I'm Steven Geller. I've spent the last 20 years building and securing infrastructure, most of it in financial systems. Currently a CTO working at the convergence of blockchain and AI.
The short version: I care about systems that give individuals more control over their own money, data, and identity. The cypherpunks were right about most things. Decentralization isn't decoration. It's the security model.
What I actually do
I lead engineering teams building payment rails, self-custody wallets, and the plumbing that lets autonomous agents interact with decentralized protocols. Before that I spent years on infrastructure security, threat modeling, and cryptographic systems. The common thread is building things that work under adversarial conditions.
The areas I spend the most time in right now: AI agent infrastructure, Lightning and stablecoin payment flows, zero-knowledge systems, and post-quantum cryptography. I don't write code for most of these anymore. I define the architecture, set the constraints, and make sure the teams building them understand what failure looks like.
How I think
First principles over best practices. Best practices are just first principles that someone else already figured out for a different context. When the context changes (and it always does), best practices break before first principles do.
I optimize for compounding. Small teams, big missions, correctness over velocity. The details on why are in my writing.
Outside work
Father of two. I teach my kids to run lemonade stands that accept Lightning payments and to think in systems. Reader of history, economics, and philosophy.
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Last updated: March 2026