The news is out! Couldn't be more excited to announce that I'm back in the ring as a builder. Coming on as a co-founder to @0xMiden with our $25M seed fundraise being co-led by @a16zcrypto , @1kxnetwork , and @hack_vc . I spoke to what must have been over a 100 projects in the past few months, but nothing came close to being nearly as exciting as what this team is building. My co-founder @bobbinth is genuinely the most impressive person I've met in Web3 in the 13 years I've spent in this space. And this is no exaggeration. Brilliant, humble, and hustles like no other. Vitalik brought him into Web3 and got him working at the EF years ago on zk, then he went to Meta where he led the zk team, and is a Polygon cofounder as well. When I say the most impressive, I mean it. Privacy, scalability, and decentralization, with the ability to offer compliance. That's what separates Miden from just another blockchain. And we're going to be bringing institutions on chain with this. If you're a builder in this space, I'd love to hear from you. My DMs are open.

History repeats itself, but I don’t.

Honestly, no one is as fly as the average Korean when it comes to getting dressed. I’ve spent most of my career traveling the world and Koreans are so far ahead in style that it’s crazy.

The Cointelegraph event was honestly one of the highest-signal events I attended this week, especially in a week flooded with side events. For the most part, the industry has been given two choices: fully public ledgers or attempts at full anonymity. We think both create problems when dealing with financial institutions. I often get pushback from privacy maxis who believe Miden should offer full privacy, but that’s not who we’re building for. We believe privacy can’t come at the expense of compliance, and that the right place to reconcile the two is at the application layer. That’s where Guardian comes in. It’s also clear how early we are. I’m still surprised by how many people are astonished that Miden can offer privacy and compliance at the same time. There’s a lot more work to do here, but the idea that financial privacy and compliance have to be at odds is one we’re trying to leave behind.

Catch me at KBW tomorrow on a panel titled “Sovereignty by Design: Where Data, AI, and Ownership Meet”. What Miden is doing with zero-knowledge proofs and client side proving is way more applicable to the world of AI where we’re headed than people realize. Come learn and have us put you on game.

You don't need more time, you need more focus.

Following the Midnight Foundation's recent wind-down of its developer relations team, my time at Midnight has come to an end. I built the developer education and AI developer tools, a dozen-video series explaining how ZKP and network implementation, a certification academy, and an MCP server downloaded 10,000+ times. Some of my favourite moments were the conversations, from fireside chats with builders to the hours spent alongside partner teams shipping on the network. Thank you to the team, the developer community, and every partner I worked with. Before Midnight, I spent over two years at Axelar working hands-on with partner teams building cross-chain applications. I designed their integrations, reviewed their code, and wrote the reference implementation developers used to send messages between blockchains. Before developer relations, I spent over four years as a backend engineer, building systems serving tens of thousands of users, data pipelines, and enterprise software for banks and telecoms. I also founded Web3 Afrika, a community of builders. That engineering background is what I bring to developer relations: I can sit with a team, read their code, and help them ship to production. Now I'm looking for my next role in developer relations, forward-deployed engineering, developer experience, developer support, solutions engineering, or AI engineering. I'm based in UK with a UK Global Talent visa, so no sponsorship is needed in the UK, and I'm open to remote or hybrid. Available now. If your team is hiring, or you know one that is, I'd love to hear from you. An intro or a repost would mean a lot. Portfolio and CV in the reply, kindly help RT

Very very insightful panel here at @ethereumkoreaio TLDR - Great takeaways from @kartik on focus on the right people! - @jdetychey for pushing the ETHCC narrative from the start - @mashalw for advocating every day for Octant and finding great projects - Focus on long term sustainability and carry on! - Get connected with the entire ecosystem, not just in Korea Quality of people make a big difference

imagine getting paid in crypto and HR can't see how you're spending it

Speaking here at 15:30 about funding in Ethereum from an @OctantApp and @GolemFoundation POV.

and my fav panel of the day here w @azeemk at @Cointelegraph

Who’s coming to the Cointelegraph event in Korea later today? Getting into all things stablecoins, particularly what GENIUS means for the next stage of adoption. Looking forward to an excellent conversation with this amazing set of copanelists. Hit me up if you’ll be there. Trying to meet up with some people there.

Privacy is the future, and we’ll be talking about all things privacy at Institutional Privacy Day with Citrea and Four Pillars. If you’re paying attention to where crypto is headed, this is a conversation worth being part of. And with what’s happening with $ZEC and $NEAR lately, I really hope privacy is already on your radar. Come get some free alpha.

If you are in Korea, meet Azeem in Seoul

I’m the one twice over, I’m the new eleven.

Institutional privacy matters more than ever. Great conversations today on why at the Ethereum Institutional Summit

We co-designed Guardian alongside @0xMiden to solve private-state coordination and recovery without giving up custody. Great to see it behind Bread, a wallet where sending, swapping, and receiving stay off the public chain by default.

Mainnet soon!

"Could've cost millions." That's how @trailofbits refers to a bug they found in the Miden VM core library. The key word is could've, because they found it, and fixed it. Here’s how a leading security auditor tested our systems from the ground up.

Unless you’re on a keto diet, get you some bread 🥖

I strongly believe that getting digital assets into everyday finance requires spending more time with the people we’re building for. That means listening to what banks, fintechs, and regulators actually need from this technology. I’m in Jordan this week to speak at Jordan FinTech Festival, hosted by the Central Bank of Jordan at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre by the Dead Sea. The festival brings together central bank leaders, regulators, financial institutions, and technology companies from across the region and beyond. I’m looking forward to hearing how they’re driving innovation in their markets, where they see opportunities for digital assets, and what they need from those of us building the infrastructure. Thank you to Jordan FinTech Festival for the invitation. Looking forward to sharing my perspective and taking home a few new ones.