Short CV highlights
For a full CV, please contact me directly.
Academic Posts and Experience
- Lecturer at University of Exeter, 2022 to present. Area: Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, and Fintech. Lecturing on modules such as Blockchain, Python, Advanced Fintech, and creating and delivering the Smart Contracts module.
- Research Fellow (Wallscourt) at University of the West of England (UWE), 2020 to 2022. Area: Fintech and Blockchain. Research includes the creation and leadership of Blockchain and Fintech modules.
- Post-doctoral Researcher with Innovation Stipend at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 2018 to 2020. Area: Cryptography, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies. Building on research from the Graphchain project and startup company.
- Doctoral Research Fellow at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) & Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 2014 to 2019. Area: Cryptography and Information Security. Principal Supervisor: Prof. Colin Boyd. Co-Supervisors: Prof. Kristian Gjøsteen & Asst. Prof. Xavier Boyen.
- Masters with Distinction from University of London, Royal Holloway (RHUL), 2011 to 2012. Mathematics of Cryptography and Communications. Dissertation: Applications of Path Algebras in Cryptographic Systems.
- Bachelors (1st Class) with Honours in Mathematics from Keele University, 2006 to 2009.
Other Relevant Experience
- CTO at siignd - Developing future-proof, and reliable document attestation, with PQ technologies.
- Founder and Director of Lybell Graphchain - Established and led a UK-based blockchain development company focused on innovative applications of blockchain technology. Deployed two main technologies: graphchain.org and no-wallet.io
- CEO of Graphchain AS, Norway - Led a blockchain technology startup that secured over £200,000 in public investment and achieved more than €1 million in private investment, advancing blockchain solutions for scalable and efficient ledger systems.
- Deloitte Oslo - Senior Consultant and Subject Matter Expert, consulting on blockchain, distributed ledger technology, and financial technology.
Courses Responsible and Supported
- Smart Contracts, 2023/24 - Module Leader and creator, Exeter. Developing understanding of the fundamentals of smart contracts and deploying a smart contract to the Ethereum testnet.
- Bitcoin, Money and Trust, 2021/22/23 - Module Leader, Exeter. Lecturing on the technical and cryptographic aspects of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.
- Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies, 2021 - Module Leader, UWE. Lecturing on the fundamentals of Bitcoin and Blockchain for MSc students.
- Introduction to Python, 2021 - Co-Module Leader, Exeter. Introductory module to Python coding and data analysis for level 1 undergraduates.
- Fintech, 2020/21 - Module Leader, UWE. Lecturing on Blockchain, AI, Big Data, and Fintech developments for level 3 undergraduates.
- The Fintech Environment, 2020 - Module Leader and sole module owner, UWE. Lecturing on Blockchain, AI, and Big Data for MSc-level students.
- Information Security, 2019 - Principal lecturer and course organiser, NTNU. Teaching and lecturing the information security course. Creating and marking assignments. Overseeing the redesign of the course lab.
- Blockchain Technology, 2019 - Principal lecturer and course organiser, NTNU. Teaching and lecturing the blockchain course. Creating course material, creating and marking assignments, and preparing the exam.
- Information Security, years 2014, 2015, and 2017. Included overseeing student lab work, grading essays, and providing feedback and advice to students.
- Wireless Security, years 2014, 2015, and 2017. Included presenting and overseeing the lab and technical essay, grading lab reports, and redesigning grading criteria to better capture students' comprehension.
Research including Works in Submission, Eprint, Ongoing or Other Articles
- Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts, a technical introduction - Christopher Carr; Accepted textbook proposal, in-progress, 2024. Publisher: NoStarch / Cambridge.
- Introduction to Central Bank Digital Currencies and Their Technical Interoperability - Matilde Faro, Xiaojun Luo, and Christopher Carr; Published in Heliyon, Elsavier, 16-Dec-2022. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4297921.
- Adventures of a Light Blockchain Protocol in a Forest of Transactions - Santeri Paavolainen, Christopher Carr, and Essam Ghadafi; IEEE Access, Vol. 9, 30-Jul-2021. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3101717.
- Security Properties of Light Clients on the Ethereum Blockchain - Santeri Paavolainen and Christopher Carr; IEEE Access, Vol. 8, 30-Jun-2020. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3006113.
- Valuable Puzzles and Proofs of Work - Colin Boyd and Christopher Carr; ESORICS 2018: Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology CBT, 6-7 Sep-2018. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0.
- Zero-Knowledge Proof of Decryption for FHE Ciphertexts - Christopher Carr, Anamaria Costache, Gareth T. Davies, Kristian Gjøsteen, and Martin Strand; Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2018/026, 2018.
