About me

I am a computer scientist with an interest in distributed systems and applied cryptography, more specifically in secure and dependable consensus protocols, blockchains, and distributed computing. Since 2024, I have been a researcher at the University of Salerno (IT), working on privacy-aware cryptographic protocols for blockchain applications, with Prof. Ivan Visconti. I am also a visiting researcher at the University of Southampton (UK) focused on blockchain testing and smart contract formal verification.

I received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2022 from the University of Southampton, supported by the Cyber Security Accademy and supervised by Prof. Vladimiro Sassone. I also got a M.Sc. in Engineering of Computer Science awarded (cum laude) in 2018, from “La Sapienza” University of Rome (IT).

My primary Ph.D. research focus was about benchmarking procedures and methodologies to assess security and performance tradeoffs in modern blockchain systems and consensus protocols. As part of my Ph.D. journey, in 2018 I had the privilege to work at the NATO Office of Security in Bruxelles (BE) as a security researcher.

Experience

After the PhD, I held a Postdoc position at the Cyber Security Group of the University of Southampton working on blockchain-based secure data sharing for Cyber Threat Intelligence. This research was carried out as part of the H2020 EU project CyberKit4SME.

From 2022 to 2024 I joined Prof. Silvio Micali at Algorand as an Applied Scientist and Solution Architect. I worked on several projects including the prototyping of the Algorand CoChains (sidechains), and the architecture of decentralised applications in the financial sector.

Additionally, since 2021, I have been a board member and advisor for LayerZero Analytics LTD, where I co-authored two successful grant applications received from the SSV Network and the Coreum Network.

Awards and Grants

• International Thesis Scholarship, 2017, “La Sapienza” University of Rome, competitive research grant
• International Post-degree Scholarship, 2018-2019, “La Sapienza” University of Rome and University of Southampton, competitive research grant
• Best PhD Research Award, 2019, Università degli Studi di Padova (IT), Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies Security School