Researcher, builder, math enthusiast based in US

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I love learning, exploring and building. My one word description is "curious". Right now I am working on privacy technologies, verifiable computing, and mathematically-enabling technologies. My current interests are number theory, zero knowledge cryptography, game theory, MEV, and Austrian economics.

For the last five years I have worked as a corporate restructuring professional on bankruptcy trade claims. Corporate restructuring is a fascinating world of information, incentives, and markets. About the same time I started tinkering in Solidity. I'm particularly interested in cryptoeconomics and how zero knowledge technologies can be used to reduce MEV. About half of my free time I think about these concepts, work on understanding different protocols and commitment schemes. The other half of the time I think about large language models and prompt engineering. I'm particularly interested in how these can be used to augment knowledge driven-industries, like corporate restructuring. I'm working with tools like LangChain, LlamaIndex, webscraping, Pinecone.

• Ash Breeze. I'm building generative AI tools using large language models, LangChain, and Pinecone to help provide more relevant data to creditors.
• ZK/MPC/FHE/MEV. I am looking to help new companies in math-intensive industries. I can help with advisement, fractional CFO work, and networking. I'm also building a personal portfolio of small investments in this space.

• Zero knowledge cryptography. I've completed the Stanford Zero Knowledge Proof MOOC here, the Encoe ZK Bootcamp., and the MIT ZK IAP here. I'm working on learning Circom.
• Solidity. I'm interested in MEV and how ZK cryptography can be used to reduce bad MEV. I completed the Encode Solidity Foundation and Eolidity Expert Bootcamps. I'm also interested in decentralized market building.
• Generative AI applications. I'm building tools with LangChain and OpenAI to help creditors in restructuring.

These are recent events I've traveled to and participated in the community.

• ZK Summit 9. Lisbon, Portugal. April 2023.
• ZK Hack Lisbon. Lisbon, Portugal. April 2023.
• zkWeek in the Pit. Chicago, Illinois, USA. May 2023.
• Tokenomics 2023. New York, NY. October 2023.
• ZK Proof Policy @ DC. Washington, DC, USA. November 2023.
• Columbia Cryptoeconomics Conference. New York, NY. December 2023.

The following are my academic degrees.

• Phd. Mathematics. City University of New York Graduate Center. May 2013.
• M.A. Mathematics. City University of New York Graduate Center. May 2011.
• B.S. Marine Transportation. U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. June 2008.

These are things I've worked on in the past.

• Independent Researcher. August 2023 - Present.
• Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer. 507 Capital LLC. December 2018 - July 2023.
• Assistant Professor of Mathematics. The Minerva Project. August 2016 - August 2017.
• Assitant Professor of Mathematics. U.S. Naval Academy. July 2013 - July 2016.
• PhD Student, Mathematics. City University of New York Graduate Center.

My published research in mathematics.

• Miasnikov, N., Stout, B., and Williams, P. Automorphism loci for the moduli space of rational maps. Acta Arithmetica., 180(3): 267–296, 2017.
• Petsche, C., Stout, B. On quadratic rational maps with prescribed good reduction. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. 143 (2015), 1145-1158.
• Petsche, C., Stout, B. Global minimal models for endomorphisms of projective space. Journal de Theorie des Nombres de Bordeaux, Vol. 26 no. 3 (2014), 813-823.
• Stout, B. A dynamical Shafarevich theorem for twists of rational morphism. Acta Arithmetica. 166 (2014), 69-80.
• Stout, B., Towsley, A. Rational morphisms of bounded height and bounded resultant. Journal of Number Theory. Vol. 145 (2014), 426-432.