Candidate Profile

Hi! I'm Haaroon, I work as a Quant @ the great Blockchain.com. I also have a PhD in blockchain security and analytics (with published research). Prior I worked for an analytics startup (Pometry) that I co-founded. I believe my background as well as my passion for Arbitrum and Layer 2s, would make me a very strong member of the Security Council.I have been actively involved in the Arbitrum community, usually by speaking to developers or researchers in the space, and my commitment to "Trust but verify" aligns well with our ethos. You can see proof here, where I discussed transaction ordering on the research forum https://research.arbitrum.io/t/hybrid-transaction-ordering-policy/155In terms of Crypto, I am very fortunate to work with amazing people, obtained a PhD from a top university in the United Kingdom, and have globally published multiple papers at top tier security conferences. This allowed me to gain deep insights into various blockchain tech and vulnerabilities. These of course all resulted in favourable outcomes to the ecosystems. The core of my work is on privacy, security and scams.I believe the council should be made up of extremely tech savvy individuals who all must have a security mindset. We must all be available, work as a team, be transparent and heavily secure. My experience and track record show that I have those qualities (more below). Outside of crypto I have real world experience in development and security, I have worked at security company in the past (MWR), was a developer in TradFi (Goldman Sachs) and obtained a bug bounty (NDA’d).Through my extensive experience and motivation, I aim to contribute to the Council. You can find a fuller list of my qualifications below and here: https://www.haaroonyousaf.comI welcome any questions, feedback and conversations from anyone in the community. We can all work towards keeping Arbitrum secure. If you would like to contact me, please feel free to DM me on the forums here or post a question in the thread linked here https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/haaroon-candidate-for-security-council-sept-2024/16323/

I currently work as a Quant @ the great Blockchain.com! Prior to this I worked in R&D at Pometry developing state-of-the-art graph analytics tools. My work revolves around analytics and software development primarily on graphs and blockchains. We did work on Sybil detection with Gitcoin and hunted NFTs used in pump and dump schemes. I am also on the technical committee for the IC3, where I help organise our bi-annual events and hackathons.Academic & Research Background:*(Privacy/Security) An Empirical Analysis of Zcash - The first published work on analysing the security and participants of ZCash, detailing how the privacy features could be abused*(Privacy/Security) Tracing transactions across cryptocurrency ledgers - We analysed multiple blockchains, identified ways to track wallets across ledgers and exposed scammers*(Privacy/Security) An Empirical Analysis of Privacy in the Lightning Network - We developed techniques in order to see how payments are pathed*(Scams) Forsage: Anatomy of a Smart-Contract Pyramid Scheme - Exposed one of the largest pyramid schemes in the world hosted on EthereumPersonal & Professional Background:I started my cryptocurrency journey back in 2016 whenever I tried to buy L$ on the Virwox (now shut down) exchange, either I placed the wrong type of market order or got scammed. This experience spurred my interest in cryptocurrency, I wanted to do something about it.My thesis was simple, there are insane amounts of tech being made, I believe if there is an attack then someone evil is probably already exploiting it. Thus, I wanted to find and bring exploits to light so they can be fixed to improve the security of the ecosystem.Security Council Criteria:* Availability: Being responsive is a key trait, but being calm in a crisis is non-negotiable. I pledge to be accessible both during emergencies and regular operations, as well as being calm in a matter of emergency. This I have experience in when working for TradFi in the past where critical financial systems had issues and I had to give support.* Teamwork: I strongly believe that outstanding work is done as a team, and having mutual respect and collaboration has been a guiding principle when working in a team.* Transparent: I genuinely believe in Trust but verify and commit to stay on top with the DAOs reports and security council related docs. I also welcome questions, and will gladly answer any below.* Secure Operations: Given my security and academic background I assure you that I prioritise high levels of security. With this engagement I will purchase extra phone contract lines to ensure availability is at its highest level, with the most updated and secure devices and careful management of security mattersBlockchain Security + Tools:I believe the council should be made up of extremely tech savvy individuals who all must have a security mindset, as listed below:* I can read and write Solidity - which is necessary for understanding potential actions taking placeExtremely familiar with using blockchain explorers, such as EtherScan, or obtaining data and analysing it myself - necessary for understanding and comprehending an ongoing attacks, postmortem analysis, verifying code and analysing address behaviours* Used hardware wallets - I own one which is necessary for private key securityPersonal security - I actively use 2FA, ensure my device hard drives are encryption and will be purchasing a physical hardware key* Understand Gnosis safe and how it is necessary for co-signing security council transactionsI have accounts on both the Arbitrum foundation and research forums, and understand the tools such as Tally.xyz and Snapshot are used for voting mechanismsConclusion:I am sincerely excited about joining the Security Council, given the chance to uphold the responsibilities that accompany this role.

I work as a Quant @ Blockchain.com, I work on the Technical Committee @ IC3. No conflicts of Interest.