Sam Richards

A personal wiki, blog, and archive.

/about · last updated: oct 2026

Sam Richards.

Software engineer and product leader working on Ethereum, privacy, and digital public infrastructure.

My career runs from tech startups to six years at the Ethereum Foundation: financial software, Ethereum wallets and apps, open-source developer education, and an applied-cryptography R&D lab. If I can weave one through-line, it’s building digital infrastructure that makes public systems easier to understand, use, and hold accountable.

At Neighborly I helped build a platform for investing in municipal bonds. I saw the inefficiencies of capital markets firsthand, got my first close-up look at building blockchain applications, and went down the Ethereum rabbit hole.

After Fetch, an early Ethereum wallet and exchange aggregator, I joined the Ethereum Foundation. I built the website, developer docs, and team behind ethereum.org, led development at MACI, a private onchain voting system, then ran PSE, an R&D lab with a portfolio of applied-cryptography teams.

I now live in Buenos Aires, where my wife, Sofía, and I are building HabitaAR to help newcomers set up life in Argentina.

Keep scrolling to view my full CV, see /now for the latest on what I’m working on, and get in touch if you want to collaborate.

/about · experience

Where I've worked.

Also available as a one-page résumé (PDF).

  1. 2026 — present
    Cofounder & Technical Lead
    HabitaAR

    Building knowledge and software tools that help newcomers navigate residency, housing, healthcare, Spanish, and banking in Argentina. I lead product and engineering.

  2. 2024 — 2025
    Cluster Lead
    Privacy & Scaling Explorations, Ethereum Foundation

    Ran the EF's applied-cryptography R&D lab: strategy, org design, a $15M+ annual budget, and a portfolio of open-source projects. Restructured it from about 100 people to 50 and refocused it on Ethereum's privacy roadmap.

  3. 2023 — 2024
    Team Lead
    MACI, Privacy & Scaling Explorations, Ethereum Foundation

    Led product and engineering for a private onchain voting protocol, which distributed over $1 million to Ethereum public goods via quadratic funding rounds.

  4. 2019 — 2023
    Team Lead
    ethereum.org, Ethereum Foundation

    First full-time developer, then team lead from 2021. Grew the site from a handful of pages to hundreds, in over 40 languages, with thousands of open-source contributors and millions of visitors a month.

  5. 2019
    Software Engineer
    Fetch

    Built frontend product flows and Uniswap integration for an early self-custodial Ethereum wallet with one-click trades and price discovery across 20+ exchanges.

  6. 2015 — 2018
    Software Engineer
    Neighborly

    Built an investing platform for municipal bonds. We onboarded tens of city and state government partners and transacted over $120 million of securities to individual investors.

  7. 2012 — 2014
    SEO Manager
    Red Ventures

    Deployed and optimized marketing websites that earned partners like DIRECTV and American Express millions in revenue.

  8. 2010 — 2012
    Owner & Web Developer
    Wake Wash LLC

    Bought a business in college, completely rebuilt it, and sold it for 15x what we paid.

education
  1. 2018 — 2019
    Blockchain engineering ConsenSys Academy · Truffle University consensys review truffle review
  2. 2015
    Software engineering immersive RocketU
  3. 2008 — 2012
    B.S. Business and Enterprise Management Wake Forest University