Niklas Long
Senior Protocol Engineer at Provable
Switzerland
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolNiklas Long is a Senior Protocol Engineer with a decade of experience building reliable distributed systems, privacy-focused software, and open-source infrastructure. He has driven core protocol work at projects like snarkOS (a decentralized OS for ZK applications) and was an Aleo core developer who reverse-engineered Zcash to surface critical consensus bugs. Comfortable across Rust, Elixir and backend systems, he has repeatedly improved stability and maintainability—from RPC and block sync to IPFS benchmarks and JSON tooling. Niklas pairs hands-on development with technical leadership, having scaled engineering teams, led hiring and due diligence for a €30M fund, and worked closely with C-level executives. Bilingual and Switzerland-based, he balances field-tested leadership from Swiss Armed Forces missions with polished technical communication demonstrated in well-received blog posts and community talks. An eclectic background that includes classical piano and life sciences training underpins his methodical, interdisciplinary approach to engineering.
10 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Web Development, Web Development at EpicodusMedecine, Medecine at University of LausanneSwiss Baccalaureat, applied mathematics and physics, Swiss Baccalaureat, applied mathematics and physics at Gymnase de MorgesLife Sciences Engineering, Life Sciences Engineering at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)Certificat AVCEM—classical piano, recieved highest grade with the Jury's congratulations, Certificat AVCEM—classical piano, recieved highest grade with the Jury's congratulations at Conservatoire de Lausanne
English, French, German, Danish
Github Skills (17)
json10
elixir10
testing10
ipfs10
github-api10
network-protocol10
blockchain10
rust10
documentation10
libp2p9
httpoison9
cryptography9
api8
decentralization8
configuration-management8
Programming languages (10)
Github contributions (5)
ProvableHQ/snarkOS
Dec 2020 - Dec 2022
A Decentralized Operating System for ZK Applications
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:632 reviews, 716 commits, 292 PRs in 2 years
Contributions summary:Niklas primarily contributed to the back-end infrastructure and core logic of the snarkOS project. Their work involved fixing compiler errors, refactoring code, and implementing new features to improve the project's stability and performance. These changes were spread across various areas of the project, including the RPC server, network communication, and block synchronization, indicating a broad understanding of the project's architecture and functionality. The contributions show a focus on enhancing the project's reliability, maintainability, and scalability.
cryptographyrustoperating-systemblockchainzero-knowledge
rs-ipfs/rust-ipfs
Oct 2020 - Nov 2020
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), implemented in Rust.
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:14 reviews, 54 commits, 13 PRs in 1 month
Contributions summary:Niklas primarily contributed documentation updates and bug fixes within the Rust-based IPFS implementation. Their work involved adding and correcting documentation for various structs and methods, including `IpfsPath`, `MultiaddrWithPeerId`, and `Swarm`. Additionally, the user added and refined benchmark tests for the `unixfs` module, including a benchmark for FileAdder. They also addressed configuration issues related to the HTTP interface, including profile selection and the use of `Multiaddr`.
ipfsipldrust-ipfsrustp2p
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