StJohn Piano
Verified Expert in Engineering
Blockchain Developer
Valencia, Spain
Toptal member since November 15, 2022
StJohn is a highly-skilled and motivated senior software engineer with 11+ years of experience, 8+ of which have been in the blockchain industry. He currently works as the head of engineering at Solidi Cryptocurrency Exchange. StJohn has built excellent software for a fully regulated UK cryptocurrency exchange, a blockchain-based web publishing system, a secure Bitcoin storage toolset, a speech recognition company, a transcription team, and a furniture factory.
Portfolio
Experience
- Python - 12 years
- Blockchain - 10 years
- MySQL - 10 years
- Linux - 10 years
- Bitcoin - 8 years
- Fabric - 6 years
- JavaScript - 3 years
- Node.js - 3 years
Preferred Environment
Linux, Python, Node.js, MySQL, NGINX, Gunicorn, JavaScript, TypeScript, Docker, Blockchain
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed is a ready-for-production Ethereum smart contract project template, written in Solidity, Hardhat, and TypeScript.
Work Experience
Back-end Engineer
MRZ Labs Limited
- Implemented API testing to confirm that information flowed correctly into the database.
- Completed detection and storage of blockchain events on the raffle smart contract.
- Wrote a good logging system for the application—it can write to a console and optionally to a file with JSON-formatted lines. It is set up to transport logs to an external application with a 30-day rolling window.
Head of Engineering
Solidi
- Designed, implemented, tested, and completed the Solidi trading app on iOS and Android.
- Upgraded the Solidi system to a major new operating system version.
- Ensured internal software for regulatory compliance, including customer risk scoring and Chainalysis integration, enabling Solidi to pass the UK Financial Conduct Authority registration requirements, which was very unusual for a crypto company.
Blockchain and Full-stack Developer
CoinX24 AG
- Developed smart contracts to receive pseudonymous private payments.
- Developed a Python package to deploy, manage, and retrieve information from the smart contracts.
- Developed a Hardhat testing package to test the smart contracts.
Software Engineer
Edgecase
- Designed and implemented a Bitcoin toolset. The code is available at Github.com/sj-piano/bitcoin_toolset_python3, with more background information at Edgecase.net/pages/how_to_store_bitcoin. The code is pure Python 3 and includes excellent logging.
- Built and implemented a web application for interacting with the Edgecase Datafeed blockchain. It is, in effect, a block explorer with fully automated deployment via Fabric and dev/staging and production servers and pinpoint-accurate logging.
- Created and implemented Edgecase Datafeed, a secure publishing system. All published articles are digitally signed and timestamped in the Bitcoin blockchain.
Software Engineer
Solidi
- Implemented support for new cryptocurrencies in the Solidi exchange application, including Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Cardano (ADA).
- Designed and implemented secure cold storage solutions for ETH, XRP, and ADA. Wrote recipes for their use.
- Implemented a trading bot that bought and sold cryptocurrency on other exchanges.
- Implemented Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) secured RabbitMQ messaging to handle communication between various cryptocurrency clients and the main system.
- Designed and implemented a new version of the Solidi trade engine. It uses Kafka to handle order or trade messaging.
Project Manager
Abacii
- Managed 17 transcription projects, totaling 336,738 transcriptions. Transcribed speech data are used to test the accuracy of speech recognition systems.
- Hired and trained new transcribers. Wrote an accompanying transcription guide, which can be viewed at arkaeologic.pythonanywhere.com/faq/default.
- Wrote scripts to perform proofreading, spellchecking, and statistical selection for quality assurance (QA) testing on transcription projects. The average raw text accuracy score was 92.1%.
- Wrote scripts to process large Nuance Recognizer logs and extract data for transcription.
- Learned how to install, configure, and use a Nuance Recogniser system in a CentOS VM. Implemented speech grammar systems in English and Spanish.
- Ported Excel VBA macros for project report generation to new versions of Excel.
Software Engineer
Jali
- Implemented a plug-and-play Raspberry Pi-based networked camera system. Takes and serves a 1296x972 pixel JPEG file over a local network in around 0.5 seconds. Three of these cameras were installed in the Jali automated furniture painting system.
- Implemented Raspberry Pi-based dynamic control of a Baldor motion controller and Omron servomotors.
- Helped to construct and test a prototype automated 3D woodworking machine.
Experience
A Ready-for-production Ethereum Smart Contract Project Template
https://github.com/sj-piano/ethereum-smart-contract-project-template-typescriptDeep Dive into Bitcoin Address Generation
http://edgecase.net/articles/generating_a_standard_bitcoin_addressEdgecase
http://edgecase.net/pages/start_hereReview of the Ledger Nano S
http://edgecase.net/articles/review_of_the_ledger_nano_s_hardware_walletEducation
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering
Durham University - Durham, United Kingdom
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering
Durham University - Durham, United Kingdom
International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma in Mathematics and Physics
American School of Madrid - Madrid, Spain
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Node.js, Fabric, React, Web3.js
Tools
NGINX, Pyenv, GitHub, Vim Text Editor, Git, CAD, RabbitMQ, Pytest, Sequelize
Languages
Python, Solidity, JavaScript, HTML, PHP, TypeScript, SQL, VHDL, Java, C, Excel VBA
Frameworks
Express.js, Hardhat
Platforms
Linux, Blockchain, Ethereum, Blockchain Platforms, DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cardano, Apache Kafka, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Docker, Oracle
Storage
MySQL, Databases
Industry Expertise
Project Management
Other
Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Smart Contracts, Ethereum Smart Contracts, Security, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Software Architecture, Cryptocurrency Wallets, Crypto, Ethers.js, Back-end, Web3, Bots, Trading, Algorithms, ERC-20, Gunicorn, Arbitrage, Technical Leadership, Decentralized Systems, Technical Requirements, Architecture, Estimations, DApps, APIs, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Web 3.0, Full-stack, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Web Development, Blockchain Design, Programming, Digital Signal Processing, Digital Electronics, Embedded Systems, Mechanics, Analysis, Integrated Circuits, Differential Equations, Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FGPA), Signal Theory, Thermodynamics, Electric Power Systems, Analytics, Dynamic Systems Modeling, Communication Protocols, Cellular Automata, French, Networks, Devices, Ripple, Nuance Recognizer, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Spanish, History, English, Cadence, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), Tokenomics, FPGA, Tether (USDT)
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