Gregory Maxwell
Software Engineer at Xiph.org Foundation
Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
Summary
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RockstarGregory Maxwell is a seasoned software engineer with 24 years of experience specializing in backend systems and security engineering, based in Hoboken, NJ. He is a prolific open-source contributor to major cryptocurrency projects—Bitcoin Core, Zcash, Litecoin, Dogecoin and the secp256k1 library—where he focused on hardening RPC interfaces, preventing DoS and overflow bugs, and improving wallet and network robustness. His work often targets subtle, high-impact vulnerabilities (constant-time crypto fixes, secret scrubbing, and transaction-malleability mitigations) that make distributed financial systems safer in production. Though once a visible Bitcoin developer, he now contributes selectively and brings a pragmatic, defense-in-depth mindset to complex protocol engineering.
24 years of coding experience
Github Skills (55)
wallet10
debug10
c-language10
ropc10
back-end-development10
it-security10
drpc10
memory-management10
bitcoin10
distributed-systems10
bitcoins10
c1110
networking10
network-programming10
c1710
Programming languages (17)
Github contributions (5)
bitcoin-core/secp256k1
Aug 2014 - May 2021
Optimized C library for EC operations on curve secp256k1
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:31 reviews, 141 commits, 121 PRs in 6 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Gregory made several code changes to the `secp256k1` library, focusing on memory management and security. They introduced functions to prevent the leakage of secret data, ensuring the correct handling of private keys. Their work included refactoring the code to clear memory and avoid potential vulnerabilities, which would affect the security and performance of the library. The user's edits touched core files, indicating a deep understanding of the library's internal operations and a commitment to improving its security.
base58bytec-libraryecdhecdsa
bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt
Apr 2015 - May 2017
Bitcoin XT. Most recent release is K.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:11 commits, 8 comments in 2 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Gregory primarily contributed to the Bitcoin XT project by implementing and optimizing network-related functionalities. Their work focused on improving resource management, addressing potential vulnerabilities, and enhancing the efficiency of peer-to-peer communication. These improvements included limiting the number of `getaddr` responses, preventing the addition of random inbound peers, and optimizing the handling of connection attempts. The user also fixed an OpenSSL 1.1 API issue, and removed legacy code.
bitcoin-xtbitcoin
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