SZCZEPAN GURGUL

Szczepan Gurgul

AI × Blockchain Security Engineer

distributed systems / protocol engineering / ai agents

Software engineer specializing in distributed systems, blockchain infrastructure, and AI agents. I build secure, maintainable systems and tooling, from smart contracts and DeFi primitives to performance-oriented infrastructure.

Get in touchBrowse projects

Education

M.Sc. Informatics
University of Zürich, Switzerland, 2026
B.Sc. Mechatronic Engineering
AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland, 2023

Elsewhere

Tech stack

AI
  • llm agents
  • tool calling
  • rag
  • mcp
Blockchain
  • ethereum
  • smart contracts
  • l1/l2
  • foundry
  • dex/amm
  • zkp
  • mev
Software engineering
  • tdd
  • linux
  • sql
  • k8s
  • docker
  • cloud
  • grafana
Languages
  • python
  • typescript
  • javascript
  • bash
  • solidity
  • rust
  • c++

Experience

  1. AI × Blockchain Security Engineernow

    Nextrope

    LLM-based audit automation for smart contract security: agent workflows with tool calling, retrieval and MCP integrations, EVM bytecode interpretation, and vulnerability classification.

  2. Graduate Researcher, Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Technologies Group

    University of Zürich

    Conducted research within the Blockchain & DLT Group as part of my MSc at the University of Zürich, resulting in 2 peer-reviewed papers (one published, one accepted and pending publication).

  3. Software Developer

    Kaseya

    Cloud team on a Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery product: backend and frontend work, unit tests, code review, and production incident investigation.

  4. Project Engineer Internship

    TECUMEX

    Embedded and commissioning intern work on marine radar systems in Dubai before moving into distributed systems.

Projects

all projects

AI Agents for MEV Extraction on RollupsAccepted paper

MEV platform for EVM rollups: live mainnet liquidity-pool scanner, profitability/risk/price-impact benchmarks, and a multi-agent system (Eliza OS) orchestrating strategy execution and market analysis. Presented at BCK25, Mumbai.

Repo

Scaling DeFi with ZK RollupsPublished paper

Two local zkSync chains connected by a hyperbridge, with Uniswap V2 forked on one for token swaps. Simulated multiple IP sources and parallel WebSocket clients to maximize throughput and avoid HTTP overhead, benchmarking 72 TPS.

Repo

Decentralized Sports Betting Platform1st place

dApp with a Node.js backend for API handling and database management. Integrated Chainlink Oracles for real-time odds and outcomes, with end-to-end flow testing. Won the BCOLN Challenge Award for Best Distributed dApp, 2024.

Repo

Selected achievements

  • Graduated with Honors (Magna Cum Laude)

    University of Zürich, M.Sc. Informatics (2026). Graduated magna cum laude for academic excellence.

  • 2 Research Papers & 2 International Conference Presentations

    Co-authored two blockchain research papers on AI agents for MEV and ZK rollups (one published, one accepted and pending publication). Presented the work at international conferences in Zürich, Switzerland (BCK24) and Mumbai, India (BCK25).

  • Uniswap v4 Hooks Incubator

    Selected for the Uniswap v4 Hooks Incubator (Atrium Academy), protocol engineering cohort focused on designing, implementing, and testing production-ready Uniswap v4 Hooks. Cohort starts in October 2026.

  • BCOLN Challenge Award, Best Distributed dApp

    Winner of the BCOLN Challenge Hackathon (2024) for building a decentralized sports betting platform, competing against 10 teams across Zürich.

Publications

📄 AI Agents for MEV Extraction on Rollups

The Physical Society of Japan — accepted, pending JPS Conference Proceedings publication, 2026

Co-authored with researchers at University of Zürich.

  • mev
  • typescript
  • ai agents
  • mcp
What the work involved
  • Built a research MEV bot, running against live mainnet liquidity pools for EVM rollups.
  • Used deterministic economics with CPMM/CLMM formulas to calculate MAV. Created stochastic economics to model sequencer/mempool uncertainty.
  • Implemented and compared MEV strategies: cross-DEX arbitrage, sequencer spamming, sandwich attacks
  • Run a multi-agent setup to orchestrate the MEV bot and gather market insights
  • Benchmarked PnL, execution cost, and risk under realistic L2 constraints (fees, price impact, ordering)

📄 Scaling DeFi with ZK Rollups

2025 IEEE International Conference on Distributed Ledger Technologies (ICDLT), 2025

Co-authored with researchers at University of Zürich.

  • rollups
  • uniswap-v2
  • solidity
  • python
What the work involved
  • Deployed a private ZK rollup including sequencer and prover on zkSync (Elastic Chain stack)
  • Forked Uniswap V2 as the AMM under test
  • Built a load balancer / tx generator to stress-test throughput
  • Benchmarked SNARK proofs, TPS (71 vs ~15-20 on mainnet), soft & hard finalities, and gas patterns

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