Karim Stekelenburg
Co-Founder & Software Engineer At Animo Solutions
Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKarim Stekelenburg is a Co-Founder and software engineer with a decade of experience building backend-first products and decentralized identity tooling from Utrecht. At Animo Solutions he blends startup leadership with hands-on development, drawing on earlier backend roles at XEL and a blockchain internship that moved from Ethereum prototypes to Hyperledger implementations. Karim is an active open-source contributor in the decentralized identity space, notably enhancing the credo-ts TypeScript framework and adding linked-data proof and Ed25519Signature2018 support to the ACA-Py project. He focuses on practical interoperability—refactoring for legacy prefixes, improving Redux stores, and extending DIDComm message handling—so systems remain compatible as standards evolve. Trained in software engineering and electrical technologies, he brings both systems-level thinking and applied cryptographic integration to product development.
10 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science - BS, Software Engineering, Bachelor of Science - BS, Software Engineering at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Hogeschool Utrecht)Hogeschool TIO UTRECHTElectrical Engineering Technologies/Technicians, Electrical Engineering Technologies/Technicians at Hogeschool Utrecht
English, German, Dutch
Github Skills (11)
json-ld10
typescript10
decentralized-identity10
typescripts10
verifiable-credentials10
python10
typescript-types10
react-native9
hyperledger-indy9
react-native-component9
redux8
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
openwallet-foundation/credo-ts
Jan 2021 - Jan 2023
Typescript framework for building decentralized identity and verifiable credential solutions
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:157 reviews, 21 commits, 57 PRs in 2 years
Contributions summary:Karim primarily contributed to the `credo-ts` framework by implementing and refining core functionalities. They addressed event-related issues within the CredentialsModule and ConnectionService, enhancing their capabilities. Furthermore, the user refactored code to support legacy prefixes in various modules, including the presentation and credential preview, demonstrating a focus on maintaining API compatibility. Additional contributions involved Redux store enhancements and the addition of new methods to DidCommMessageRepository.
decentralized-identifiersidpverifiable-credentialshyperledger-ariesjavascript
openwallet-foundation/acapy
Feb 2021 - Mar 2021
ACA-Py is a foundation for building decentralized identity applications and services running in non-mobile environments.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:5 commits, 1 comment, 1 issue in 14 days
Contributions summary:Karim Stekelenburg contributed significantly to the `acapy` repository by implementing linked data proofs and verifiable credentials functionality. They added support for the Ed25519Signature2018 signature suite. They introduced new classes and methods for signing, verifying, and managing linked data proofs, including the integration of various proof purposes, document loaders, and JSON-LD processing. These changes indicate a focus on enabling verifiable credential management within the Aries Cloud Agent Python framework.
pythonvonethereumdecentralizedverifiable-credentials
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