Deep roots in engineering. Branches across the new economy.
A one-person engineering studio for the hard parts of web3, fintech and AI: consensus, DeFi, trading and autonomous systems. The person who designs your system is the person who writes the code — and the same hands build a portfolio of products to prove the bar.
- 12+
- years engineering
- ChainLocks
- consensus co-invented
- 7
- ventures of my own
- 1
- US patent
I don’t just advise. I ship — for clients, and for myself.
Most studios sell you a team and hand you a junior. Here, the same senior hands that ship your system build my own products — which is how you know the craft is real, and not a sales deck.
I build for clients
Senior web3, fintech and AI engineering: fractional CTO, protocol and system design, zero-to-one builds and security review. No juniors, no hand-off — there’s no one to hand off to.
I ship my own
Seven ventures growing from the same trunk: proof I take an idea all the way from a blank repo to something real, owned and operated.
A track record, not a pitch deck
The hard parts of crypto and fintech, delivered: from a top-5 chain’s consensus to a $100M-TVL DeFi protocol.
Dash
Lead backend & principal protocol engineering
Led backend development at Dash Core Group and co-invented ChainLocks, the LLMQ-based consensus that hardened a top-tier chain against 51% attacks. Built DAPI, the decentralised API, and led the SDK and DashPay wallet teams.
- Co-invented ChainLocks, consensus tech later reused across $350B+ of projects
- Architected DAPI, the decentralised API layer, and led wallet & SDK teams
- Ran crisis response on critical security disclosures
RWA protocol
DeFi & RWA protocol architecture
Architecture and core engineering for a real-world-asset protocol tokenising gold and housing, designed for on-chain transparency, a reusable signer layer, and an audit path from day one.
- Designed the tokenization and settlement architecture (RWA)
- On-chain transparency and proof systems
- Shared signer layer built once, reusable across protocols
Zebitex
Exchange & market-data infrastructure
Exchange APIs and trading infrastructure for a French centralised crypto exchange: standardised market data, order flow and the kind of correctness and uptime money demands.
- Standardised exchange & market-data APIs
- Real-time order flow and trading agents
- Correctness and uptime for live financial markets
Koinju
Institutional data infrastructure
Institutional-grade crypto data infrastructure aggregating 20+ sources into standardised, audit-ready datasets for NAV, CARF and IFRS/GAAP reporting, served over REST and SQL.
- Unified real-time and historical data from 20+ venues
- Audit-ready datasets for regulated reporting (NAV, CARF, IFRS)
- Public data API: OHLCV, trades, funding, Greeks
Capabilities
Deep capability across the disciplines that actually move money and data on-chain.
Web3 & Protocol Engineering
Layer-1s, consensus, P2P networks and the hard parts of blockchain, built by one engineer who shipped them at scale.
- Consensus & protocol design
- P2P networking & node infrastructure
- EVM, Cosmos SDK, Solana
Smart Contracts & Security
Solidity development and adversarial security review from a long-time CTF and bug-bounty practitioner.
- Solidity contract development
- Security review & threat modelling
- DEX & protocol mechanism design
DeFi & Tokenization (RWA)
DeFi architecture and real-world-asset tokenization: current, active work, not a slide deck.
- RWA & tokenization architecture
- Lending, stablecoin & yield design
- On-chain transparency & proof systems
Fintech & Payments
Financial systems and payment infrastructure that has to be correct, auditable and fast.
- Payment & settlement infrastructure
- Real-time financial data processing
- Exchange & market APIs
Automated Trading & Investment Tools
Trading bots, market data pipelines and the tooling around positioning and portfolio decisions.
- Automated trading bots
- Market data & signal pipelines
- Portfolio & investment tooling
AI Agents & Autonomous Systems
Agent infrastructure (memory, tooling, orchestration) for software that does real work unattended.
- Agent memory & orchestration
- Multi-model, tool-using systems
- Autonomous code & security review
Full-Stack, Mobile & Cloud
The whole stack (web, mobile, cloud and DevOps) shipped by one engineer who has done it for over a decade.
- React, Vue & modern web apps
- Cloud & DevOps (AWS, Docker, K8s)
- Scalable, real-time backends
Bring me in the way that fits
A short call, then the shape that suits the problem: leadership, design, build or review. I answer fast and start where it counts.
Fractional CTO & tech leadership
Senior technical direction without a full-time hire: architecture, hard calls, and a steady hand on the roadmap when the stakes are high.
Protocol & system design
The hardest part, done first: consensus, tokenomics, settlement, data and scaling architecture, designed by the engineer who shipped it on a top-tier chain.
