Responsibilities
- Define and manage the post-quantum cryptography research agenda, translating strategic goals into actionable protocol decisions.
- Lead evaluation and selection of post-quantum algorithms, including justification of chosen primitives, parameter sets, and risk assessments.
- Design strategies for cryptographic agility and transitions, including hybrid schemes and future upgrade paths.
- Produce rigorous research deliverables such as internal reports, threat models, protocol specifications, benchmarks, and academic submissions when strategically aligned.
- Work closely with engineering teams to develop reference implementations and assess integration challenges like verification overhead and storage requirements.
- Establish security review standards and acceptance criteria for cryptographic changes.
- Engage in external technical outreach through presentations, panels, workshops, and publications.
Benefits
- Base salary range of $180,000 to $200,000, supplemented by equity or token allocation and performance-based bonuses.
- Fully remote work environment with high autonomy and meaningful ownership of technical direction.
- Support for conference attendance, professional development, and access to research infrastructure.
- Opportunity to directly shape the cryptographic foundation of an emerging protocol.
Compensation
$180k–$200k base salary, plus equity/token package and performance bonuses.
Work Arrangement
Remote (Worldwide)
PQ Cryptographic Algorithms: Research & Selection
- Ongoing assessment of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, including digital signatures, key encapsulation mechanisms, hybrid designs, and new variants.
- Comparative evaluation based on security assumptions, parameter choices, side-channel resilience, and implementation readiness.
- Recommendations for algorithm adoption aligned with system constraints such as verification speed, bandwidth, storage, and latency.
Quantum Money / Quantum Bills (Core)
- Investigate quantum-based money concepts such as quantum banknotes and tokens, focusing on public verifiability.
- Develop security models addressing unforgeability, transferability, double-spending resistance, and assumptions about loss or system robustness.
- Explore practical verification methods, including device requirements, cost, and trust-minimized approaches.
- Analyze integration possibilities with blockchain systems, including registration, redemption, escrow, auditability, and failure handling.
- Examine long-term potential for quantum money to influence consensus or incentive mechanisms—research phase only initially.
Post-Quantum Signatures & Identity
- Evaluate and select signature schemes, parameters, and tradeoffs between performance and security.
- Address identity-related considerations such as address formats, key rotation policies, wallet interoperability, and user experience limitations.
PQC Migration & Cryptographic Agility
- Design hybrid cryptographic approaches, migration pathways, and governance frameworks for rollout.
- Assess risks related to backward compatibility and the extended use of long-lived cryptographic keys.
ZK Cryptography
- Research and assess zero-knowledge proof systems under real-world blockchain constraints like verification cost, recursion, and proof size.
- Provide guidance on post-quantum considerations for ZK systems, including assumption choices and migration planning.
- Explore applications of ZK proofs in protocol design, such as data compression, auditability, privacy enhancements, and verifiable computation interfaces.
Protocol Security & Applied Cryptography
- Conduct threat modeling across the blockchain and wallet ecosystem.
- Design secure key ceremonies and evaluate threshold or aggregated key solutions where applicable.
- Implement and write zero-knowledge circuits and cryptographic algorithms.
PQC in Distributed Systems (Nice-to-have)
- Study post-quantum implications for randomness generation, committee selection, and leader election in consensus protocols.
- Analyze performance impacts of PQC on consensus mechanisms and network communication.
What Success Looks Like (First 60)
- Delivery of a clear post-quantum cryptography roadmap with prioritized milestones linked to protocol development timelines.
- Submission of a well-justified proposal for selecting post-quantum algorithms (signatures and auxiliary primitives), parameters, and integration costs.
- Development of a feasible migration and cryptographic agility strategy, including governance and rollout planning.
- Documentation of benchmarks and performance constraints to guide engineering decisions.
- Identification of at least one credible external research direction, with high-quality outputs expected regardless of publication submission.
