Blockchain systems,
built to the highest standard.
We design and ship the infrastructure serious teams run on — consensus protocols, trading systems, and on-chain products for companies like Movement Labs, Parity Technologies, and Notional. No hand-offs, no juniors — every engagement led end-to-end by a senior architect.
Built for the best in Web3
Six years shipping production infrastructure for protocol teams, trading venues, and Web3 platforms — architecture, implementation, and delivery, start to finish.
Notional
Maintain the CLOB trading system that settles and finalises trade execution on Hyperliquid. Designed and shipped a Polymarket integration to production.
Movement Labs
Architected the M2 rollup and led AptosBFT consensus from unit tests to mainnet, peaking at 3M tx/day on testnet. Built the USDCx Bridge and grew three engineering teams.
Parity Technologies
Rebuilt XCM messaging and end-to-end test systems in the polkadot-sdk. Shipped Minimal Relay, migrating state and functionality off the relay chains.
Dapper Labs
Designed and was lead contributor on CAST, an on-chain governance tool for Flow — an all-Go backend with NFT contracts written in Cadence.
Fuel Labs
Built the Fuel indexer — codegen, GraphQL APIs and dynamic Postgres instances that let developers deploy their own cross-chain EVM indexes.
Inflow Music
Architected the DeFi contracts and full-stack app end to end. Raised $1.5M, led 15 engineers, and launched on Flow through the Tachyon accelerator.
Why pay agency rates for junior developers?
You get the architect
Every protocol, exchange integration, and trading system is personally designed, reviewed, and shipped by me. No hand-offs to juniors, no offshore teams. The person you talk to is the person building your system.
Production-grade, not prototypes
I've shipped blockchain infrastructure handling millions of transactions a day — consensus protocols, bridges, and live trading systems — running under real load, with real capital at stake.
Direct, accountable, fast
One point of contact who owns the outcome. No account managers, no "I'll check with the team." Feedback in, iteration out, fast.
What we build
Protocol & Consensus Engineering
Rollups, consensus mechanisms, bridges, and validator infrastructure. Deep experience across Ethereum, Substrate, Move, and Flow.
Trading Systems & Market Infrastructure
CLOB engines, exchange integrations, settlement systems, and MEV/trading bots running against real order flow.
Smart Contracts & On-Chain Programs
Solidity, Cadence, and Move contracts for DeFi, governance, and NFTs, written to withstand adversarial conditions.
Blockchain Infrastructure & Indexing
Node infrastructure, cross-chain indexers, and GraphQL APIs that make on-chain data usable at scale.
Full-Stack Web3 Products
React and Next.js frontends wired directly to on-chain systems, with rigorous quality standards end to end.
Technical Leadership for Web3 Teams
CTO-as-a-service for blockchain and trading teams: architecture calls, hiring, and hands-on mentoring.
Senior only. Vetted by outcome.
We work with a small, trusted bench of engineers who've already shipped production blockchain and trading infrastructure elsewhere, not generalists learning on your dime. Brought in project by project, and reviewed personally before they touch your codebase.
Production-tested
Every engineer we bring in has already shipped systems that moved real capital, under real load, with real consequences for getting it wrong.
Protocol-fluent
Consensus, bridges, smart contracts, market infrastructure. Depth in blockchain and trading systems, not a portfolio of one-off gigs.
Personally reviewed
Nobody touches your codebase without their work being reviewed against the same bar we hold ourselves to.
Senior execution. Direct, hands-on, accountable.
Whether you need a protocol engineer, a trading-systems architect, or a technical co-founder for your on-chain product, here's what working together actually looks like.
Regular syncs, your cadence
Weekly or bi-weekly calls as standard. I come prepared with progress, decisions, and questions that need your input. You're never guessing where things stand.
Deeply in the code
I'm not a project manager passing briefs to a team. I'm inside every file, every commit, every architecture decision. When you want to talk technical detail, I can go there immediately.
IRL when it matters
Available for in-person sessions: whiteboarding, workshops, deep-dives. Some of the best product decisions happen in a room, not on a call. I'm up for that.
Business goals first
Tech is a means to an end. Every conversation starts with what you're trying to achieve, not what's technically interesting. The code serves your problem, not the other way around.
Rapid iteration, together
Got feedback at 11pm? I iterate fast. Direction changes, scope shifts, new ideas — they don't derail the project, they improve it.
One person accountable
No account managers. No hand-offs. No "I'll check with the team." You have one point of contact who owns the outcome. That's by design.
Richard Melkonian
I've spent the last six years designing, architecting, and shipping blockchain and trading infrastructure at the highest level of the stack. Not prototypes, not demos: real systems handling millions of transactions a day, running in the wild and standing up under pressure.
I was the second hire at Movement Labs, where I designed their M2 rollup and led the protocol team from blank page through testnet to mainnet, peaking at 3 million transactions a day. I took AptosBFT consensus from unit tests to live validator ceremonies, built the USDCx Bridge, and scaled the engineering team around me.
At Parity Technologies I worked deep in the polkadot-sdk: parachain integration, XCM messaging, FRAME pallets. At Dapper Labs I designed and built CAST, an on-chain governance tool for Flow. At Fuel Labs I built cross-chain indexer infrastructure. Every engagement: architect, implement, test, ship.
As Fractional CTO of Inflow Music I built the full stack from DeFi contracts to frontend, led a team of 15 developers, raised $1.5M, and launched on Flow. I know what it takes to go from zero to production with real users and real stakes.
I trained as a classical pianist and composer before moving into software, and that discipline shows up in how I build: rigour, iteration, and an ear for when something's off. I care about systems that hold up under pressure, code that's a pleasure to hand over, and being someone people want to work with twice.
Start a conversation
Whether you're a Web3 founder or a trading team that needs senior-level execution, let's talk.
richard@melkonian.xyz