Product Executive · Hacker · Crypto Native

I build things that shouldn't exist yet.

I'm a product leader with an engineering and design background, working in crypto and distributed systems since 2016, previously Head of Product at stakefish and Product Manager at Brave. In the last eight months I've also built IronCarapace, an autonomous code-verification pipeline, and p2p-studio, a Rust-native p2p web platform. Think Electron for self-sovereign apps without using Chromium. I don't wait for the environment to be favorable before I start building.

Get in touch See the work

My career, a story in three parts

01
2016 – 2020
The crypto foundation

Joined Brave as employee #21, built the user research practice from scratch, and drove the insights behind Brave Ads, now in 180+ countries. Managed the referral program that drove Brave through 10M MAU. Learned what it means to build with privacy as a first-class constraint, not an afterthought.

02
2021 – 2024
Building and leading product orgs

Took the Head of Product seat at stakefish: $1.6B AUM, 50+ person org across four countries. Then WRST Collabs and Airfoil: hiring, roadmaps, design culture, and representing companies in front of customers, investors, and industry audiences.

03
Now
Building at the frontier

Pushing the boundaries of AI software factories and self-sovereign infrastructure to manifest the tech future I want to see in the world. IronCarapace enforces rigorous verification on every line of AI-generated code. p2p-studio gives users an un-cloud platform that routes around the infrastructure chokepoints that shouldn't exist.

Leading Product

Three companies, three different kinds of ownership: client strategy, distributed-team leadership, and 0→1 building.

Airfoil, Head of Product, Crypto

2023 – Present

Lead product across client engagements for a global product and design studio, including work for a leading DEX protocol and multiple Layer 1 networks. Run Airfoil Labs' internal R&D, advise on technical direction, and represent the company at industry conferences.

stakefish, Head of Product

2021 – 2022

Led product for a company managing $1.6B in staked assets across 24+ proof-of-stake networks. Managed a geographically distributed team across Russia, Belarus, Seattle, and India within a 50+ person org, delivered the company's first roadmaps and quarterly financial estimates, started weekly design huddles, and drove the team's migration to Figma. Shipped one of the first sub-32ETH staking products, built the analytics system used for post-release success measurement, delivered accessibility improvements, and launched specialized properties including dogecoin.org. Presented on staking and client diversity at ETHDenver 2022.

WRST Collabs, Director of Product, Web3

2022 – 2023

Led a 7-person product subdivision within a ~100-person org. Opened the first permanent NFT gallery in Texas and hosted public presentations there during crypto events, representing the company in front of industry audiences. Presented product direction to the full executive team and company regularly. Led product and technical direction across client engagements, owned hiring, and mentored the product team.

Advising

Crypto Research and Design Lab (CRADL), World Economic Forum / CISA

CRADL was a WEF initiative under the Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator, focused on humanity-centric Web3, data ownership, and equity in decentralized technologies. Co-founded with tech strategist Tricia Wang and Lauren Serota.

a41, Proof-of-Stake Infrastructure

Advisor to a41, a leading proof-of-stake validator and staking infrastructure firm.

Speaking

Solo talks, moderated panels, and conference appearances across major crypto venues.

AI in Design, BUIDL Europe 2025
Solo Talk
AI in Design: Exploring the Impact of AI Across the Design Process
BUIDL Europe · 2025
Chain Expansion & Liquidity Fragmentation, Abstract Summit 2024
Moderator
Chain Expansion & Liquidity Fragmentation
Abstract Summit · Token2049 Singapore · 2024
Chain Abstraction, Abstract Summit 2024
Moderator
Chain Abstraction
Abstract Summit · Token2049 Singapore · 2024
Should everyone solo-stake?, Token2049 Singapore 2024
Moderator
Tranchess v Nethermind: Should Everyone Solo-Stake?
Token2049 Singapore · 2024
Intent-Based Technology, Epoch Singapore 2024
Panelist
Enhancing User Experience with Intent-Based Technology
Epoch Singapore · Token2049 · 2024
Ethereum Staking, ETHDenver 2022
Conference Talk
Ethereum Staking Services: Increasing Access While Keeping Stake Decentralized
ETHDenver · 2022
ETH2 Forensics, stakefish FishTalk
Company Talk
ETH2 Forensics & Analysis
stakefish FishTalk · 2021
Currently building

I'm perpetually curious about what bleeding-edge technology can actually do, and the only way to build real intuition is to get hands-on before anyone's written the playbook. These are the two I'm deepest in right now.

Active, 2025–present

IronCarapace

Verification-Driven Development for AI-generated code. A pipeline that enforces correctness before a line of generated code is merged.

