Early Days of Ethereum

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Alex Leverington

Alex Leverington ("subtly")

C++ developer, devp2p architect, first ETHDEV Berlin hire

(Jan 2014 to Jul 2016)

DEVCON0 self-introduction

Alex Leverington DEVCON0 introduction

Alex Leverington was a key early contributor to Ethereum, responsible for network protocols, encryption, and C++ client development. He was the very first hire for ETHDEV Berlin and became known as the architect of devp2p, Ethereum's peer-to-peer networking protocol.

Early Contributions

Alex started work as a volunteer on cpp-ethereum in January 2014, with his first issue logged on January 31, 2014 and his first commit on February 2, 2014. Both were related to macOS Mavericks support.

First Berlin Hire

Gavin Wood described Alex's hiring in his first development update (October 2014):

"Alex Leverington was our first hire and he flew to Berlin all the way from Texas to join the team. Alex has been engaged helping out with the Mac builds and making volunteer contributions since early in the year. Now he has been working on some of the internals of the C++ client (specifically the client multiplexing, allowing multiple Web Three applications to coexist on the same physical machine)."

dev-p2p Development

Alex became the primary architect of devp2p, Ethereum's peer-to-peer networking protocol. Gavin noted his progress in November 2014:

"Alex has also been working tirelessly on our crypto code and is now beginning work on the p2p layer, the full strategy for which we'll be seeing in his address at ÐΞVcon."

Viktor Trón recalled working with Alex on the protocol:

"Especially special memory is my meeting with Alex Leverington… the peer to peer fame. Yeah, very interesting. We had lots of discussions. Yeah, very adamant on, very stubborn with his own way of thinking about the protocol. I have to say he was much more knowledgeable than I was at the time. So I was just trying to learn a lot from him. But at the same time was, okay, we're starting to be a bit more pragmatic and trying to, you know, savvy and then like have to simplify. I remember I first basically brought together the kind of specs for the devp2p protocol then…" — Viktor Trón

Bob Summerwill summarized his contributions:

"Alex Leverington was the first hire into that Berlin office. And he primarily—I mean, he worked on a few different C++ things, but the main thing he's known for is devp2p, which was that common underlying peer protocol." — Bob Summerwill

DEVCON0

Alex presented "Multi Protocol Peer Network Framework: Vision and Roadmap" at DEVCON0 in Berlin in November 2014, outlining the architecture for Ethereum's networking layer.

Ethereum ÐΞVcon-0: Multi Protocol Peer Network Framework: Vision and Roadmap
by Alex Leverington, November 27, 2014

Later Work

Alex later worked with John Gerryts on a project called Airlock.

Primary Sources

This profile draws from multiple Early Days of Ethereum sources:

Back-links

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