Zero-to-one product build
A working product, not a deck. I take a hard idea from blank repo to something live: full-stack, on-chain and everything between, shipped end to end.
Security review & due diligence
Adversarial review of contracts and systems from a CTF and bug-bounty practitioner since 2013: findings with reproductions, not a checklist.
What I’m building
A portfolio of ventures grown from the same trunk as the client work — each one a product I run, not a slide in a deck.
Scintilla Network
Layer-1 blockchain
A next-generation, post-quantum oriented Layer-1 designed for scale, sovereignty and real economic activity, not speculation.
Learn more →Citadea
Cloud hosting
A developer-first hosting platform for the workloads that today’s clouds make awkward: web3 nodes, agent runtimes and modern web apps, hosted like a citadel.
Learn more →Kandlfeed
Market data feed
A candle feed for financial markets: clean OHLCV data streamed over WebSocket and served over a simple API, built for trading systems and dashboards.
Learn more →Windfehu
Automated wealth management
Your autonomous financial agent. Fund your wallet and Windfehu builds, rebalances and defends your portfolio. Family-office wealth management, for everyone.
Learn more →TweenOS
Agent operating system
Memory, tooling and orchestration for software that acts on your behalf, the substrate that turns a model into a dependable agent.
Learn more →Stateward
Project cybersecurity
Continuous cybersecurity for software projects (dependencies, code, secrets and every pull request) combining autonomous agents with the discipline of a senior security team.
Learn more →AutoSASU
Automated company operations
An automated company system that handles the administrative machinery of running a French SASU, end to end, so founders can build instead of file paperwork.
Learn more →Why “Yggdrasil”?
In Norse myth, Yggdrasil is the world-tree that holds the nine realms together. I run the studio the same way: one living system that turns engineering craft into ventures, and plants them in the world.
Roots
A decade of protocol, fintech and full-stack craft, the consulting practice that feeds everything above it.
Trunk
The studio itself: one senior engineer, shared infrastructure, no layers between design and code.
Branches
The ventures (Scintilla, Citadea, Kandlfeed, Windfehu, TweenOS, Stateward, AutoSASU), each growing on its own branch.
Seeds
Products released to take root beyond me: open source, protocols, platforms that outlive their maker.
Built by one engineer who has shipped at scale
Yggdrasil Digital was founded in 2022 by Alex Werner, co-inventor of the ChainLocks consensus protocol. The studio carries that bar everywhere: protocol-grade engineering applied to everything I ship, from client systems to my own ventures.
What teams ask before working with me
Straight answers on who I am, what I take on, and how an engagement starts.
What does Yggdrasil Digital do?
Yggdrasil Digital is a one-person senior engineering studio and product house based in Toulouse, France. I deliver web3, blockchain, DeFi, fintech, automated-trading and AI-agent engineering for clients, and build my own products from the same trunk, including Scintilla, Citadea, Kandlfeed, Windfehu, Stateward and AutoSASU.
Who actually does the work?
The senior person you talk to — me. Yggdrasil Digital is a studio of one, by design: there are no layers and no hand-off to juniors, because the person who designs your system is the person who writes the code. I am Alex Werner, co-inventor of the ChainLocks consensus protocol and a 12+ year full-stack and blockchain engineer.
What kind of projects do you take on?
The hard ones. Layer-1s and consensus, DeFi and RWA tokenization, exchange and market-data infrastructure, automated trading, AI agents and autonomous systems, and highly-scalable, highly-complex backends. If others have called it impossible, it is probably a good fit.
Do you do security reviews and audits?
Yes. I run adversarial reviews of smart contracts and systems, drawing on CTF and bug-bounty practice since 2013, and report findings with reproductions rather than a checklist. It is also productised as Stateward, my continuous security platform.
Where are you based, and do you work remotely?
I am based in Toulouse, France, and work with clients worldwide. Being EU-based matters for teams with data-residency and sovereignty requirements under GDPR, NIS2 and DORA.
How do engagements start?
A short call to understand the problem, then a proposal: fractional CTO and technical leadership, a focused protocol or architecture design, a zero-to-one product build, or a security review. I answer fast and start small where it makes sense.
Why does a studio build its own products?
Because shipping my own ventures keeps the craft honest and the bar high. I live with the same constraints my clients do. The client work funds the products; the products prove I can take an idea all the way to something real and operated.
Have something hard to build?
Protocols, DeFi, trading systems, agents: the work others call impossible is the work I want.