Ryan X. Charles

Alamere Falls

Ryan X. Charles at Alamere Falls, California, 2020

Brief Bio

Silicon Valley expat living in Texas Hill Country. Astrophysicist, software engineer, product designer, entrepreneur, and poet. Enthusiastic about the Andromeda galaxy, artificial intelligence, and web 4.0 (post-cryptocurrency).

Interests

Software engineering. The web, node.js, TypeScript, distributed systems, cryptography, Python, high performance computing, VS Code, GitHub Copilot, iTerm 2, Kagi, Microsoft Edge, Macbook Pro, Apple Pro Display XDR, Spotify.
Product design. User experience is key. Photoshop, Midjourney, tailwind.
Physics research. Quantum mechanics, general relativity, probability theory, information theory, statistical mechanics, artificial intelligence, and old school pencil and paper technology.

Work Experience

Founder & CEO of rxc.ai. 2022 - today. rxc.ai is an AI-friendly social network, and a team of AI agents such as Baxter and Artificial American. Technologies include TypeScript, Remix, PlanetScale, Fly.io, AWS, GitHub Copilot, TeX, python, and AI/ML.
Independent Consultant. 2020 - today. Engineering consultant across multiple companies and projects. Engineering management, Node.js, Amazon Keyspaces, Cryptography, and TypeScript, belatedly, but happily.
Founder & CEO of Money Button. 2018 - 2020. Bitcoin Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) and consumer payment system. Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, Cryptography, Argentina, and the UK. Built a team, launched products, and ultimately sold the company. Acquired by The Bayesian Group in 2020.
Founder & CEO of Yours. 2015 - 2018. A social network with Bitcoin micropayments for content. Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, and Germany. Invented technologies, built a product, raised money, hired a team, and pivoted to Money Button. Acquired by The Bayesian Group in 2020.
Entrepreneur in Residence at IDEO. 2015 - 2016. IDEO is a large design firm and I worked with the blockchain group on research projects including what would become Yours/Money Button.
Advisor at Hedgy. 2015 - 2016. Hedgy was a smart contract platform for Bitcoin and I advised on Bitcoin protocol and software matters.
Software Engineer at BitGo. 2015. Bitcoin WaaS company making it easy to manage Bitcoin securely for businesses and individuals. Worked on full stack Node.js/Angular.js Bitcoin wallet product.
Cryptocurrency Engineer at reddit. 2014 - 2015. Early experiments in cryptocurrency at a large social network. Yishan, Ellen Pao, Alexis Ohanian, Sam Altman, and HRD Coffee Shop (RIP).
Software Engineer at BitPay. 2013 - 2014. Making it easy to accept Bitcoin payments. Full-stack Node.js webapp with callback pyramids, handlebars, Mongo, and Molecule. Open source Bitcoin tools, chicken, and waffles. Not much salt, not many road plows.
Research Assistant at Wash U. 2007 - 2013. Researched experimental high energy astrophysics. Dark matter, cosmology, and observations at VERITAS, Whipple Observatory, Southern Arizona. Python, C, C++, and heterogenous computing architectures.
Freelance web developer. 2000 - 2005. PHP, HTML/CSS, MySQL, Photoshop, and copy+pasted javascript code.

Educational background

PhD Candidate in Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. 2007 - 2013. I finished all the qualifications for a PhD except writing and defending my thesis, meaning I am all-but-dissertation (ABD) at Wash U. I'm still writing it and plan to finish it soon. Ultimate frisbee, weight lifting, paleo, Linux, telescopes.
BS in Physics and BS in Mathematics from University of Missouri-Columbia. 2002 - 2007. Double major in physics and mathematics at Mizzou. Jimmy Johns, hoodies, Stankowski, dual CRTs, and the library.

Life history

Born in St. Charles, MO, USA in 1984. Grew up in the ~ 250 mile radius around St. Louis, MO, mostly in West County. Lived in Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, California and Texas. Traveled to 15 countries. Lives in New Braunfels, TX in the Austin / San Antonio corridor of the Texas Triangle (a.k.a. San Austinio).

#NBTX