Chris Maree

Full-stack tinkerer building in crypto, open source, and mechanism design. Driven to create.

About me

Hi, I’m Chris — a crypto-native builder since 2016, working at the edge of technology, design, and decentralized systems. My work spans full-stack engineering, mechanism design, and experiments in cryptographic coordination.

Currently exploring the intersection of finance, computer science, and economics, pursuing innovative ideas that could transform how we build and value digital assets.

Beyond code, I create art installations, fly drones, explore ocean depths, and seek out live music and culinary adventures. Finding balance through creativity is essential to my process.

Work experience & startups

Hack.vc

2022 - Present

hack.vc

Research Partner

Hack VC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on partnering with daring entrepreneurs at the earliest stages. Over the past decade, Hack VC is a shareholder in over 175 startups, including four unicorns.

I am currently a research partner at Hack VC, helping with prospective investment evaluation and supporting portfolio projects. This is done in a part time capacity.

UMA Protocol

2020 - present

umaproject.org

Research Engineer

UMA is a decentralized financial contracts platform built to enable Universal Market Access. The protocol uses self-enforcing design patterns and a provably honest oracle mechanism to create financial products on Ethereum. UMA also created Across (https://across.to/), a high-speed Ethereum bridge designed for secure and cost-effective cross-chain transfers.

Started as an early engineer building core protocol infrastructure. Led a development team for key protocol components and now work as a Research Engineer exploring novel applications of cryptographic coordination systems and financial primitives.

Registree

2018 - 2020

registree.rocks

CIO

Registree is a decentralized platform that connects students, universities and employers through a secure student data exchange. It enables privacy-preserving verification of academic credentials while giving students ownership of their data.

Led technical architecture, blockchain implementation, and self-sovereign identity solutions. Built scalable data verification systems connecting academic institutions with employment opportunities while preserving student privacy.

Ribbon Blockchain

2018 - 2020

ribbonblockchain.com

CTO

Ribbon Blockchain is a Public Health Incentives platform that tokenizes health systems to channel funding for wellness-related behavioral incentives. Direct payments to patients and healthcare workers improve prevention, adherence, and care delivery outcomes.

Led platform development and architecture design. Implemented scalable micropayments using xDAI and USSD-based on/off ramps. Designed data marketplace for privacy-preserving exchange of anonymized medical records. Recipient of Consensys social impact grant.

Education

University Of Cape Town

MPhil Masters In Data Science, specializing in Financial Technology

2019 - 2020

Specialized in financial technology and blockchain systems. Combined machine learning, software engineering, and distributed ledger technologies with financial market analysis. Collaborated with fintech startups and financial services industry on practical applications of emerging technologies.

University Of Witwatersrand

BSc (Eng) Honors, Electrical and Information Engineering. Cum Laude

2015 - 2018

Four-year honors program with focus on software engineering and computer science while maintaining strong electrical engineering foundations. Specialized in blockchain applications during final year, developing MeterBlock—an award-winning energy management system—as honors thesis project. Graduated with distinction.

Open source projects, Hackathons & papers

Mr Poopybutthole AI Unassistor

2025

Developed at an AI hackathon in Berlin, this project is an innovative voice assistant that deliberately gives unhelpful, sarcastic responses. It’s a satirical take on AI assistants that explores the boundaries of human-AI interaction through humor and subversion.

AI NLP Voice Assistant Berlin AI Hackathon 2025

MegaBlobs

2024

Created at ETHGlobal ETHBrussels 2024, MegaBlobs is a decentralized storage solution that combines IPFS with onchain storage management. This project reimagines how data can be stored and accessed in web3 applications, focusing on durability, performance, and cost-effectiveness.

Blockchain Dapp ETHGlobal ETHBrussels 2024 Storage

TriggerWard

2024

triggerward.com

Built at ETH Berlin 2024, TriggerWard is a privacy-focused financial toolkit that enables users to create and execute secure, private transactions using zero-knowledge proofs. The project addresses key challenges in blockchain privacy and programmable finance.

Blockchain Dapp ETH Berlin 2024 Privacy ZK-proofs

Mindful-cash

2020

mindful.cash

Automated DeFi portfolio management system for dollar-cost averaging, rebalancing, and profit-taking. Balancer first prize winner at EthOnline 2020 hackathon. Enables strategic asset management with configurable investment strategies.

Blockchain Dapp EthOnline 2020 winner 🏆 DeFi

HoneyLemon

2020 - 2021

honeylemon.market

Synthetic Bitcoin cloud mining contracts on Ethereum. Enables BTC miners to hedge against volatility by selling future hash rate payoff, while giving investors exposure to mining without equipment costs. Core contributor responsible for smart contract implementation, financial engineering, and system architecture design.

Blockchain DeFi Derivatives Ethereum

UpsideDai

2020

upsidedai.netlify.app

EthDenver 2020 winner. Capital-efficient leveraged trading platform (up to 20x) for Dai price speculation using contracts for difference (CFDs). Utilizes Maker oracle and Uniswap for price discovery while maintaining low collateralization requirements.