- Graphchain: a Blockchain-Free Scalable Decentralised Ledger - Xavier Boyen, Christopher Carr, and Thomas Haines; ACM Workshop on Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Contracts, 4-8 June 2018. DOI: 10.1145/3205230.
- Bitcoin Unchained - Christopher Carr, Colin Boyd, Xavier Boyen, and Thomas Haines; ERCIM News 110, July-2017: Blockchain Engineering.
- Key Recovery: Inert, Public, Transparent (KRIPT) - Colin Boyd, Xavier Boyen, Christopher Carr, and Thomas Haines; Mycrypt 2016, 1-2 Dec-2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61273-7.
- CARIBE: Cascaded IBE for Maximum Flexibility and User-Side Control - Britta Hale, Christopher Carr, and Danilo Gligoroski; Mycrypt 2016, 1-2 Dec-2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61273-7.
- Fair Client Puzzles from the Bitcoin Blockchain - Colin Boyd and Christopher Carr; ACISP 2016, 4-6 Jul-2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-40253-6_10.
- CARIBE: A Cascaded IBE Scheme for Maximum Flexibility and User-Side Control - Britta Hale, Christopher Carr, and Danilo Gligoroski; IFIP WG 11.4 Workshop iNetSec, 29 Oct-2015. IBM Research – Zurich Lab.
- A Guide to Fully Homomorphic Encryption - Frederik Armknecht, Colin Boyd, Christopher Carr, Kristian Gjøsteen, Angela Jäschke, Christian A. Reuter, and Martin Strand; Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2015/1192, 2015.
Other Research Experience and Achievements
- Founder of a start-up linked to a research innovation stipend - Secured funding through a successful application to continue post-PhD research at NTNU, resulting in a blockchain-based start-up where I serve as Head of Technology.
- Previous board member of DION - Represented PhD students, postdocs, and temporary academic staff across NTNU as a board member of DION.
- Lead role in the DAADppp Grand Project - Acted as a primary contributor to the "Group Homomorphic Encryption and Beyond" project, a collaboration between the University of Mannheim and NTNU, resulting in a paper for a book chapter.
- Member of COINS research organisation - Active member of the COINS research school on information security coinsrs.no.
- Co-founder of NTNU’s Blockchain Lab - Helped establish NTNU's Blockchain Lab, expanding it across campuses and integrating it into a larger blockchain-focused group.
- Organiser of Trondheim's blockchain Meetup group - Engaged with the local community by organising meetups focused on blockchain technology in Trondheim.
- Regional finalist in Norwegian Research Grand Prix - Finalist in a national research dissemination competition ntnu.no/forsker-grand-prix.
- Organiser of reading and research labs - Coordinated reading and research labs at NTNU and QUT, fostering collaboration and ongoing research partnerships.
- Completed doctoral-level courses - Courses included Cryptographic Protocols, Wireless Security, Identity-Based Encryption, and Topics in Telematics.
- Peer reviewer - Provided peer reviews for journals and conferences including IJIS, BCC'17, AIIPCC, and others.
- Conference, school, and workshop attendee - Participated in events such as the Nordic Blockchain Conference '22, Eurocrypt '22, Eurocrypt '19, Norsec '18, EuroS&P '17, Real World Crypto '17, Asiacrypt '16, UCL workshop on distributed ledgers '16, and others.
- Research visit to UCL - Undertook a research visit at University College London, Feb '17 to March '17.
- Pedagogical training in Team-Based Learning.
- Partial completion of the PGCAP from UWE - Pursued pedagogical development through the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice at UWE.
