Bio

João Almeida, a multilingual tech visionary, knew a Bitcoin payment system could offer transformational benefits if it were able to scale. When the Lightning Network provided that scaling opportunity, the Portugal-born computer scientist helped lead the OpenNode team that became the first to develop and deploy this technology from a production level. Being at the forefront of implementing the Lightning Network, Almeida had the opportunity to generate, gather and apply the real firsthand data, making him a leading authority on building a global Bitcoin payment system. Almeida, who moved to NYC after earning a Master's degree in Informatics and Computer Engineering, previously served as the Head of Development at Masen.io. In this role, he helped create a digital gift card (CryptoGift), a directory of Bitcoin-friendly stores and one of the first e-commerce plugins for receiving Bitcoin payments. Several members of Masen.io went on to form OpenNode, where Almeida serves as the technology lead and prioritizes the company's acclaimed design-forward user experience.

Experiences

Co-founder, CTO

Present
OpenNode Inc.

Leading and developing infrastructure for a lightning network based payment processor.

Head of Development

Present
Masen LLC

Leading and developing blockchain projects with main focus on Bitcoin and Lightning Network;

Software Engineer

2017 - 2018
Cultural Vistas, New York

Lead development of a student's exchange platform.

Back-End Engineer - Freelancing

2016 - 2017
OMNI Online Solutions, California

Development of customized integrations between different software stacks to automate processes that previously were manual.

Back-End Engineer - Freelancing

2016 - 2017
Barbells for Boobs, California

Development of integrations with their main fundraising platform, Classy, to create customized extensions to be displayed on the website. Using Classy information to trigger special prizes on wooCommerce store. Responsible for money transactions data migration between campaigns.

Full Stack Developer - Freelancing

2016 - 2017
Artbattle, Toronto

Development of Artbattle's new website fully integrated on Wordpress with custom plugins, widgets and theme. Created an auction system fully integrated with slack to be used on the events and a data analysis dashboard.

Backend Engineer - Freelancing

2016
Ferreci USA, Los Angeles

Responsible for making the shipping proccess fully automated for all Ferreci's web stores. Custom integration between Overstock, Shipstation and WooCommerce.

Additional info

IEEE BIBM 2017 - KC, USA

November 2017

Presented Master Thesis at the premier research conference in bioinformatics and biomedicine

Deloitte ChallengeIT

October 2015

Winner Deloitte ChallengeIT @ Porto

Faculty of Biotechnology - UCP, Portuguese Society of Biotechnology

January 2012

Participation in the Finals of the VII Olympic Biotechnology

Ministry of Education

September 2007

"Entrepreneurship at School" - Speaker