Dez Calimese
I build agent-driven products and the infrastructure they run on — from MCP integrations and multi-chain AI agents secured with threshold cryptography to ERC-4626 vaults and audited DeFi protocols across EVM and Solana. 5 years taking products from zero to one under ambiguity.
About
I'm a blockchain engineer with 5 years of experience and founding roles at early-stage companies. My work spans ERC-4626 vault architectures, multi-chain AI agent systems, perpetual futures platforms on Hyperliquid, and cross-chain transaction infrastructure built on threshold cryptography.
I'm a co-founder of Quincy Labs, an AI and blockchain research collective and studio building agent-driven products across DeFi, cryptography, and applied AI — where I build MCP integrations over an 8-year research base and lead engineering on Emergency Passport, an AI-native app surfacing critical patient context during sickle cell crises. Alongside it, as a Founding Engineer at Omo Protocol, I led smart contract development, frontend engineering, and AI agent integrations — work that helped secure over $1M in pre-seed funding.
I recently completed the Rektoff × Solana Foundation Rust Security Bootcamp, adding formal Solana/Anchor audit methodology to a background in smart-contract security and full-stack development.
What drives me is taking products from zero to one under ambiguity — and the moment a complex solution clicks into place. Outside of engineering I analyze DeFi markets, make music, and explore audioreactive and 3D art.
Projects
Tessera
Solo-built multimodal AI agent that ingests URLs, screenshots, YouTube, and live market feeds, extracts entities with Gemini 3.1 Pro, and renders an interactive force-directed knowledge graph. Local-first via IndexedDB with Supabase backup. Built at the Cerebral Valley × Vercel × DeepMind hackathon, NYC.
Neko DeFi
DeFi protocol interface featuring token swaps, perpetual trading, vault deposits, and portfolio tracking. Modern dark UI with real-time on-chain data.
Bricks Exchange MVP
Decentralized exchange UI for swapping USDC for BRX, staking tokens, and managing balances on-chain.
RSVP dApp
Decentralized event management app for creating and RSVPing to events fully on-chain.
Minting Melodies
NFT marketplace for artists to sell downloadable song collections as digital collectibles, with automated royalty splits.
Security Research
MetaLend Security Audit
2026Rektoff × Solana Foundation Bootcamp — Capstone
Audited a Solana lending protocol and surfaced high-severity vulnerabilities across oracle integrity, borrow, withdraw, and liquidation instructions. Delivered findings with working Anchor proof-of-concepts confirming exploitability.
- Oracle integrity manipulation
- Borrow / withdraw accounting flaws
- Liquidation instruction abuse
Skills
Smart Contracts & Security
- Solidity
- Foundry
- Slither
- Echidna
- Mythril
- Anchor
- Fuzzing / Invariants
- MEV Protection
- Threat Modeling
- Gas Optimization
Languages
- TypeScript
- Rust
- Python
- Solidity
- Move
- Cairo
- SQL
Multi-Chain Infrastructure
- Lit Protocol
- Threshold Crypto
- Cross-Chain Messaging
- ERC-4626 Vaults
- Hyperliquid
- Morpho
- Uniswap
- Subgraphs
- Tenderly
Frontend & Tooling
- Next.js
- React
- React Native
- Wagmi
- Viem
- Tailwind
- Docker
- AWS
- CI/CD
Experience
Founder
Quincy Labs
Co-founded an AI and blockchain research collective and studio building agent-driven products across DeFi, cryptography, and applied AI. Built MCP integrations surfacing insights from a 500+ channel, 8-year research base to power agentic workflows, and maintain deployment infrastructure across the collective (Docker, AWS, CI/CD). Contributing engineering and leading UI/UX on Emergency Passport (Red Cell Systems), an AI-native app surfacing critical patient context during sickle cell crises.
Founding Engineer
Omo Protocol
Architected ERC-4626 standardized vaults in Solidity + Foundry and a spot/perpetuals trading platform on Hyperliquid. Built a multi-chain AI agent stack (ElizaOS Lit plugin, Coinbase MPC wallets, Nucleus SDK). Tenderly virtual testnets lifted testing efficiency 50% — work that helped secure $1M+ in pre-seed.
Lead Blockchain Developer
Bricks Exchange
Principal engineer over a four-person frontend team. Onboarded and mentored three junior devs through code review and pairing, cutting delivery timelines 25%. Shipped production dApps with Next.js, Wagmi, Viem, and TypeScript.
Chief Technology Officer
Minting Melodies
Owned end-to-end blockchain delivery for an NFT music platform. Automated 80% of royalty distribution via smart contracts and stood up test-automation pipelines for reliable releases.
Rust Security Bootcamp
Rektoff × Solana Foundation
Completed an intensive Solana/Anchor audit program, adding formal audit methodology to a foundation in smart-contract security and full-stack engineering. Capstone: the MetaLend security audit.
Open Source
Lit Protocol Plugin
elizaOS/eliza
Multi-chain transactions plugin leveraging Lit Protocol's Programmable Key Pairs (PKPs) and threshold cryptography — enabling secure, decentralized key management for AI agents across EVM and Solana. Built for Omo's agent stack and merged into the open-source ElizaOS framework.
Contact
Reach out directly at dezcalimese@gmail.com or use the form below.