About the Mentor
Hey all
I’m a core contributor at Kwenta, focusing on smart contracts and protocol design, with around five years of experience in software engineering. After completing a mentorship with EthernautDAO in 2021, I joined the DeFi team at Crypto.com as a smart contract engineer. Subsequently, I moved to Kwenta, where I am the technical lead of Smart Margin (on-chain trading engine that has processed >$37B in perp trading volume) and Quanto Futures (quantity adjusting “quanto” perpetual futures derivative market expected for release this year).
Why Mentor
Kwenta is committed to educating the DeFi community. A more educated ecosystem benefits everyone, whether done via our thorough protocol and trading documentation or directly with a targeted mentorship.
I want to provide the same opportunity presented to me to another. The EthernautDAO mentorship opened many doors, helped me jump-start my Web3 career, and introduced me to a community of awesome people.
Training Will/Won’t be for a protocol
This mentorship will be for Kwenta and specifically target writing defensive, optimized, and well-tested smart contracts deployed to EVM compatible blockchains. We use Solidity for writing smart contracts and rely heavily on foundry and hardhat for tooling.
Although the mentorship “relationship” will hopefully extend beyond the program duration, my expectation is that at the end of the program, the mentee will be capable of writing, testing, and deploying smart contracts at a professional caliber.
Number of trainees
Only a single mentee can be accepted at this time.
Training Will/Won’t target a job position
The ideal outcome of the mentoring program will be to give you the experience necessary to be a competent smart contract engineer at any protocol, including Kwenta.
Target position will/won’t be remote
100% remote, but US and Western EU candidates are preferred due to my location.
Minimum requirements for trainee candidates
Requirements:
- Solid foundation in Computer Science/Software Engineering (Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Mathematics)
- Ability to write good code. What is good code? Code that gets the job done, not fancy, not super optimized. Code that understands that others will read it in the future. You strive to deliver a functional product and will sleep once every edge case is unturned. Obviously, this gets better with experience, but those with that drive from the get-go will excel here.
- Ability to problem solve. As borrowed from Ale, this is a person who “is a master at divide and conquer problem-solving. I can throw you any problem, and you can systematically split it into a set of smaller problems, of which at least one you CAN solve. Then repeat the process on all the sub-problems that you can’t solve. If this is a natural thing for you in software development, then you are a compatible candidate.”
- Good git hygiene. Can use branches effectively. You’ve opened issues/PRs before and have merged code into other collaborative projects (private or public).
- Values respectful and disciplined engagement, with a commitment to discovering the truth. This often necessitates having thoughtful disagreements, even with more senior members of the team, including myself.
Nice to haves:
- Ecosystem experience (trading on Kwenta, staking on Synthetix)
- Experience using DeFi (Uniswap, Aave, Compound, Maker, Lido)
- Interest in finance (Derivatives, Trading, Game Theory)
- Interest in MEV (can explain what it is and how a DEX might be impacted by it)
Mentoring hours per week
Mentoring hours will not be fixed.
At the program’s start, expect mentoring hours to be high as we focus on exploring fundamentals. Hours will trend downward as “learn-by-doing” becomes the focus. (this is my prediction )
Work hours per week expected
Around 10-20 hours a week. These hours will be compensated. Please let me know if you want to contribute more than 20 hours per week.
I worked full-time in Web2 when I was being mentored. It is possible, but do not apply if you are unsure if you can dedicate the expected hours specified.
Duration of the program
Three/four months
Trainee contribution expected during the training program
The trainee will work closely with me, and I will be held accountable for all your work for Kwenta. The protocol contribution will include ecosystem research, smart contract development (writing and testing contracts), and internal smart contract review.
Program Compensation
4500 $USDC per month
To apply, please reply in the comments with:
- Brief description of yourself
- Why you would be a good fit for this mentorship
- Favorite DeFi protocol (excluding Kwenta and Synthetix)
- Github Link
- Timezone
- Any other relevant links (X, LinkedIn, Blog, etc.) (optional)