Who I am

Since my childhood economics and game theory have always interested me, even to the point of co-publishing a strategy board game of my own design. When I first read about Bitcoin in 2011, I was largely uninterested, focusing too much on the currency aspect rather than the technology. However, when I revisited it in early 2013, I began to realise new possibilities opening up between the fields of ICT and game theory, and the inevitable social change to which this would lead. A mutual friend made the introduction to Vitalik that year and blockchain/crypto has dominated my life since.

I coded the first functional Ethereum client in January 2014 released as "PoC-1" (i.e. the first proof of concept) and co-founded the project. Shortly after, I authored the Yellow Paper, the first formal specification of any blockchain protocol and one of the key ways Ethereum distinguished itself from other blockchain-based systems. I went on to co-design much of the "1.0" Ethereum protocol including the EVM, gas and the caller-pays account model. I also conceived/invented and designed much of what would become the Ethereum technology stack including the Solidity contract language, the RPC, the Whisper/Swarm protocols and the Javascript API. My original ideas for a decentralised web date back to early 2013, but my first post on the topic was in April 2014, later followed by a less-techy version.

Prior to Ethereum, I accrued a masters degree and doctorate in computer science. I consulted for Microsoft Research on technical aspects of embedded domain-specific languages, designed and implemented the first truly smart lighting controller for one of London's top nightclubs, designed and implemented most of the world's first C++ language workbench, and built the software systems of OxLegal, a smart text contract-editor.

Next

These days...

Following my departure from Ethereum Foundation after around two years of being the CTO, I founded Parity Technologies (then called Ethcore) with several other Ethereum alumni and the Web3 Foundation. Additionally I have helped found or advise a number of additional organisations, including GridSingularity, Blockchain Capital, Scytale Capital, Blockchange Capital and Polychain Capital.

Most recently I proposed and then, together with Parity Technologies and the Web3 Foundation, created and helped launch Polkadot a heterogenous scalable multi-chain and the first of its kind.

I have sat on panels, given seminars and presented to numerous audiences around the world from keynotes at regional technology conferences to musings on the future of legal systems at world-renowned law schools. I came up with the terms 'Web3' and 'allegality'.

Next

And also...

I'm behind the Milton Keynes board game, the Fractal Playground and the Localised Proportional Representation voting system, the Noted a plugin-based super-slick audio analysis and visualisation environment. I wrote RipInPeace, a CD ripper that doesn't get in your way, the Moodbar and KDE Lirc.

I used to teach fractals and art to kids in a school in Italy, and have helped make video games at Frontier Developments. I have a PhD in music visualisation (from which came the Moodbar) and have designed & implemented novel media-agnostic visualisation systems and techniques. I speak Italian, some French and Spanish and a tiny bit of Lojban and Romanian. When I get the time, I also like photography.

I'm proficient in taekwon-do and to take the edge off, I snowboard.

Next