Meet our new hire — Justinas Žaliaduonis, Smart Contract Engineer

6 min readMay 5, 2021

This post is the fifth in our “Meet our new hire” series, where we introduce you to our new staff members here at the Blank Wallet project. We hope it helps you understand what is going on in the background as we inch closer to our launch date.

Our new hire for the day is a Smart Contract Engineer from Lithuania, Justinas Žaliaduonis. With his experience in solidity and blockchain technology in general, he’s sure to be a valuable addition to the Blank team!

Keep reading to learn more about Justinas, his job position, his thoughts on the cryptosphere, privacy, and Blank.

What’s your job position?

I work as a Smart Contract Engineer here at Blank. Currently, I’m implementing blockchain-related features in the extension, how the wallet will manage transactions, etc.

How long have you worked as a smart contract engineer?

I started working professionally with smart contracts in late 2017, so I’ve worked with smart contracts and solidity for approximately 3,5 years now. I have a background and in theoretical physics and mathematics, which have been an excellent foundation for understanding smart contracts.

Which projects have you worked on before?

My first crypto-related job was with a vehicle data company called carVertical. There, I worked on features related to cryptocurrency payments. I also met Alex here, who is the co-founder of Blank.

I then started to work for a financial services company in Switzerland, where I developed a private blockchain based on Ethereum. Here, I also developed computer vision solutions for analyzing KYC documents.

After that, I worked for another financial services company where I developed different Bitcoin-based financial instruments. These included using Bitcoin as a payment method, managing Bitcoin holdings, integrating with exchanges, etc.

When did you first get involved in crypto?

I first heard about it in late 2016 when this big crypto boom had just started. However, what drew me in was the tech and not the investment opportunity that so many others were interested in at the time.

I started to ask questions and research topics like “Why is this somehow different/better than using a bank?”, “Why is it anonymous?”, “How do people track it?” etc. I got more involved in the crypto community by joining different telegram groups and chatting with other developers.

I was fortunate to connect with some intelligent people in the crypto field, both from a business and an engineering perspective. It helped to fast-track my career forward.

What do you like the most about crypto?

The first thing that fascinated me was how blockchains are built from the laws of economics and mathematics, which is something that I’ve studied for years at the University.

I also really like that it’s permissionless. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are located, your background, race, etc. Anyone can start working and interacting with blockchain technology and crypto. Everything is open-source and available to anyone. I feel like the crypto community as a whole is very open and inviting.

This is a big difference compared to traditional finance and other general centralized sectors where you need specific achievements or connections. For example, If I’m not satisfied with something in the conventional banking system, I wouldn’t be able to change it. There are too many middlemen and steps to go through. But in crypto, I can go in and work on a new solution or create an alternative solution without anyone’s permission.

What made you interested in Blank?

I saw significant potential in how Blank could impact the whole ecosystem and bring more privacy to blockchains. There are so many possibilities and use cases for Blank. Once I first heard about the premise behind the product, I imagined how it could be used in hard-wallet integrations or help individuals keep their wallets private and not leaked to the public, which has a massive use case.

When it comes to privacy, you’re already screwed the second you displayed or inserted any information into an application or website. You will always be the best protected when you haven’t given away any information, and this was something that I realized that Blank could help with and that I would happily work and contribute to.

In the end, what really sold me on Blank was to be able to join and work with an experienced and talented team.

Why do you think privacy matters on blockchains?

Blockchain technology was created for a multitude of reasons. One of these was privacy. In some cases, other technological solutions caught up with this and made the original anonymity intentions a bit harder to fulfill.

I also believe that privacy is a fundamental right that one should be able to maintain. Especially in terms of finances, everyone should have the right to stay private with how much they own.

Do you have any predictions on where crypto will be 5 years from now?

When it comes to the price, I think we still have a long way to go. We’ll see a lot of growth in the coming cycles. Only 1% of the world’s population own crypto and I don’t see the demand going down anytime soon.

From a tech perspective, I think we will see more applications related to the use of data. The rise of DeFi platforms creates a verified data stream on the blockchain accessible to anyone, which in return creates a lot of opportunities to develop applications that utilize this data. Right now, the focus is on pure DeFi apps, but I think we will see other valuable apps that will address issues in accounting, business management, property management, etc.

Many people still see crypto as a fun thing or speculation, but 3–5 years from now, I believe it will be considered a very serious financial instrument that everyone will use. I don’t think crypto will replace FIAT, but instead, find a way to co-exist with the financial instruments we use today.

Parting thoughts.

I wish crypto would be less about hype and more about creating better products and their implementations. I’ve lived through previous hype cycles and fear that many people will be financially hurt again. I don’t think that much of this hype is a good representation of crypto’s underlying tech, but these hype cycles are bound to repeat themselves.

I’m happy to say that we are not just trying to “hype up” a white paper here at Blank. We are building a great product with a vast use case and functional code!

About Blank Wallet

Blank is the most private, non-custodial Ethereum browser extension wallet.

Blank allows the user to easily interact with privacy smart contracts on Ethereum to hide the amounts and the origins of cryptocurrency held in a decentralized, non-custodial, and frictionless manner.

Blank solves the problem of privacy in crypto transactions. Each time you want to make a withdrawal, Blank will create a new wallet address for you with the amount of crypto you requested. This address originates from the smart contract, where everyone’s funds are pooled. All of this is achieved using cryptographic proofs to ensure that the user cannot be linked with the original depositing address.

With crypto transactions increasing, on-chain transaction privacy is being highly discussed to keep you safe from exposing yourself. Blank has developed a system that adds the ultimate protective layer to your crypto transactions while facilitating every function that other wallets offer.

Anyone can easily install Blank and start reaping the privacy benefits in no time at all. Besides the smart contract functionality, Blank wallet offers a higher level of privacy due to Tor integration. Upcoming functionality includes DeFi web3 integrations as well as support for Metamask Snaps Plugins to allow for seamless connectivity and usage.

Reclaim privacy on your Ethereum transfers. Go Blank.