Introducing our new team member: Cody Gunton

Yanay Prop
The Aztec Labs Blog
3 min readJun 9, 2021

With a new hiring wave for us at Aztec, we’ll be publishing some short, fun interviews with our newest additions to the team. Our latest hire is Cody Gunton, who recently joined us as a Cryptography Engineer working full-time.

Welcome to the team, Cody 🎉

Cody, please introduce yourself - what you did before joining Aztec and what got you to the team?

Hey, I’m Cody! I recently joined Aztec as a Cryptography Engineer. I live in Atlanta, Georgia.

I started my path into the world of cryptography as a math student, passionate about the philosophical aspect of the topic.

I got my Ph.D. from the University of Arizona with a thesis in number theory. As a graduate student, I also taught a wide variety of classes, including cryptography to young students at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth — that was a very unique experience.

I then went on to do my post-doc at the University of Copenhagen, where I taught an elliptic curves course. I decided to leave academia so that I could have more stability and control over where I live.

Applications of zero-knowledge proofs in the Blockchain space are really exciting and interesting on several levels, so I was lucky to have an academic colleague inform me of openings at Aztec. I was introduced to the co-founders and the rest is history.

How did you stumble across crypto for the first time?

I knew somebody from grad school who was studying the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Funnily, he was working with a company that sells marijuana-growing equipment, which accepted Bitcoin at the time. I met him in 2013 and mostly talked about things casually. I didn’t understand zero-knowledge until later when I started looking at it a bit more seriously.

What excites you the most about Ethereum today besides ZKP?

I think Ethereum has enormous potential for power and Paradigm shifts. The fact that money itself becomes more flexible and closely tied to code structures and payments is exciting to me. I think there are probably applications that will be enormously important in like 20 years from now that we haven’t even thought of yet so I guess it’s a bit more about potential than any particular application.

Tell me, what are you going to be focused on with your new role at Aztec?

I’ll mostly be working on improving efficiency. My first project to bring down our gas cost with Turbo PLONK.

Please describe your work routine — where do you usually work and how do you set up your work environment? What’s a must for you?

I work remotely from my house in Atlanta. My standing desk helps me a lot as I try to improve my posture. Currently looking forward to getting my new gear from Aztec!

What unique stuff do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I play soccer and hike a bit. This Summer, I will be pickling things, making sorbets, learning about plants, and contributing to a political project here in Atlanta.

Do you have any special Netflix show you like to recommend?

I’m not really currently watching anything but I can recommend ‘Kantaro the Sweet Tooth Salaryman’ — it helped me clear my mind during COVID times last year. Highly recommended!

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today, Cody.
Best of luck with your new role at Aztec!

We’re currently hiring more engineers! You can check out all our open positions here.

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