work.html

---
layout: default
title: Work I'm Doing
---
<div id="research">
    <h2>Research</h2>
    <p>While it would be very hard to find a topic I'm <em>not</em> interested in, I'm currently focusing on a few key areas:</p>

    <h3>Ethereum Virtual Machine</h3>
    <ul>
        <li>What does a <em>minimal</em> implementation of the EVM look like?</li>
        <li>What tooling would the current ecosystem benefit from?</li>
        <li>How will the EVM have to change for Eth2?</li>
    </ul>
    <h3>Smart Contract Development</h3>
    <ul>
        <li>Learning how to use <a href="https://dapp.tools" target="_blank" title="dapp.tools">Dapp Tools</a></li>
        <li>Automating various Hardhat tasks and seeing if this has any value to the broader community</li>
        <li>Could existing tools be repackaged in a lightweight, Unix-like way to include even more utilities? (e.g., decompiler, debugger, profilers, etc.)</li>
    </ul>
    <h3>Zero Knowledge Cryptography</h3>
    <ul>
        <li>How do zk-SNARKs work?</li>
        <li>What tools are needed to make zk-SNARKs more accessible?</li>
        <li>What new applications could zk-SNARKs enable?</li>
    </ul>
</div>
<div id="contributions">
    <h2>Contributions</h2>

    <p>I enjoy contributing to various open source projects and firmly believe it's the best way to learn and interact with the community. Here are some of the projects I've been focusing on lately:</p>

    <h3>OpenEthereum</h3>
    <p><a href="https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum" target="_blank" title="openethereum/openethereum: The fast, light, and robust client for the Ethereum mainnet.">OpenEthereum</a> is an Ethereum client implementation in pure Rust.</p>

    <h3>Lighthouse</h3>
    <p><a href="https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse" target="_blank" title="sigp/lighthouse: Rust Ethereum 2.0 Client">Lighthouse</a> is an Eth2 client implementation in pure Rust.</p>
</div>
<div id="skills">
    <h2>Skills</h2>
    <ul>
        <li>Learn Haskell</li>
        <li>Learn more about programming language theory</li>
        <li>Learn chess</li>
    </ul>
</div>
<div id="projects">
    <h2>Projects</h2>
    <p>While my GitHub profile is likely a better depiction of my project work, here are some:</p>

    <h3>Rainyday</h3>
    <p><a href="https://github.com/jmcph4/rainyday" target="_blank" title="jmcph4/rainyday: A minimalist BitTorrent client respecting the Unix philosophy">Rainyday</a> is a BitTorrent client that respects the Unix philosophy and is written in pure Rust. It places great emphasis on specification correctness and security.</p>
</div>