Protocol Engineer, Moca Network

About Moca Network

Moca Network, one of Animoca Brands' flagship projects, is building the chain-agnostic digital identity infrastructure for the open internet by providing one universal account for a user's assets, identity, and reputation across multiple ecosystems. The primary product built by Moca Network is AIR Kit, a digital identity infrastructure that enables Web2 and Web3 projects to create a universal embedded account for users to own and use digital assets, identity, and reputation data, while gaining access to a suite of DeFi and consumer services provided by Moca Network's partners. AIR Kit empowers large user base apps to create their own app ecosystem natively with embedded blockchain features, while ensuring these users can use the same account, identity, reputation across all consumer apps on any chains that have adopted AIR Kit.

We’re hiring a Protocol Engineer to design, implement, and operate the core software of the Moca Chain—focusing on reliability, performance, and the identity‑specific features of our L1. You’ll work on client/runtime components, networking, cross‑chain identity flows, and ZK integrations that enable private verification at scale.

You’ll partner with protocol researchers, ZK engineers, and infra/DevOps to run testnets, ship upgrades, and launch features like zkTLS proofs, verifiable credential issuance/verification, and our identity oracle.

Responsibilities:

• Build features in the node/client: execution/runtime, mempool, sync, and networking.
• Implement identity‑centric primitives (credential issuance/verification hooks, precompiles/syscalls as needed).
• Optimize state I/O, snapshots, pruning, and fast/warp sync; improve RPC throughput and p95 latency.
• Integrate zero‑knowledge proof verification in‑protocol (e.g., verifier circuits, precompiles).
• Support zkTLS proof ingestion and verification for web‑origin attestations.
• Contribute to the chain‑agnostic identity oracle: message formats, replay/order protection, finality handling.
• Build/maintain light‑client/optimistic verification paths or integrate with ecosystem standards (e.g., IBC/ICS, L1↔L2 messengers) as appropriate.
• Design robust relayer and operator tooling with clear incentives and observability.
• Engineer decentralized data storage integration for reusable, privacy‑preserved credentials.
• Tune RocksDB/LevelDB (or equivalent) and state commitment schemes for high throughput identity verification.
• Stand up and operate public/private testnets; plan releases and canary rollouts.
• Add metrics/logs/traces; build dashboards and alerts; respond to incidents and write clear postmortems.
• Expand test coverage: unit/integration, fuzzing, and differential tests across client versions.

Requirements:

• Strong systems engineering in Go or Rust (or similar); solid concurrency/async, profiling, and performance tuning skills.
• Experience building backend or protocol-adjacent infrastructure that runs in production.
• Practical familiarity with blockchain client internals (any of: EVM/WASM runtime, Cosmos SDK/Substrate modules, or rollup nodes).
• Comfortable with Web3 interfaces and ops: RPCs (JSON-RPC/gRPC), node configuration, validator/sequencer operations, snapshots/state sync.
• Sound engineering practices: testing, code reviews, CI/CD, reproducible builds, and clear documentation.
• Security mindset: input validation, DoS/eclipse awareness, rate-limiting, key management basics.

Nice-to-haves:

• Zero-knowledge integration experience (using/verifying proofs, e.g., PLONK/Groth16/FRI) or prior work on verifier precompiles.
• Exposure to identity/credentials standards (VCs/VPs), replay protection, nonce/sequence management, and capability/permissions models.
• Cross-chain experience: light clients, optimistic/validity bridges, IBC/XCM, or L1↔L2 messaging.
• Database/storage tuning in high-throughput chains; experience with state growth and archive modes.
• Contributions to open-source blockchain clients or identity/zk tooling.

The Perks of Joining Animoca Brands:

A Vibrant and Diverse Workplace: Immerse yourself in a dynamic, multi-cultural environment with colleagues from over 15 nationalities (and growing!). We celebrate diversity and foster a global perspective.

Incentives in the Web3 Space: Be a part of the future and align your success with the growth of our innovative projects.

Direct Impact and Flat Structure: Your voice matters. We operate with a flat organizational structure, ensuring your ideas are heard and implemented quickly.

Comfortable and Creative Atmosphere: Embrace a relaxed and productive work environment with casual attire.

Opportunities Across the Ecosystem: Expand your horizons by collaborating with various subsidiary brands within the Animoca Brands network, gaining exposure to a wide range of projects and technologies.

Comprehensive Benefits Package: We care about your well-being. Enjoy a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, life, and transportation allowances.

Personal Information Collection Statement:

Personal data provided by the Job Applicant will be used strictly in accordance with the Employer's Personal Data Policies, a copy of which will be provided immediately upon his/her request. All classified data will be treated confidentially within the Human Resources & Administration Department. Personal data of unsuccessful applicants may be retained for a period of up to 3 months.