Senior Researcher, Cryptoeconomics
Monad Labs is a startup company that is focused on developing the Monad blockchain, a cutting-edge blockchain technology that enhances the performance of the Ethereum Virtual Machine by introducing superscalar pipelining. This innovation aims to overcome limitations in state access, smart contract execution, and distributed consensus to improve the scalability and decentralization of decentralized applications.
Our team consists mainly of professionals with experience in high-frequency trading and kernel driver development. The founders of Monad Labs, who have a background in low-latency scalable systems, met while working at Jump Trading in 2014. After successfully raising $19M in funding from leaders in the crypto space, such as Dragonfly Capital and Placeholder Capital, we are growing our team and looking for exceptional researchers and engineers who are passionate about tackling challenging problems in the field of decentralized systems.
We are currently seeking a Senior Researcher with a strong academic and applied background in economics, specifically in the context of permissionless blockchains. In this role, you will be responsible for designing rules and mechanisms for the smooth operation of the decentralized network powered by Monad. Your focus will be on optimizing decentralization, economic security, spam prevention, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and user-friendliness.
Collaborating closely with our engineering team, you will design and test various mechanisms. Your extensive knowledge of existing blockchain mechanisms will be invaluable in evaluating options for Monad's design, prioritizing security, decentralization, and performance. Responsibilities will include working on transaction ordering, staking, and consensus, with the overarching goal of mitigating security threats and the risk of centralization.
The success of Monad relies heavily on the contributions of our Senior Researcher, as their work will ensure the safe scaling of our platform to accommodate hundreds of millions of users.
Requirements
Prior experience/skills:
- Demonstrated expertise in existing blockchain mechanisms and policies, with strong opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of different systems.
- In-depth knowledge of transaction ordering, stake delegation economics, consensus mechanisms, spam prevention, and trustlessness and decentralization.
- Excellent understanding of major DeFi primitives.
- Superior technical communication skills.
Required personal attributes:
- Possess an extreme technical curiosity.
- Attention to detail and the ability to think critically.
- Creativity and resourcefulness.
- Clarity in thought and the ability to express ideas effectively.
- Enthusiastic about learning and teaching others.
- Share Monad's mission of enabling decentralized computation.
Bonuses:
- Previous experience at a L1 or L2 blockchain protocol.
- Familiarity with applied cryptography, distributed systems, and game theory.
- Proficiency in coding for implementing simulations.
Responsibilities
As a Senior Researcher, your responsibilities will include:
- Designing and evaluating mechanisms that optimize for decentralization, economic security, performance, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and user-friendliness.
- Identifying potential attack vectors and implementing measures to mitigate the risk of attacks.
- Providing technical insights on other systems, such as bridges and DeFi protocols, that could be potential partners for Monad.
- Staying up to date on mechanism design developments in other blockchains and developing informed opinions.
- Collaborating with the engineering team to design and test new mechanisms.
- Documenting your findings for both internal and public consumption.
Why Work with Us
Working at Monad Labs presents the opportunity to tackle truly challenging problems that have the potential for massive impact. You will have the chance to learn from and work alongside an exceptional team as we shape the future of decentralized systems. We offer a competitive salary and equity package and value the contributions of each team member from day one. As an early employee, you will be instrumental in shaping our company culture within a results-driven organization. Your work will pave the way for more efficient and cost-effective decentralized computation, ultimately improving the lives of many individuals.
At Monad Labs, you will collaborate with individuals such as James (performance engineering expert and system architect), Ariq (firmware and software programming expert), Aashish (systems designer and hacker), and other talented professionals. We believe that working with us will be both enjoyable and rewarding, given the impact and challenges that await you.
Salary and Benefits
We offer a minimum full-time salary of $200,000, along with a comprehensive benefits package. This package includes unlimited paid time off, 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision insurance, participation in a 401(k) retirement plan, a stipend for home office equipment, a monthly wellness/fitness stipend, and recognition of 11 company-observed holidays.
While most of our team is located in New York City and typically works together at least some days per week, we are open to remote candidates. Nonetheless, candidates based in NYC are preferred.