---
title: 'Engineer at Commonware'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineer-commonware-united-states-cdqjt2saqbeg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Engineer at Commonware

- **Company:** Commonware
- **Location:** United States
- **Compensation:** $250k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2025-03-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/commonware/d34716f5-0515-42f8-849a-c8fbac36c488

## Job description

WHAT IS COMMONWARE?

Today’s blockchain stack is designed to be a jack of all trades, but master of none. Modeled after virtual machines (VM) and kernels, it exposes a monolithic interface through a one-size-fits-all framework instead of molding to the needs of any specific application.

[https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/22efc671-fcad-48e8-a0da-149b8b6f6fae/2b6e44df-45d7-43bb-9224-2feaab118ff9/image.png]

At Commonware, we believe that the most popular onchain experiences of the next decade will develop a sustained edge through vertical integration. To accelerate developers that share this perspective, we are building a library of open (MIT/Apache-2) primitives https://github.com/commonwarexyz/monorepo meant to be remixed and modded.

[https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/22efc671-fcad-48e8-a0da-149b8b6f6fae/cb7b9586-1f1b-4379-8173-a5915298deef/image.png]

SETTING THE STAGE: 8 PEOPLE AND $30M+ RAISED

Backed by Haun Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Mert Mumtaz, Nick White, Dan Romero, Sreeram Kannan, and other experienced operators https://commonware.xyz/blogs/commonware-the-anti-framework.html, Commonware is now hiring for ambitious engineers that can help us expand the Commonware Library https://github.com/commonwarexyz/monorepo to a broader set of applications and support customers, like Tempo https://fortune.com/2025/11/07/stripe-paradigm-tempo-commonware-strategic-investment-25-million/, with novel infrastructure built for it.

[https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/22efc671-fcad-48e8-a0da-149b8b6f6fae/808ed177-884a-4988-90cf-b90f9f2e9e19/image.png]

Today, we are a lean team of 8 focused on staying small, nimble, and accountable: Patrick O’Grady https://patrickogrady.xyz (Founder, ex-VP Engineering at Ava Labs, designed Coinbase Rosetta/Mesh), Brendan Chou https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanchou (First Hire and Head of Engineering at dYdX), Roberto Bayardo https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberto-bayardo-4339a0222 (Distinguished Engineer at Google and Coinbase), Dan Laine http://linkedin.com/in/daniel-laine (Engineer at Ava Labs), Lucas Meier https://cronokirby.com (Cryptographer at Penumbra Labs), Ben Clabby https://x.com/vex_0x (Engineer at Optimism), André Silva https://x.com/andrebeat (Consensus at Parity), Andrew Lewis-Pye https://lewis-pye.com (Researcher at LSE). We are spread around the globe but assemble at our new office in Palo Alto every few months to fill whiteboards and play arcade games.

## THE ROLE

We don't hire engineers for specific tasks. We hire great people with differentiated experience in a specific area and expect them to direct their focus to the highest priority task.

At this time, we are looking for folks that have spent years building any of the following:

- Streaming unstructured data over globally distributed infrastructure
- Designing and testing onchain execution environments
- Optimizing cryptographic primitives (with math and assembly)
- Pushing the performance of embedded databases to the limit
- Crafting intuitive experiences for users to explore fast blockchains

## IDEAL CANDIDATE

We consider each candidate on a case-by-case basis and don't have a minimum set of requirements any individual must satisfy (other than being based in the United States).

That being said, we've found the following to be a good predictor of fit:

- You excelled as a programmer, went on to lead a productive engineering organization, but ultimately yearn to build things.
- You maintained a large open-source codebase (especially in Rust).
- You shop at IKEA because you enjoy building your own furniture.
- You understand the difference between writing code and writing the right code.
- You dive into rabbit holes rather than running from them.
- Your humor is xkcd-forward.

## EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Commonware, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

We comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

## About Commonware

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Commonware is building an open set of Rust-based blockchain primitives architected for excessive throughput, tractable modification, and embedded interoperability, enabling developers to build specialized onchain applications without being constrained by rigid frameworks.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed Stage)
- **Headquarters**: Not publicly available
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Not publicly named (founded by an experienced team from the crypto space)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Blockchain Infrastructure / Developer Tools
- Target customers: B2B, developers building blockchain applications (L0, L1, L2, restaked security, or hybrid configurations)
- Mission or purpose statement: To enable the best onchain experiences by unbundling blockchains—tailoring networking, consensus, storage, and execution to amplify the unique aspects of an application—unlocking performance that can rival centralized websites.

## Products & Services
- **Commonware Library**: An open set of Rust-based blockchain primitives designed for excessive throughput, tractable modification, and embedded interoperability. Includes primitives like `p2p::authenticated` (authenticated and encrypted communication), `cryptography::bls12381` (with DKG and Resharing Support), `runtime::deterministic` (foundation for deterministic testing), and `consensus::simplex` (Byzantine Fault Tolerant agreement). The library is released under both Apache-2 and MIT licenses.
- **Alto**: A minimal and wicked fast blockchain built with the Commonware Library.
- **Constantinople**: A high-throughput blockchain built on commonware primitives.
- **Battleware**: An onchain battle secured by a VRF, Timelock Encryption, and MMRs.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $9M in total funding (Seed round co-led by Haun Ventures and Dragonfly Capital, announced in October 2024)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Haun Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, and an experienced group of angel investors
- **Growth Signals**: Rapid release cadence of core primitives (p2p, cryptography, runtime, consensus) within months of launch; building a new category of "anti-framework" blockchain infrastructure; seeking 3 ambitious teams to collaborate on building unique applications

## Competitive Advantages
- **Anti-Framework Approach**: Unlike monolithic or modular frameworks, Commonware provides a collection of "state-of-the-art" primitives that can be rearranged, augmented, and rebuilt without forking everything. There is no hardcoded block format, state layout, definition of finality, mempool policy, execution rules, or fee metering.
- **Decoupled State Machine Replication (DSMR)**: Enables handling surging load by decoupling networking, consensus, storage, and execution.
- **Deterministic Simulation Testing**: Every primitive runs through a suite of deterministic simulations on every commit, enforcing correct behavior during mock network partitions, Byzantine faults, slow/lossy link performance, and cluster-wide unclean shutdown. `consensus::simplex` has >90% coverage.
- **Performance**: Fast blocks and optimal finalization latency—generate a new block after 2 network hops and finalize after 3 network hops with authenticated multicast. With ~150ms average network latency, this means ~300ms block times and ~450ms finality.

## Strategic Focus
- Accelerating development of the Commonware Library with a focus on releasing primitives that enable specialized blockchain applications
- Collaborating with 3 ambitious teams to build unique applications across a variety of security configurations (L0, L1, L2, restaked security, or somewhere between)
- Building a new category of "anti-framework" blockchain infrastructure that prioritizes specialization over standardization

## Why Work Here
- **Founding Engineer Opportunity**: Commonware is looking for a small group of founding engineers (1-10% equity), offering a rare opportunity to shape the core technology and culture from the ground up.
- **Engineering Culture**: Focus on building performant distributed systems in Rust, with a strong emphasis on deterministic simulation testing, high code coverage (>90% for consensus primitives), and rigorous engineering practices.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Not publicly specified, but the team appears to be distributed and remote-friendly based on the nature of the company.
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge blockchain infrastructure, contribute to open-source software, and collaborate with a team backed by top-tier crypto venture capital firms (Haun Ventures, Dragonfly Capital).

## Sources
1. [commonware.xyz](https://commonware.xyz/)
2. [commonware.xyz/hiring](https://commonware.xyz/hiring)
3. [commonware.xyz/blogs/introducing-commonware](https://commonware.xyz/blogs/introducing-commonware)
4. [commonware.xyz/blogs/commonware-the-anti-framework](https://commonware.xyz/blogs/commonware-the-anti-framework)
5. [github.com/commonwarexyz](https://github.com/commonwarexyz)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/commonware](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/commonware)

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