Chat Protocol Research Lead

About Waku

A family of generalised P2P communications protocols. The messaging layer of the Logos stack. Waku is private, censorship resistant, modular, and scalable by design. This combination of features makes Waku suitable to run in a wide range of environments, including phones and browsers, while upholding its users’ rights to private communications.

About Status

A blockchain-based super app that combines private messaging, a wallet, a DApp browser, and tools for web3 community management. Status aims to be a truly decentralised communication tool and, since its founding in 2017, has been progressively removing reliance on centralised infrastructure. The application leverages Waku and other technologies developed under the IFT umbrella.

Key responsibilities

• Research and document the current chat and related app protocols implemented in the Status application
• Design and specify new application protocols that use Waku, Codex and other IFT technologies; ensure the protocols are securely scalable and privacy-preserving.
• Use a layered protocol approach that is mindful and explicit about what it requires, what it provides, under what threat models, and with what trade-offs.
• Build PoCs to demonstrate the working of new or modified protocols in nimlang and JavaScript.
•  Liaise with the Waku research team to understand the Waku protocols and how to build secure applications using them.
• Liaise with Status leadership to agree on properties for new protocols and related user-facing features.
• Collaborate with the expert researchers within Vac and apply their specialised knowledge in cryptography and other related fields.
• Collaborate with Waku test engineers to simulate and test behaviour of new and modified protocols

You will ideally have

• A strong academic background with proven experience in applied research and translating research findings into user-facing products.
• Excellent verbal and written skills, especially in interpreting and compiling new technical specification documents
• Experience with off-the-shelf networking stacks such as libp2p
• Familiarity with encryption and key exchange mechanisms
• Experience with building end-to-end instant messaging protocols
• Experience with low level/strongly typed languages (C/C++/Go/Rust)
• A strong alignment to our mission: https://free.technology/ ; https://waku.org/about/ 

Bonus points: 

• Comfortable working remotely and asynchronously
• Experience working for an open source organisation.
• Experience with cryptography such as OTR, X3DH, Noise protocol.
• Experience in, and passion for, blockchain and decentralized technologies.

[Don’t worry if you don’t meet all of these criteria, we’d still love to hear from you anyway if you think you’d be a great fit for this role. Just explain to us why in your cover letter].

Hiring process

1. Interview with our People Ops team
2. Interview with Waku Research Lead
3. Pair programming with Waku Team member on take home task
4. Interview with Chat/App Protocol Team Lead and Status App Lead 
5. Interview with Waku Lead 

The steps may change along the way if we see it makes sense to adapt the interview stages, so please consider the above as a guideline.

Compensation

The expected compensation range for this role is $120,000 - $150,000 (negotiable, dependent on how we assess your skills and experience throughout our interview process). We are happy to pay in any mix of fiat/crypto.