Category Labs
Blockchain • Crypto • Fintech
Category Labs is a company focused on building high-performance decentralized systems and next-generation blockchain infrastructure. With a team comprised of experts from high-frequency trading, Category Labs designs scalable solutions for complex challenges in decentralized technology. The company is known for its Monad blockchain, which is EVM-compatible and capable of handling 10,000 transactions per second with minimal hardware requirements.
Senior Researcher - Mechanism Design
Job not on LinkedIn
March 12
Category Labs
Blockchain • Crypto • Fintech
Category Labs is a company focused on building high-performance decentralized systems and next-generation blockchain infrastructure. With a team comprised of experts from high-frequency trading, Category Labs designs scalable solutions for complex challenges in decentralized technology. The company is known for its Monad blockchain, which is EVM-compatible and capable of handling 10,000 transactions per second with minimal hardware requirements.
📋 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
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