skomorokh

* Built and led a team of 7 protocol researchers, fostering a high-performance culture focused on ownership and collaboration * Defined the technical vision for zkSharding, aligning protocol architecture with broader business and ecosystem strategy * Directed research and design of core zkSharding sub-protocols, including the account model, consensus mechanism, cross-chain communication, and canonical bridge * Worked closely with the C-level team on strategic internal and external decisions, including high engagement in the company’s pivot process * Owned public communication around zkSharding research through blog posts, ethResearch, and Twitter/X, helping to position the protocol within the broader L2 ecosystem

* Managed and mentored a cross-functional team of 6 researchers and engineers, fostering a collaborative and outcome-driven culture * Defined team goals, set research and development roadmaps, and conducted regular performance and feedback cycles * Directed internal research across a wide range of topics, including Shared Sequencing, Based Sequencing, Restaking, Bridges, and Layer 2 architectures * Served as Product Owner for Proof Market, a chain-agnostic decentralized prover network designed to support multiple ecosystems * Owned the product vision, architecture, roadmap, and prioritization process, translating high-level strategy into actionable milestones * Conducted discovery interviews and negotiations with potential Proof Market users to validate value propositions and inform development priorities

* Audited the Crypto3 cryptographic library for both security and performance, covering a wide range of primitives—from long arithmetic to Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs) * Co-authored the initial design and implementation of Placeholder, a PLONK-based zero-knowledge proof system * Designed and implemented one of the first zkBridges: a Mina ↔ Ethereum bridge, enabling succinct and verifiable cross-chain state proofs

* Designed a protocol for Distributed Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) as part of State Channel mechanics, enabling trust-minimized randomness * Built proof-of-concept smart contracts in Solidity to validate and demonstrate proposed protocols * Analyzed the security of Finality Gadgets to strengthen consensus safety and liveness guarantees

* Designed HERB (Homomorphic Encryption Random Beacon) protocol, published a pre-print on it * Introduced and prototyped a PRNG mechanism within the Tendermint (Arcade) consensus engine, enabling non-predictable randomness as part of the consensus process * Explored Distributed Key Generation (DKG) protocols and collaborated closely with the implementation team to develop production-ready cryptographic libraries.