Senior Researcher - Mechanism Design

March 12

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Category Labs

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Category Labs is building high-performance decentralized systems, drawing expertise from high-frequency trading and low-level systems. Their team designs scalable solutions for complex challenges in decentralized technology, specifically focused on creating next-generation blockchain infrastructure with Monad, a high-capacity, EVM-compatible layer 1 blockchain. They prioritize performance, optimization, and innovation in their approach to blockchain technology.

51 - 200 employees

Founded 2022

💳 Fintech

🤖 Artificial Intelligence

📋 Description

• We are looking for an exceptional Senior Researcher with significant academic and applied experience in economics, particularly in the context of permissionless blockchains. • You will play a leading role in designing rules and mechanisms in Monad that keep the decentralized network running smoothly. • You’ll be designing mechanisms that optimize for decentralization, economic security, spam prevention, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and ease of use. • You will work closely with our engineering team to design and test various mechanisms. • You’ll draw on your extensive knowledge and opinions on mechanisms in existing blockchains to evaluate options for Monad’s design that optimize its security, decentralization, and performance. • Your work will be vital to Monad’s success and will allow Monad to scale safely to hundreds of millions of users.

🎯 Requirements

• Excellent knowledge of mechanisms and policies in existing blockchains, with strong opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of existing mechanisms. Example areas we’d expect you to have good knowledge of: • Transaction ordering/MEV (both mechanically how MEV "works" in Ethereum, including architectural changes post-Merge, and its consequences, e.g. to decentralization) • Staking and economic security (delegation economics; slashing conditions; stake pools) • Consensus mechanisms (pBFT, tendermint, Gasper) • Spam prevention • Trustlessness and decentralization (light clients; merkle proofs; security guarantees of various L1s and rollups) • Excellent knowledge of major DeFi primitives (AMMs, bridges, oracles, etc) • Excellent technical communication skills • Required personal attributes: • Extreme technical curiosity • Attention to detail • Creativity • Resourcefulness and independence • Clarity of thought • Enthusiasm about learning and teaching • Enthusiasm for Monad’s mission of enabling far more decentralized computation • Nice to have: • Previous experience at a L1 or L2 blockchain protocol • Experience with applied cryptography • Experience with distributed systems • Experience with game theory • Ability to code, e.g. for implementing simulations

🏖️ Benefits

• Company benefits for US-based full-time employees include medical, dental, and vision insurance (100% coverage for employees) • Unlimited and encouraged paid time off • Monthly mental health and fitness stipend • Paid parental leave • 10 company-observed holidays