Sr. Protocol Researcher, Blockchain Sharding

Autonomys Network, in collaboration with the Subspace Foundation, is supporting an open research effort led by our Technical Co-Founder, on designing a permissionless unbounded sharding protocol. This role is for a Senior Protocol Researcher with strong expertise in permissionless blockchain consensus protocols and distributed systems.

Research Objective: The goal is to design a permissionless sharding protocol that extends PoAS while maintaining its permissionless property with, ideally, shared security across unbounded number of shards. This work builds upon the Subspace v2 (Dilithium) consensus, which was developed over several years and launched as Autonomys Network. The work is open-ended but with clear milestones, focusing on extending our Proof-of-Archival-Storage (PoAS) consensus protocol.

Given this is an open research role, there is flexibility in how the work is structured. We would like to have someone that can commit to a full time contract, but we are open to part time commitments for the right person.

Materials (Research Context):

• High-level Subspace PoAS consensus overview: https://academy.autonomys.xyz/subspace-protocol/consensus
• Implementation specifications: https://subspace.github.io/protocol-specs/docs/protocol_specifications
• Research paper: https://github.com/subspace/consensus-v2-research-paper
• Preliminary design constraints: https://gist.github.com/nazar-pc/760505c5ad7d56c20b2c75c1484e672f

Research Scope:

• Propose an initial candidate design of a permissionless sharding protocol with PoAS consensus within one month.
• Advance to a state in which implementation prototyping can begin within three months.
• Complete a formalized design with an initial security proof within one year.

Requirements:

• Strong expertise in permissionless consensus protocols (Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Space) and large-scale distributed systems like public blockchains.
• Familiarity with current landscape of blockchain sharding designs and blockchain protocols at large.
• High agency: solving complex problems, proposing alternatives and novel solutions with minimal to no oversight.
• Strong communication skills: responsiveness in async communications, timely updates about progress and any roadblocks, and ability to explain complex topics in approachable way.
• Result-oriented, not process-oriented.
• Ability to formalize and evaluate properties of cryptographic protocols.
• Ability to author research articles and papers.