mahmudsudo

Lagos, Nigeria · Open to remote roles

Mahmud Bello

Systems engineer, Developer Relations , Forward Deployed Engineer. I build protocols, cryptography and developer tooling in Rust.

I have spent six-plus years writing production Rust and C++, mostly on distributed systems, protocol engineering and the tools other developers depend on. I have also worked in building developer communities and in breaking down informations to developers . I work solo or in small teams, publish what I build as open source, and have led engineering and developer relations for products used by thousands of people.

blinkztyler@gmail.com · github.com/mahmudsudo · linkedin.com/in/mahmud-b-613575207 · mahmudsudo.github.io

Email me Download resume GitHub

Experience

Independent Systems Engineer · Self-employed, Lagos

Rust · distributed systems · protocols · cryptography

  • Design and ship open-source Rust infrastructure: web frameworks, reliability primitives, configuration languages, testing tools and security tooling.
  • Build a FROST threshold signature SDK on top of the Zcash Foundation's audited stack, funded by a Zcash Community Grant.
  • Take on paid protocol and open-source bounty work, including merged contributions to ZK and compiler projects (see Open source).

Chief Technology Officer · StreamLivr

Technical leadership

  • Led technical direction and a team of 10.
  • Scaled the product to 5,000+ users.

Lead Developer Relations · ICP Hub Sahara West Africa

Developer community · Internet Computer

  • Ran public conferences, hackathons and developer events for the Sahara West Africa hub.
  • Worked in depth with ICP canister architecture and the developers building on it.

Developer Relations · Microsandbox

Developer experience · sandboxing

  • Ran public events and hackathons introducing developers to microVM-based sandboxing.

Protocol and DeFi engineering · NEAR, Coronet, ZkLend

Consensus · DEX infrastructure

  • Worked on NEAR Protocol consensus.
  • Built DEX infrastructure at Coronet and ZkLend.
  • Won hackathons with ZkLend, ICP Vietnam and Mina.

Projects

  • circuit_breaker

    The circuit breaker pattern for building resilient, fault-tolerant Rust services. My most-downloaded crate, past 29,000 downloads.

    • Rust
    • reliability
    • crates.io

  • fastrs

    A FastAPI-style framework for Rust on Axum. Request validation and OpenAPI docs generated at compile time, with zero runtime overhead.

    GitHubcrates.io

    • Rust
    • Axum
    • proc macros
    • OpenAPI

  • aml_rs

    Abstract Modeling Language: a correct-by-construction configuration language. Strict types, schemas, safe defaults and native migrations, fixing YAML's "Norway problem" at the root.

    • Rust
    • parsers
    • WASM
    • MIT

  • qexpose

    Scans Bitcoin UTXO sets for quantum exposure and benchmarks post-quantum signatures. Three-crate workspace built for Galaxy Research's Bitcoin quantum readiness grant.

    • Rust
    • Bitcoin
    • post-quantum

  • agentest-rs

    A testing framework for AI agents, structured as a four-crate Rust workspace. Built for the TestMu AI grant.

    • Rust
    • AI agents
    • testing

  • FROST threshold signing SDK

    Developer-friendly threshold signatures wrapping the Zcash Foundation's audited FROST stack. Active Zcash Community Grant.

    • Rust
    • FROST
    • cryptography

More work

  • daemon_rsHigh-performance structured logging daemon with Parquet storage.
  • rate_rsUniversal rate limiting library for Rust web frameworks.
  • agenticrsResilience and observability layer for LLM and agentic workflows.
  • structura_rsAdvanced data structures behind one unified, no_std-friendly API.
  • cargomonnodemon for Rust: rebuilds and reruns your project when files change.
  • rye_rsLaravel and Phoenix-style fullstack framework with CLI scaffolding for Axum or Actix on Postgres, MySQL or SQLite.
  • social_rsReliability-focused social media connector for AI agents, with a RiskGate layer for safe actions.
  • honeA comprehension gate for AI-assisted coding, published on npm as hone-skill.

All crates: crates.io/users/mahmudsudo · All repos: github.com/mahmudsudo

Open source & grants

Contributions to other people's projects

  • Pluto Labs, Ronkathon: BLS work (PR #216), bounty-bearing and merged after full maintainer review.
  • ingonyama-zk, Blaze: contributions to a ZK proving system.
  • Paradigm, Solar and Ithacaxyz, Odyssey: compiler and tooling contributions.
  • Arrow DAO, Project Quiver: paid contributor on an open-source drone platform. Fixed simulator docs and wrote the first milestone of the Attachment Developer Guide.

Grants and competitions

  • Zcash Community Grant (active): FROST threshold signature SDK.
  • Hackathon wins across ZkLend, ICP Vietnam and Mina, including international events.
  • Security research on HackerOne as @mhsudo.

Skills

Languages
Rust and C++ (6+ years, production). Go, Elixir and Haskell. TypeScript and React when the job needs it.
Systems
Distributed systems, protocol engineering, no_std Rust, embedded work on ESP32, compilers and proc macros.
Cryptography
FROST threshold signatures, zk-SNARK proving systems, Poseidon cryptanalysis (active study), post-quantum signatures, applied Bitcoin and Ethereum protocols.
Infrastructure
AWS (EC2, Lambda), Kubernetes, PostgreSQL and MySQL administration, bare-metal operations including RAID and capacity planning.
Security
Bug bounty research, smart contract security, CompTIA PenTest+.
Developer experience
Developer relations, public speaking, hackathon organizing, technical writing, documentation.

Education & credentials

B.Tech, Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering

Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB)

Computational and Applied Mathematics

Stanford Online

Certifications

  • CompTIA PenTest+
  • Smart contract security
  • Bitcoin development

Writing

I write up the technical problems I run into, covering Rust, protocols, security and infrastructure, at mahmudsudo.hashnode.dev.

Contact

Hiring for systems, protocol , Developer Relations , FDE or infrastructure work? blinkztyler@gmail.com