made the cut for the 2018 class of Thiel Fellows.

Launched in 2011, the Fellowship program encourages talented young people to pursue big ideas and start companies instead of attending college. This year’s cohort includes four blockchain entrepreneurs including:

• Aparna Krishnan: Co-founder and CEO of Mechanism Labs, the world's first open source research lab. It tackles pressing problems in blockchain through cryptoeconomics, currently focusing on incentive design and alternative consensus.
• Axel Ericsson: Co-founder of Vest, a company building software for Ethereum and other blockchains that enables users to earn interest on their cryptocurrency.
• Daniel Ternyak: CTO of MyCrypto. He is helping to facilitate the transition to a decentralized society by bringing accessibility to Ethereum and other blockchains.
• Robert Habermeier: Co-founder of Polkadot, a project that aims to reshape the existing internet structure into a completely decentralized web.

Thiel Fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship from the Foundation’s network of technology founders, investors, and scientists. The companies created by Thiel Fellows so far are worth over $3 billion combined. This, however, does not include Thiel fellow-created Ethereum, a distributed computing platform whose cryptocurrency Ether has a market cap of about $50 billion as of June 22.

“The environment for entrepreneurs is the best it’s ever been,” said Jack Abraham, executive chairman of the Thiel Fellowship. “This year’s class proves that there’s still a hunger for individuals seeking unconventional approaches.”