Crypto Research Intern

o1Labs’ vision is to create an internet where developers use programmable cryptography to create more powerful applications. We have successfully incubated the Mina Protocol and are now in the next stage of our journey as the world’s premier zero-knowledge tooling provider.

We are looking for a talented and motivated cryptography research intern with experience in Zero-Knowledge Proofs technology to join our team at o1Labs. The intern will collaborate on our new Project, Untitled, a federated storage solution that combines the authentication guarantees of data availability protocols with the performance of Web2 storage.

This is a chance to join a small, collaborative team and gain independence while working on fascinating problems in software engineering, systems design, cryptography, and computing.

Responsibilities

You will contribute to one or more of the following research and engineering areas:

• Collaborate with cryptography researchers and engineers on protocol design. Topics include:
• Data availability & federated storage solutions:
• Authenticated data storage / verifiable database query evaluation
• Fair data exchange protocols with practical implementations
• Data witnessing and non-repudiation in federated systems
• Sharding and data replication strategies for distributed storage
• ZK-friendly consensus mechanisms
• Incentive design for distributed protocols
• Privacy-preserving data witnessing
• Analyze existing solutions and propose improvements. Propose new, meaningful approaches based on novel cryptography research available in academia
• Document research findings and implementation details
• Implement and test cryptographic protocols
• Clear communication and articulation of abstract ideas

Requirements

No prior experience with web3 / blockchain protocols is required. However, an understanding of cryptographic primitives and protocols is necessary, with focus on either ZK protocols, or distributed systems (consensus protocols / storage protocols). In addition to that, we expect:

• Excellent problem-solving abilities
• Good communication skills and ability to work remotely / independently
• Experience with writing academic papers
• General familiarity with blockchain / distributed ledger technology

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience designing zero-knowledge proofs, or systems that utilise ZKPs
• Good programming skills (e.g. rust, ocaml)
• Industry-level skills are not required, but a hands-on/hacker mindset is welcome.
• Understanding of practical software development (e.g. performance aspects)

Learning Opportunities

• Mentorship from experienced cryptographers and engineers
• Exposure to cutting-edge research in applied cryptography
• Practical experience implementing theoretical protocols
• Potential for academic publication and open-source contributions

About Us

o1Labs is the team that incubated, launched, and contributed to Mina Protocol. This Layer 1 blockchain compresses the blockchain from hundreds of gigabytes down to the size of a few tweets and can scale to millions of users while remaining decentralized enough for cell phones to be fully verifying nodes. o1Labs recently announced [Project Untitled], a new project that aims to solve the state management problem for web3.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive company. People of color, LGBTQ individuals, women, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

If you’d be interested in talking further, please get in touch by sending an email with your resume and the subject “Crypto Research Intern” to ryan.andersen@o1labs.org.