Nikita K.Private profile: Upwork shows its earnings only to signed-in members, so we check it every few weeks, not daily. MRR here is a rough estimate (Upwork's six-month earnings ÷ months active). Last read Nov 5, 2026.

Senior core blockchain engineer specializing in Go, distributed systems, consensus protocols, and production infrastructure. I have worked with Go since 2016 and blockchain technology since 2017, primarily on production-grade open-source systems. At SSV Labs, I work on the core Go implementation behind SSV Network—the second-largest Ethereum staking infrastructure network by active stake, with nearly 80,000 validators and an all-time-high TVL of $17.8B. I have contributed from pre-mainnet development through mainnet launch and ongoing production operation. Selected contributions: - Implemented protocol changes across the SSV specification and production node, including QBFT consensus, MEV support, protocol forks, and majority-fork protection. - Built the node’s message-validation subsystem and redesigned its signer-state model, reducing theoretical worst-case memory usage for 50,000 validators from approximately 12 GB to 250 MB. - Implemented Aggregator Committee support and validator voluntary exits end to end. - Diagnosed production issues across validator duties, networking, and Ethereum client integrations. Previously, I worked on consensus and beacon infrastructure at Spacemesh and on P2P networking, transports, NAT traversal, and routing for Skywire at Skycoin. Earlier Upwork projects included cryptocurrency mining pools, e-wallet and trading backends, Go document libraries, and ARM64 performance optimization. Core expertise: Go, distributed systems, blockchain protocols, consensus, Ethereum validator infrastructure, P2P networking, performance, security, reliability, observability, SQL, and protocol storage. I am most effective on complex systems where correctness, performance, and reliability are critical.