Invited Talks and Presentations
- Presentation of research project at DNB NXT, Oct '24
- Forthcoming book with major publishing house, Mar '24
- Invited talk on Stranded Energy and Bitcoin Mining, Mulanje base, Malawi, Nov '23
- Keynote on Smart Contracts, CHIST-ERA conference, Sep '23
- Pannelist in Web3 Security at Nordic Blockchain Conference, Copenhagen, Sep '23
- Organised seminar on the Real Value of Cryptocurrencies, Exeter (Fintech West), Jan '23
- Panellist, SET-squared event on Fintech Legal Frameworks, Exeter Innovation Centre, Jan '23
- Presentation of Graphchain AS (blockchain startup), Fintech West, Bristol, Feb '21
- Seminar on Scalability in Blockchain Systems, UWE Computer Science & Law, Dec '20
- Presenting Blockchain Research, UWE Economics Seminar, Feb '20
- Panel member, Energy Markets for Climate Festival, Trondheim, '19
- Presentation on Graphchain and DAGs, Bitcoin Krakow Meetup, Apr '19
- Talk on Foundational Blockchain Ideas, Tekna Research Dissemination, Trondheim, Mar '19
- Presentation of Graphchain, Oslo Big Data Day, Mar '19
- Graphchain and DAG Technologies, Bitcoin Trondheim Meetup, Mar '19
- Invited Talk on Blockchain Technology, Next Digital Seminar, Ålesund, Feb '19
- Presentation of Graphchain Research Project, Master Workshop 2.0, Amsterdam, Nov '18
- Talk on "How to Get a PhD," COINS Seminar, Svalbard, Sep '18
- Presentation of Accepted Paper, ESORICS CBT Workshop, Barcelona, Sep '18
- Final Seminar Presentation of PhD Work, QUT, Brisbane, Feb '18
- Current Research Presentation, Griffith University Security Seminar, Gold Coast, Feb '18
- Norwegian Researcher Grand Prix, Trondheim, Sep '17
- Latest Research Directions, SWITS/COINS Security Seminar, Oslo, Jun '17
- Directions in Modern Cryptocurrencies, Cryptography Group Seminar, University of Bristol, Mar '17
- Presentation of Accepted Paper, Mycrypt, Kuala Lumpur, Dec '16
- Presentation of Accepted Paper, ACISP, Melbourne, Jul '16
- Bitcoin Ransomware Analysis, School on Blockchain Technologies, Corfu, Jun '16
- Blockchain Applications, Security Seminar in Cryptographic Applications, Banja Luka, Oct '15
- Embedding Hidden Messages in Bitcoin, Norwegian Security Seminar, Trondheim, Sep '15
- Research panel, Ph.D Seminar, Tromsø, Oct '14
Sample of Masters Supervision Topics
- Money Laundering and AI - Exploring machine learning models to detect patterns of money laundering within financial transaction data.
- Financial Crime and Big Data - Utilising big data techniques to analyse and detect financial crimes across large datasets.
- Understanding DAG-based Cryptocurrencies - Analysing Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) as an alternative to blockchain structures in cryptocurrencies.
- Decentralised Identity Management Systems and Self-Sovereign Identity - Developing frameworks for identity verification systems that prioritise user sovereignty and decentralisation.
- Building a Layer-1 Cryptocurrency - Designing and implementing a foundational cryptocurrency protocol, focusing on consensus mechanisms and security.
- Building a Music App in Ethereum - Creating a decentralised application for music sharing and monetisation using Ethereum smart contracts.
- Comparative Analysis of Bitcoin and Ethereum - Conducting a technical and functional comparison of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks and their respective ecosystems.
- Creating a Bitcoin Transaction Front End - Developing a user interface to facilitate the creation, management, and analysis of Bitcoin transactions.
- Ransomware Analysis on the Bitcoin Transaction Set - Investigating Bitcoin transactions associated with ransomware attacks to identify key trends and patterns.
- Bitcoin Transaction Capture and Analysis - Building tools to capture and analyse Bitcoin transactions for insights into transaction behaviour and network health.
- Secure Timestamping Systems - Designing a timestamping system to verify the integrity and time of creation of digital documents using blockchain technology.
- Implementing CryptDB - Implementing a database encryption solution that supports SQL queries over encrypted data, based on the CryptDB framework.
Awards, Scholarships and Funding
- University of Exeter and Fintech SW - The Smart Contracts module, which I designed and built, was selected as a finalist in the "Best Academic Programme of the Year" category in Fintech. July 2023.
- University of Exeter - Continued the Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) project, contributing to an ESRC bid in collaboration with the Universities of Exeter, Bristol, and Southampton. Concluded in 2023.
- University of the West of England - Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) project: Awarded an initial £20,000 grant for a pilot project, leading to further research at Exeter. This was conducted in partnership with HMRC on blockchain applications within the "Making Tax Digital" framework, 2021/2022.
- Queensland University of Technology - Selected for the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in Australia, 2019.
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Technology Transfer Office - Received 200,000 NOK in Discovery Project funding to support the initial development stage of the Graphchain project, Norway, 2019.
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Technology Transfer Office - Secured 500,000 NOK in FORNY funding for the advancement of the Graphchain project, Norway, 2019.
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology - Innovation Stipend awarded, approximately 1,000,000 NOK, to support practical application of research. Norway, 2018 to 2020.
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology - Regional finalist for the Norwegian Researcher Grand Prix competition.
- Queensland University of Technology - Awarded a higher degree researcher scholarship, Australia, 2015 to 2018.
- University of London, Royal Holloway - MSc Sponsorship awarded by the Lady Dorothy Grey Foundation, UK, 2011 to 2012.