Illya Gerasymchuk | Financial & Software Engineer

Hello,

I’m Illya Gerasymchuk — a financial and software engineer focused on full-stack development of consumer and financial software. I work across quantitative modeling/ML, financial market microstructure, cryptographic protocol design and implementation (DeFi, smart contracts, Zero-Knowledge Proofs), agentic AI systems and traditional consumer software. My open-source contributions include the IETF TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) and DTLS 1.3 specifications, zkLocus protocol, over 100 projects on GitHub, and published work on law, computer security, and financial markets.

You can contact me at hello@illya.sh

Recent Open Source:

zkLocusAuthenticated, private and programmable geolocation on-chain using ZKP.
zkSafeZonesCivilian protection in conflict areas using Mina Protocol + ZKP.
Random Forest Cat MLMulti-modal machine learning trading model factory framework with a DSL defining dollar-bar pipelines, feature engineering, random forest meta-model, parameter optimization, backtests, and live-paper execution.
Domain Finder MCPMCP server for LLM-led avaialbe domain name ideation using DNS-only availability checks, no API keys, and support for TLD and length constraints. Tailored for finding avaialbe domain names for projects using natural language.
Mina Foundation GovBotOn-chain governance tooling for community voting.

My Writings:

I write actively at illya.sh/threads. Below are some of my articles:

Academia:

Master's in Law & Financial Markets Currently pursuing MSc Thesis: Tokenised ELTIF 2.0 - Designing a Compliant On-Chain Register and Transfer-Matching System (Ethereum) under the EU ELTIF RTS
Master's in Software Engineering & Distributed Systems Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon MSc Thesis: Transport Layer Security For Internet of Things
Bachelor's in Software & Computer Engineering Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon

Contributions:

Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 RFC 8446 Contributor to the IETF TLS 1.3 and DTLS 1.3 specifications.
CVE-2018-1000520 Discovered vulnerability in ARM mbedTLS which allowed for incorrectly signed certificates to be accepted as valid.
Python Software Foundation Contributing member at PSF.

Links:

GitHub > github.com/iluxonchik My open-source portfolio of 120+ projects in over 20 programming languages.
My Threads > illya.sh/threads Longer-form finance, macro, and engineering thread articles with ongoing updates.
My Thoughts > illya.sh/thoughts Shorter-form timeline of my writings on finance, macro and engineering.
My Blog > illya.sh/blog Structured articles index with tags and archive for writing on engineering, privacy, law, and markets.
Twitter/X > x.com/illyaGera Public social feed for concise commentary and real-time updates.
zkLocus > zklocus.dev Private and programmable geolocation proofs using recursive zkSNARKs, on-chain or off-chain.
CV/Resume > illya.sh/cv-resume Detailed CV with core competencies, professional experience, and academic record.