Wei Dai
Research Partner at 1kx
San Diego, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolWei Dai is a research partner at 1kx specializing in crypto research and investment, with a decade of experience bridging deep cryptography and startup diligence. He holds a PhD in Cryptography from UC San Diego and advanced degrees in CS and Math from UC Santa Barbara, grounding his work in rigorous theory and applied protocol design. Prior roles at Bain Capital Crypto, Heliax, NTT Research, and Visa show a track record of sourcing, evaluating, and technically supporting blockchain projects, particularly in zero-knowledge proofs and circuit implementation. Wei combines hands-on cryptographic engineering—designing ZK circuits and intermediate representations—with investor-facing diligence, making him fluent in both code and capital. Based in San Diego, he brings a researcher’s curiosity to venture: evaluating subtle protocol trade-offs that most investors miss. His background suggests he’s as comfortable proving theorems as he is advising founders on productizing advanced cryptography.
10 years of coding experience
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Cryptography, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Cryptography at UC San Diego Jacobs School of EngineeringMaster of Science - MS Computer Science, Master of Science - MS Computer Science at UC Santa BarbaraBachelor of Science - BS Mathematics and Computer Science, Bachelor of Science - BS Mathematics and Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies
Github Skills (24)
language-agnostic9
directories9
blockchain9
zkp8
react8
cryptography8
visualization8
command-line-tool6
data-visualization6
backend6
cli6
autojump5
command-line5
ls4
posix4
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
clvv/dotfiles
Apr 2019 - Dec 2022
Contributions:33 commits, 48 pushes, 2 branches in 3 years 8 months
clvv/rcc
Jul 2023 - Sep 2023
Contributions:10 reviews, 5 PRs, 44 pushes in 2 months
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