Protocol Engineer

What we do

Our mission at Vana is to shift the flow of data for a more prosperous world. We are building tools for the financialization of data, adding a native incentive layer to data to empower users to reclaim their data from siloed services. We have raised $20M from top crypto-native VCs and are a small team that got started out of MIT. For more information, see our hiring FAQ. 

The problem

Today’s data economy works like a serfdom. The value of user data is captured by large tech monopolies rather than by the individuals who created the data. Individuals know their data is being stolen but do not know what to do about it. At the same time, it is difficult for any company other than a large tech monopoly to apply machine learning as they don’t have access to the right data, which is usually siloed in the platform where it is generated. This leads to compounding wealth inequality as our economy has not been designed to accommodate the strange exponentials of data. We’re building tools to fix this. The Vana Vault helps users own and multiply their predictive value. Users securely export personal data from siloed tech platforms, earn interest on their data capital, and access the future value of their data. They decide what parts of their digital self to share, who to share it with, and how much they want for it. Companies in the ecosystem, from Fortune 500 fashion companies to health tech startups, rent data directly from consumers to make predictions, creating new value while directly paying the users that created the data. 

About the Role:

In the first few months as a protocol engineer, you could work on: - Forking L2 Ethereum protocols to explore the viability of Vana Protocol fork - Create an internal whitepaper for the Vana Protocol - Write a draft Ethereum smart contract for Vana Protocol

Responsibilities:

• Architect and build the Vana Protocol, an L2 protocol running on an EVM blockchain
• Work with the CEO, chief of staff, and Paradigm research team to design the incentive layer/tokenomics model for the Vana Protoco
• Provide web3 mentorship across the engineering team  

Minimum Qualifications:

• 2+ yrs experience building or maintaining an EVM-based protocol
• Experience writing and deploying smart contracts
• Experience building token-based projects (ERC-721, ERC-20)
• Experience in a language working with decentralized systems: One of Go, Rust, or Solidity
• Experience architecting distributed systems
• An understanding of best practices in building web3 applications

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working closely with the protocol economics of a project
• Experience working with zero knowledge proofs or privacy preserving machine learning
• Experience storing and processing on-chain data (ex. TheGraph)
• High-performance backend languages (Go, Rust)
• Experience building a layer 1 blockchain
• Experience working with smart contract auditing firms

What we offer

We are building a foundational piece of the user-owned internet and would love for you to be a part of our team. We are a diverse group of driven, smart, and ambitious individuals, constantly challenging each other to grow, learn and iterate faster. We are experts across our fields and experienced entrepreneurs looking to scale our success in something deeply mission-driven. For more information, see our Vana Hiring FAQ .  At Vana, we are big on collaboration and supporting each other to learn, grow, and excel in our individual pursuits. In addition to joining the Vana family, the successful candidate will receive:  - A competitive base salary - A generous benefits package including health insurance, dental and vision - Flexible work schedule - Unlimited PTO