Six months in I realized that the hard problem with AI-generated code isn't generation speed; it's trust. IronCarapace solves that with a formal pipeline: spec → human approval → TDD red-phase enforcement → six binary gates → adversarial attack on the spec itself → merge request.

Gatekeeper: state machine enforcing spec-first discipline across multi-agent task queues
≥85% mutation kill rate required as a hard gate; empirical complexity verified via log-log regression
Adversarial layer deletes interfaces, weakens postconditions, merges APIs, finds decorative specs before they reach production
Self-hosted, commercially licensed (FlexLM-style), runs inside Podman containers
Repo: [add link or status]
Active, 2025–present

p2p-studio

A Rust-native platform for networks that exist outside the clearnet. Servo rendering engine. No Chromium.

Every browser you use runs Blink. p2p-studio runs Servo, Mozilla's experimental Rust layout engine. The distinguishing feature isn't the engine; it's what lives underneath: a full I2P router (not a proxy plugin), an embedded AT Protocol PDS, and native Hyperdrive and IPFS over I2P.

dc-i2p-router: full SSU2 + NTCP2 I2P implementation, forked from Emissary, internally reviewed for security issues (15 findings resolved)
Uses Aurora Locus PDS: 30+ module AT Protocol Personal Data Server embedded in the binary
One address bar for hyper://, ipfs://, *.b32.i2p, at://, magnet:, https://
Clearnet is optional: allow_clearnet = false routes everything through I2P
Repo: [add link or status]
Also building

Polyglot Porting System

A language-agnostic code translation pipeline that ports implementations across Rust, Python, Go, TypeScript, and others, preserving behavior, idioms, and test coverage, not just syntax.

Languages
Rust Python Go TypeScript C++
Shipped

dance.malldao.xyz

A full JavaScript port of pydance, with AT Protocol user auth, enhancements include WebTorrent support for user-supplied dance files, p2p dance-off mode, and a hidden konami code!

Technologies
AT Protocol Cloudflare Workers WebTorrent WebSocket Phaser
Background

Brave Software

Joined as employee #21 in 2016; promoted twice as Brave grew to 125+ employees. Started as Brave's first User Researcher, driving the insights behind Brave Ads, now live in every non-embargoed country on Earth. Moved into Product Manager, shipping the peer-to-peer referral program that drove Brave past 10M monthly active users in the early growth phase, a trajectory that has since compounded to 100M+. Also delivered the rate-card program that saved over $2M in a single quarter while sustaining user growth.

Also launched the web compatibility reporter and created community.brave.com, growing it from zero to over 500,000 monthly views during my time there.

10M+ MAUs driven by peer-to-peer referral program (now 100M+)
$2M+ saved in a single quarter via rate-card program
180+ countries where Brave Rewards operates
0 → 500k community.brave.com monthly views, built from scratch
2020

Distributed Camp

A three-day virtual event on the future of the internet: speakers, workshops, and an unconference covering the protocols that would matter most.

IPFS Hypercore WebTorrent I2P Beaker Browser

Five years later, these are exactly the protocols running inside p2p-studio. I was building toward this before I had a codebase to build it in.

What colleagues say

Three people who watched the Brave Rewards work happen up close.

Alex comes from a quality and UX research background that gives him ample understanding of how to think, build, measure, and kill ideas and product concepts. Alex is fast to think, fast to adapt, and put weight behind early success of ideas if they sustain. He was instrumental in building our rate card changes globally for a multi-million dollar program that saved Brave upwards of $2M within a quarter. He also was the primary driver of building the peer-to-peer referral program on the browser allowing WOM users to earn to refer folks, all of this in a privacy-preserving way. In general, Alex's understanding of technical views, research gathering, data analytics, quality thinking, consumer feel, visualization, security, product management cycles, and foundational management are solid. I would recommend Alex very strongly.
Mandar Shinde
Mandar Shinde VP of Product, Brave Software
Working with Alex while at Brave Software was great. He is the perfect person to be working with among the chaos of a startup. He is a consistently good communicator, a level-headed thinker, and has a clarity of product vision that helps keep the team on-track to success.
Garvan Keely
Garvan Keely Lead iOS Software Engineer, Brave
Alex is a thoughtful, organized, and passionate leader. He was able to completely change the philosophy of development and quality on our team to help us build better projects in less time. He is a great communicator and was able to break down complex and ambiguous projects into clear tasks and is always super cool under fire.
Molly Thurin
Molly Thurin Software Engineer, Spiceworks

Let's talk.

I'm interested in head of product, CPO/CPTO, or founding product roles where the work is technically ambitious and the team moves fast. Also always happy to talk about crypto, P2P protocols, or autonomous agent systems.