Damjan Kužnar
Verified Expert in Engineering
Cryptocurrency Developer
Lisbon, Portugal
Toptal member since November 29, 2018
Damjan is a versatile engineer with 10+ years of experience in Python, TypeScript, and Rust. He co-builds Ventuals on Hyperliquid, backed by Paradigm, and previously contributed to OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace, and Shadow, a leading on-chain data platform. Damjan helped scale Bitstamp to $2+ billion in daily trading volume, served as CTO at Blocktrade, and brings PhD-level expertise in AI and ML.
Portfolio
Experience
- Python - 10 years
- Cryptocurrency - 5 years
- Data Analysis - 5 years
- PostgreSQL - 5 years
- TypeScript - 5 years
- React - 4 years
- Elasticsearch - 3 years
- Hyperliquid - 1 year
Preferred Environment
Git, Slack
The most amazing...
...machine learning algorithm I created uses prior expert knowledge to produce models that are qualitatively correct and have better prediction accuracy.
Work Experience
Founding Engineer
Ventuals
- Built a fully featured trading application from the ground up on Hyperliquid as a founding engineer, delivering the platform from zero to production.
- Designed and implemented the referral system, driving organic user acquisition and community growth for the platform.
- Developed the vHYPE staking and points system, enabling token holders to earn rewards and increasing user engagement and retention.
- Engineered AI-assisted workflows that automatically scrape, curate, and generate relevant market news displayed across the platform.
Founding Engineer
Shadow.xyz
- Reduced end-to-end data processing pipeline latency from 10 minutes to under 5 seconds, delivering near real-time on-chain data to platform users.
- Added support for new EVM-compatible blockchain networks, expanding the platform's multichain coverage and enabling indexing of additional ecosystems.
- Implemented stream processing across the pipeline to eliminate bulk data loading into memory, significantly reducing service memory footprint and costs.
- Instrumented the entire platform with observability tooling, enabling real-time monitoring, alerting, and performance tracing across all services.
Founding Engineer
OpenSea
- Scaled the marketplace back-end infrastructure to handle explosive growth in users and trading volume during peak NFT adoption periods.
- Contributed to the multichain feature, enabling NFT trading across multiple blockchain networks and expanding the platform's reach to new ecosystems.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to improve API performance and reliability during periods of record-breaking transaction volumes.
CTO
Blocktrade.com
- Oversaw the engineering team and led the end-to-end development of a regulated cryptocurrency exchange from architecture design through production launch.
- Translated business requirements into technical specifications and provided strategic feedback to stakeholders on the feasibility of business decisions.
- Maintained high platform uptime and operational reliability by establishing monitoring, incident response, and infrastructure best practices.
- Drove key technical decisions across the stack, including technology selection, system architecture, and security protocols for digital asset trading.
- Managed day-to-day engineering operations, including sprint planning, code reviews, and cross-team coordination to ensure consistent delivery.
- Bridged the gap between business and engineering by evaluating technical trade-offs and advising leadership on product roadmap priorities.
Full-stack Developer
Boston Consulting Group
- Developed web-based user interfaces for interacting with back-end systems that operated AI and machine learning models built by the consulting team.
- Built interactive data visualizations to present AI/ML system outputs, enabling consultants and clients to interpret model results more effectively.
- Designed front-end components that streamlined the operation of complex machine learning pipelines through intuitive browser-based dashboards.
- Delivered custom visualization tools that translated raw model predictions into actionable insights for client-facing consulting engagements.
Team Lead
Bitstamp
- Reduced technical debt.
- Integrated 3rd party services into trading platform.
- Developed new features.
- Improved overall platform performance.
Researcher
Jozef Stefan Institute
- Developed a web chatbot using HTML5, JavaScript, and Python back-end.
- Created machine learning pipeline for prediction of student academic failure in Python and scikit-learn.
- Worked on a multi-objective optimization algorithm for a home automation system with the aim to reduce the cost and increase comfort.
- Published a paper in a scientific journal on a novel machine learning algorithm.
- Implemented an algorithm for extracting common agent strategies in a multiagent environment.
Experience
Blocktrade.com
We bring blockchain-based technologies and crypto assets to a unified and connected marketplace. It is Swiss guarded with the highest security and integrity features, performance driven, high volume and market-depth that meets stringent statutory compliance.
Bitstamp
Publication in Scientific Journal
Web Chatbot
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer and Information science
University of Ljubljana - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Skills
Libraries/APIs
REST APIs, Bottle.py, Scikit-learn, Pandas, Matplotlib, Requests, Vue 2, Vue, React, Node.js, OpenAI API, jQuery, Jenkins Pipeline, NetworkX, Azure Blob Storage API, Plotly.js, JSON-RPC
Tools
GitHub, Claude Code, Photoshop CS3, Docker Compose, Docker Swarm, Git, Pytest, Celery, PyCharm, MATLAB, NGINX, Amazon Athena, Make (formerly Integromat), Slack, Amazon OpenSearch, RabbitMQ
Languages
Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, HTML5, CSS, Java, HTML, Lua, Solidity
Frameworks
Flask, Django, Django REST Framework, Vuetify, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap, Selenium
Paradigms
Clean Architecture, Agile Software Development, DevOps, Clean Code
Platforms
Docker, Linux, Temporal Cloud
Storage
PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Tarantool, Elasticsearch, BigTable, Redis, MySQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Azure Cosmos DB
Other
Machine Learning, Data Analysis, Cryptocurrency APIs, Data Science, Workflow, WebSockets, Architecture, Full-stack, Performance Optimization, Credit Cards, Payment Gateways, Cryptocurrency Wallets, Multithreading, Multiprocessing, Cryptocurrency, Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-money Laundering (AML), Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Hyperliquid, Agentic AI, Orchestration, AI Integration, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), Authentication, Deployment, React Hooks, OpenAI, RESTFul APIs, Gunicorn, Dash, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT)
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