Rikard Hjort
Security Researcher at Decidable
Sweden
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolRikard Hjort is a security researcher and formal methods practitioner with 11 years of experience focused on blockchain and smart contract security, currently working at Spearbit Labs while leading R&D through his company Decidable. He combines a summa cum laude Computer Science background from Chalmers and hands-on Solidity work with deep expertise in WebAssembly semantics and formal verification from multiple roles at Runtime Verification. Rikard has contributed to well-known open-source projects—from improving Bitcoin SegWit handling in the privacy-focused Rotki app to backend work on the verified CakeML compiler—bringing rigorous testing and traceable compiler transformations to production code. He advises on blockchain adoption and business development, emphasizing open, permissionless systems like Ethereum and Bitcoin and practical security trade-offs. Comfortable switching between low-level formal models and pragmatic engineering, he often bridges academic verification techniques with deployable tooling for blockchain ecosystems. A less obvious strength is his background in education and communication, which he leverages to demystify formal methods for non-technical stakeholders.
11 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
University of TokyoHigh School Natural Sciences, High School Natural Sciences at KitasEngineer's Degree Computer Software Engineering, Engineer's Degree Computer Software Engineering at Chalmers University of TechnologyEthnic Cultural Minority Gender and Group Studies, Ethnic Cultural Minority Gender and Group Studies at University of Gothenburg
English, Swedish, German, Japanese
Stackoverflow
53reputation
4kreached
2answers
2questions
Github Skills (26)
python10
testing10
sml10
bitcoin10
bitcoins10
cryptocurrencies10
compiler-construction10
blockchain10
programming-language9
unit-testing9
formal-verification9
base588
json7
analytics7
accounting7
Programming languages (20)
Github contributions (5)
CakeML/cakeml
Feb 2017 - Sep 2017
CakeML: A Verified Implementation of ML
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:60 commits, 5 PRs, 1 branch in 7 months
Contributions summary:Rikard's primary focus was on implementing and refactoring the compiler's backend, specifically within the `compiler/backend` directory. Their work involved creating and modifying data types, such as `tra`, and functions for converting between intermediate languages like modLang, conLang, decLang, exhLang, and patLang. Key contributions included adding tracing features for debugging and analysis, modifying the JSON output, and adapting the code to incorporate new concepts like presLang and de Bruijn indices.
smlverifiedtheorem-provingsatformal-verification
rotki/rotki
Mar 2020 - Mar 2020
A portfolio tracking, analytics, accounting and management application that protects your privacy
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & QA Engineer
Back-end Developer & QA EngineerContributions:15 commits, 1 PR, 34 comments in 3 days
Contributions summary:Rikard primarily focused on enhancing Bitcoin address handling within the Rotki application, particularly related to SegWit (Bech32) addresses. Their contributions involved implementing validation logic, fixing address-related bugs, and integrating the retrieval of balance information. They also added extensive unit tests to verify the correctness of the Bitcoin address validation functionality and ensure proper behavior. Furthermore, the user updated the project's changelog to reflect the new features and bug fixes.
accountinganalyticsreportingprivacyethereum
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