Sam Blackshear
Co-founder And CTO at Mysten Labs
San Francisco, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolSam Blackshear is a Co-founder and CTO with 13 years of experience building secure, high-performance systems at the intersection of programming languages and blockchain. He created the Move language and led core VM, bytecode verifier, and standard library work that powers projects like Diem and Sui, bringing deep expertise in language design, formal safety checks, and runtime efficiency. Previously a Principal Engineer at Meta, he also contributed to Infer and other large open-source codebases, improving static analysis for C++ and hardening concurrency annotations across Android frameworks. Based in San Francisco, he combines a PhD in programming languages with hands-on backend engineering to ship production-ready protocol and smart-contract infrastructure. Notably, his contributions include subtle VM safety audits and refactors that eliminated native function vulnerabilities and strengthened transaction primitives at scale.
13 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Programming Languages, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Programming Languages at University of Colorado BoulderBA Computer Science Philosophy, BA Computer Science Philosophy at Williams College
Github Skills (41)
algorithm10
algorithms10
transaction10
transactional10
c-language10
static-analysis10
develop10
back-end-development10
annotations10
thread-safety10
abstract-interpretation10
verification10
interpreter10
data-structure10
java10
Programming languages (10)
Github contributions (5)
diem/diem
Jun 2019 - Dec 2021
Diem’s mission is to build a trusted and innovative financial network that empowers people and businesses around the world.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:719 reviews, 262 commits, 269 PRs in 2 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Sam contributed to the development of the Diem blockchain, specifically focusing on building core financial network features. Their work primarily involved refactoring existing code, replacing native functions, adding new functions, and implementing critical components like the handling of transaction fees and account creation. The user's focus was on refactoring and improving the codebase by addressing issues such as the design of authentication and building the infrastructure for new transaction types. Their work has further enhanced the network by adding the functionality for account recovery and incorporating aspects of the travel rule protocol.
diemfinancialtrustedethereumblockchain
move-language/move
Aug 2022 - Dec 2022
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:207 reviews, 46 commits, 129 PRs in 4 months
Contributions summary:Sam primarily contributed to the Move language's interpreter and bytecode verifier, focusing on enhancing the VM's security and efficiency. Their work included auditing operand stack usage, eliminating redundant code, and adding checks to prevent native function vulnerabilities. They also refactored the bytecode verifier to return errors directly and added a new module for type reflection. Furthermore, the user implemented `vector::insert` functionality within the standard library.
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