Blockchain Dapp EthDenver Hackathon 2020 winner 🏆 DeFi

$DAI Daddy II (Uncensored)

2019

devpost.com/software/dai-daddy-ii-uncensored

Kyber DeFi hackathon finalist. Automated CDP (Collateralized Debt Position) unwinding system that converts ETH collateral to DAI via Kyber Network, repays CDP debt, and returns remaining collateral to the owner without requiring counterparties.

Blockchain Dapp Kyber DeFi Virtual Hackathon 2019 finalists 🥈 DeFi

$DAI Daddy

2019

daidaddy.xyz

Diffusion DeFi Hackathon 2019 winner. Marketplace for trading Maker CDPs below liquidation fees, creating a secondary debt market. Enables sellers to exit positions at discount rates while providing buyers with profitable arbitrage opportunities.

Blockchain Dapp Diffusion DeFi Hackathon 2019 winner 🏆 DeFi

Cherry Swap

2019 - 2021

cherryswap.xyz

Next-generation DeFi platform offering pooled interest rate swaps for borrowers and lenders. Co-founder and lead developer, designed financial models for fixed-rate lending and borrowing. Winner of EthBerlin open track prize and recipient of Binance X Fellowship.

Blockchain DeFi Interest Rate Swaps EthBerlin Winner

MoonSteps

2019

gainsbot.netlify.app

Automated crypto profit-taking platform that executes sales at predefined price points during market uptrends. Built with Vyper smart contracts and VueJS frontend. Uses off-chain relayers to trigger Uniswap swaps when target prices are reached, implementing preset exit strategies.

Blockchain Dapp Vyper DeFi

Masters thesis project creating an academic research marketplace. Enables researchers to monetize their work while preserving open science principles through NFT-based licensing (ERC721). Integrated with IPFS for storage and Orcid for academic identity verification.

Blockchain Dapp Fintech IPFS

Crypto Back Tester

2019

Portfolio backtesting tool for crypto trading strategies built with pandas, numpy, and plotly. Analyzes historical performance of rebalancing approaches and various trading algorithms using cryptocurrency market data APIs.

Blockchain Fintech Python Jupyter Notebooks

SnapFund

2019

snapfund.netlify.app

EthCapetown Hackathon 2019 winner. Decentralized index fund platform with automatic portfolio rebalancing. Uses DEXs to maintain target allocations of ERC20 tokens in a trustless, non-custodial system.

Blockchain Dapp Vyper DeFi EthCapetown Hackathon 2019 winner 🏆

Blockchain Art Directory

2019

blockchainart.directory

Contributed to the first comprehensive directory of blockchain art, crypto collectibles, and NFT projects. Designed and implemented advanced search and filtering functionality for the frontend as a freelance developer.

Blockchain Web Development

RadiCards

2018

radi.cards

NFT-based charity platform enabling users to send digital greeting cards with attached cryptocurrency. Featured artwork by renowned crypto artists including XCOPY. Co-founder and lead developer responsible for smart contract development and frontend implementation. Built trustless claimable links and DAI integration. Successfully raised over $100,000 USD for various charities. The full collection can be viewed on OpenSea.

Blockchain NFT Charity Ethereum

Energy Consumption Optimization Platform

2018

Energy monitoring dashboard created as part of honors thesis alongside MeterBlock. Visualizes and optimizes consumption patterns across multiple buildings in institutional settings.

Fullstack Web development Devops Python Jupyter Notebooks

EthStarter

2018

Consensys Academy project. Decentralized crowdfunding platform for creatives, charities, and open source projects. Built with Ethereum smart contracts for campaign logic and IPFS for media storage, enabling peer-to-peer funding without intermediaries.

Dapp Solidity Consensys Academy

Smart Contract Development Best Practice Paper

2018

Research paper on Ethereum smart contract security best practices. Analyzed previously hacked contracts, documented exploitation methods, and evaluated symbolic execution and static analysis tools for vulnerability detection.

Blockchain Solidity Security Wits

MeterBlock

2018

Honors dissertation project creating blockchain-connected smart meters for energy governance. Winner of SAIEE National Student Paper Competition and recognized as most innovative final-year engineering project at Wits University (2018).

Blockchain IoT Energy Academic

blockPoll

2018

Unlock the Block Hackathon 2018 Winner. Pseudo-anonymous, blockchain-based voting tool facilitating organizational proxy voting and polling mechanisms for governance applications.

Blockchain Dapp Solidity Unlock the Block Hackathon 2018 Winner 🏆

LunaBound

2018

Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 second place. Co-owned multisignature staking pool for Ethereum’s proof of stake, conceptualized before ETH2.0 specs were fully defined. Early exploration of staking pool mechanics now common in ETH staking.

Blockchain Dapp Solidity Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 second place 🥈

Pango

2017

Open-source platform for cryptographically verifiable certificates of authenticity on Ethereum, including university degrees and official documents. Founder of this initiative that marked my introduction to Ethereum development, smart contracts, and frontend web3 integration.

Blockchain Dapp Solidity