Charlie Thompson

Ethereum Programmer / AI Researcher

San Francisco, California, United States

About

I am a researcher and programmer primarily interested in the intersection of Ethereum / AI Alignment / Quadratic Mechanisms / ZK-SNARKs / Public Goods. I am experienced in object-oriented and functional programming, linguistics (syntax and semantics), Ethereum (Solidity), and web-app development (Node + ReactJS). I am curious about many different types of technology. I am also interested in "Governance Futurism" and technology policy generally – I believe that the governments of the world badly need to leverage things like smart-contracts and new cryptography as tools for economic experimentation and increased quality of life (ex: zero-knowledge proofs + Ethereum as PKI could serve as a foundation for new privacy-preserving identity and voting systems) — this belief has motivated my involvement in RadicalxChange and my work in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Experience

  • OSS Developer: Context Engine at Full-time
    Aug 2023 - Present · 3 yrs

    Context Engine is an open-source toolkit for AI-enhanced deliberation, decision-making, and negotiation in large groups. It supports public and private questions and responses, AI-assisted input and analysis, permanent records, and cryptographic access control. It allows for no-code deployment of Soulbound Tokens for Groups. Designed for use cases such as public discourse, organizational decision-making, and preference-related dataset creation.

  • Solidity Developer at The Quantum Resistant Ledger
    Jan 2020 - Jan 2021 · 1 yr 1 mo

    I am responsible for QRL's "enQlave" project, a system of Solidity smart-contracts which allows Ethereum users to protect their digital assets from the risk of a sudden advance in Quantum Computing. This is achieved by deploying individual multi-signature "vault" contracts which employ the post-quantum-secure eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme (XMSS).

  • Software Engineer Intern at Capital One
    Jun 2020 - Aug 2020 · 3 mos

  • Technology / Graphics / Website at RadicalxChange
    Sep 2018 - Mar 2019 · 7 mos

    - Contributed to the development of radicalxchange.org - Populated speaker profiles and schedule using Firebase - Worked with Git / Route53 / Node.js - Designed logo on main page and other visual assets

  • Research Assistant for Glen Weyl at Radical Markets Project
    Aug 2018 - Mar 2019 · 8 mos

    I was fortunate to meet Glen Weyl after reading his (and Eric Posner's) book "Radical Markets", which advocates novel economic policies inspired by aspects of Computer Science and Mechanism Design (some could be considered technological upgrades to classic Georgist proposals). My work has included research-assistance and proof-reading for papers, and I helped organize the 2019 RadicalXChange conference, which was centered on the policy proposals in the book.