Copper is a digital asset technology company dedicated to helping institutional investors safely acquire, trade, and store crypto assets.
Built and led by Dmitry Tokarev, a software and financial engineering specialist, the firm provides a comprehensive suite of custody, trading and settlement solutions that reduce counterparty risk and bring greater capital and operational efficiency to digital asset markets. At the heart of Copper's offering is Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology – the gold standard in secure custody. Copper’s multi-award winning custody system is unique in that it can be connected to centralised exchanges, DeFi applications and even staking pools without the assets leaving the custody.
Built on top of this state-of-the-art custody, ClearLoop™ is the first solution in the market that overcomes a growing industry challenge; counterparty risk with exchanges. This solution underpins a full prime services offering, connecting global exchanges and enabling customers to trade and settle directly from the safety of their MPC-secured wallets. By reducing settlement time for transfers to a few milliseconds (without blockchain network dependency) and offering enhanced security measures, ClearLoop™ is rapidly reshaping the way asset managers trade and manage capital.
In addition to industry-leading security certifications, Copper has one of the strongest insurance coverages in the industry from an A+ rated insurer, positioning the firm as the partner of choice for institutions seeking to safeguard their assets.
Department environment
Key Management:
The Key Management team at Copper is tasked with developing the core components of Copper’s custodial solution. This entails the constructions of tools and services essential for secure storage and transfer of digital assets. A focal point of the team’s responsibilities includes developing and integrating MPC (Multiparty Computation)-based cryptographic signature algorithms. Additionally, the team is charged with the development of APIs that facilitate the interaction of cryptographic primitives with both client-facing applications and certain internal services within Copper.
Key Responsibilities of the role
- You will conduct cryptography literature review, select relevant papers, and produce a specification and pseudocode from the paper(s). If situation demands it, you will produce original peer-reviewed research in close collaboration with academia.
- You will implement cryptography specifications into secure, production-level code.
- You will integrate cryptography primitives into Copper’s internal MPC framework.
- You will participate in the design and implementation of Copper’s next generation MPC framework.
- You will interact with auditors and academia, as well as cryptographers on the client side.
- You will provide cryptography support for other Copper development teams.
Your experience, skills and knowledge
This role is right for you if:
- You have a strong foundation in modern/provable cryptography.
- You consider yourself an applied cryptographer who doesn’t shy away from implementing your constructions.
- You learn new things quickly and can context switch.
- You are interested in a unique intersection between academia and industry wherein you will be working with both theory and real-world implementations and shifting between the two regularly as needed.
Essential
- Research experience in modern cryptography -preferably in MPC, Threshold Cryptography, [Zero-Knowledge] proof systems etc- and its tools e.g. Proving your constructions secure in UC paradigm.
- Engineering experience in implementation of modern cryptography primitives.
- Fluency in a systems language like C, C++, Rust, or Go.
- Familiarity with algorithms and aptitude in [cryptographic] system design.
Desirable
- PhD in Cryptography with research track record.
- Strong understanding of cryptography signatures and their threshold variants.
- Fluency in Go programming language.
- Familiarty/Experience with methodologies and testing frameworks for high assurance programming e.g. From fuzzing to formal modelling.
- Familiarity/Experience with distributed systems.
- Prior experience with HSMs/TEEs including managed solutions like AWS Nitro Enclaves.
- Prior knowledge/experience with MPC or crypto custody.
Tech Stack
For this position, you will predominantly work with Go for production and LaTeX for formal documentations – select projects use some C++ and Rust.
For experimentation/prototyping you can use any language of your choice, however the team uses Python/SageMath.
You will also need to interact with some interservice communication tools as well as some infrastructure tools.
The benefits offered
- Holidays: 27 days per annum paid holiday, in addition to bank holidays
- Years of Service Days: Employees are awarded one additional day of paid time off per year of service (up to three years)
- Vitality Health:
- Medical Insurance: Copper provides all employees with individual cover. Medical history is disregarded, and a 24/7 virtual GP is available (£100 excess per person per year)
- Dental Insurance: Comprehensive dental cover for preventative, restorative and emergency treatment
- Audiology Cover: Employees can claim back up 80% of costs, up to £300, for any hearing tests or hearing aids
- Optical Cover: £500 optical cover (through Vision Express) or 80% reimbursement up to £300 for any other optician
- Menopause Support: Unlimited support for those experiencing symptoms of the menopause, such as video consultations with a dedicated menopause practitioner
- Vitality services also include an additional £100 for minor diagnostic tests and private prescriptions, including home diagnostics
- Headspace - Copper's policy provides all employees with a free Headspace subscription. Headspace provides great resources to manage stress, improve sleep, meditate and enhance mindfulness
- Discounts and free benefits - the Vitality programme has been designed for preventative care to encourage members to improve their overall health and will reward those for doing so. Employees can access additional benefits such as 50% off running shoes, discounted health screenings, 50% off at Nuffield Health or Virgin Active gyms and much more
- Home Working Energy Support Scheme: to combat energy prices increasing globally, Copper will provide you, in addition to your salary, with a monthly top-up of £60 or £75 (subject to your energy supplier)
- Pension up to 10% matched contribution to our company pension scheme via Smart Pensions
- Cycle to Work
- Life Insurance cover: Four times your base salary
- EAP: access unlimited mental health consultations and contact a 24/7 confidential helpline for emotional support
- Unmind
- Sponsored Learning and Development opportunities
- Regular company events and social activities
In return for everything you can bring to Copper, we can offer you an exciting, challenging role in a fast-growing and dynamic business, with career opportunities and welcoming working environment.
If you think you have everything we're looking for and more, then we'd love you to apply for the opportunity.
Copper is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and equal opportunities in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. So bring us your experience, perspectives and skills. It is in our differences that we will continue to grow and ensure Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets.
Copper is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and equal opportunities in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. So, bring us your experience, perspectives, and skills. It is in our differences that we will continue to grow and ensure Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets. Copper is a Disability Confident Employer, please let us know if you have a disability. If you require us to provide any assistance during the recruitment process, then we would ask you to highlight this to us and we will be happy to accommodate.
