About

Hi, welcome to my webpage.

I do research in distributed systems and threshold cryptography. I like solving problems and building practical systems.

I obtained my PhD at the Crypto group of the University of Bern, where I had the privilege to be advised by Prof. Christian Cachin. My PhD thesis was on Distributed Protocols with Threshold and General Trust Assumptions.

During my PhD I completed two internships. The first was with IBM Research in Zurich, where I collaborated with Marko Vukolić, now at Protocols Labs, Matej Pavlovic, now at Protocol Labs, and Chrysoula Stathakopoulou, now at Chainlink Labs. We explored the scalability of consensus protocols in large, wide-area deployments, and coded in Golang. The second internship was at DFNS, where I collaborated, among others, with Jonathan Katz. We worked on threshold ECDSA protocols and coded in Rust.

I enjoy collaborating with other researchers. During my PhD I collaborated with Luca Zanolini, now at Ethereum Foundation, on topics including consensus protocols, general and asymmetric trust assumptions, and composition of distributed systems. Moreover, with Duc V. Le, staff research scientist at VISA Research, we worked on polynomial commitments and digital signatures. With Giorgia Azzurra Marson from NEC Laboratories Europe we explored foundational properties of smart contracts. At the same time, I (co-)supervised 3 MSc and 9 BSc student theses on topics related to cryptography and blockchains, and (sub-)reviewed multiple academic papers.

In September 2022 I visited the crypto group at the Aarhus University. With Simon Holmgaard Kamp and Jesper Buus Nielsen we developed an asynchronous consensus protocol for proof-of-stake blockchains.

Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked for two years as a software engineer in the sector of financial technology. Employed by Entersoft, I learned to appreciate clean and qualitative code, design patterns, and clean architecture.

I obtained my BSc and MSc in computer science from the school of Electrical and Computer Engineering at National Technical University of Athens. My specialization included computing systems, software, computer networks, and mathematics. My master thesis was on network security with deep learning methods at Netmode Lab.

Concerning hobbitshobbies, I possess a skipper’s license and in summer I delight in sailing the Mediterranean. In winter I watch the Lord of the Rings, or learn to play the violin. On a more refreshing side, I sometimes brew tasty beers. Cheers, and feel free to get in touch with me.

” Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα.”
Σωκράτης
“I know one thing, that I know nothing.”
Socrates