John Vernaleo
Engineer at Bloq
New York, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJohn Vernaleo is an engineer and seasoned software leader with 13 years of experience building secure, high-performance systems across Linux/BSD/OSX and ARM platforms. He blends a PhD-trained scientific background with deep hands-on expertise in Go, cryptocurrency software, and HPC—having contributed core JSON-RPC and wallet stability improvements to prominent open-source Bitcoin projects like btcd and btcwallet. As a remote-first engineering leader now at Bloq and Hemi Labs, he has overseen blockchain product development, release management, and cross-team coordination while shipping production-grade daemons, wallets, and mining software. His work emphasizes portability, secure programming, and data visualization, informed by earlier scientific programming for NASA and astrophysics research. A UNIX enthusiast and accidental long-time cryptocurrency developer, he pairs rigorous engineering discipline with eclectic interests—from homebrewing to punk and sci‑fi—that fuel creative problem solving.
13 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
Ph.D. Astronomy, Ph.D. Astronomy at University of MarylandBS Physics and Astronomy, BS Physics and Astronomy at University of Rochester
Stackoverflow
235reputation
7kreached
3answers
2questions
Github Skills (25)
json-rpc10
application-framework10
json10
webapp-framework10
web-application10
apidoc10
bitcoin10
bitcoins10
go10
api10
webapp10
revel10
web-framework10
error-handling10
blockchain9
Programming languages (21)
Github contributions (5)
btcsuite/btcd
Aug 2013 - May 2021
An alternative full node bitcoin implementation written in Go (golang)
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:2 releases, 146 reviews, 28 commits in 7 years 10 months
Contributions summary:John primarily contributed to the `btcsuite/btcd` repository by implementing and testing the JSON RPC API for the bitcoin daemon. Their work included the initial implementation of core JSON RPC message structures, as well as the creation of functions to handle JSON marshalling and sending. The user also added functionality to validate ID types and correctly handle the conversion of floating-point numbers to integers, essential for handling monetary values within the bitcoin ecosystem.
golangfull-nodebitcoin-nodebtcdcryptocurrency
btcsuite/btcwallet
Oct 2013 - Nov 2019
A secure bitcoin wallet daemon written in Go (golang)
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:2 reviews, 11 commits, 9 PRs in 6 years 1 month
Contributions summary:John primarily focused on refactoring and improving the `btcwallet` codebase. Their contributions involved moving JSON error handling to the `btcjson` package, which improved code organization and error management. They also addressed compilation issues and implemented checks to prevent potential panics, thus enhancing the overall stability and maintainability of the wallet daemon. Furthermore, the user updated the RPC server to align with industry standards.
golangsecuredaemonwalletbitcoin
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