azeem ashraf
--:--:-- UTC
lead full-stack engineer · typescript · ex-CTO

I build the rails money runs on.

Eight years across the full stack in TypeScript and Node, from the screens people tap down to the ledger underneath. Two worlds: regulated fintech, and the smart contracts I've been writing since 2018.

available for work 8 yrs full-stack fintech + smart contracts remote-first · open to UAE · Saudi · Qatar · Singapore · Australia
Azeem Ashraf

By the numbers

01 · what the work actually moved
NIFTRONco-founder & CTO
10Kusers / wallets
100Ktokens minted
5products shipped on the platform
10engineers led
$285Kraised
Mist Financiallead engineer · direct to CEO
A$3Mfunds processed
99%uptime
10microservices led
700+PRs shipped
~8engineer team
ASIC · AUSTRACregulated
Early on2018 to 2019
15K+registrations in 30 min · Google I/O Extended 2019, Dialog Ideamart (Blockevent)
Founding engbuilt the Tracified / Tillit Gateway from scratch in Go
Backed by
Lankan Angel Network NCinga
Trusted by
CreditNature Elevate Amaten KSPA KUR Collection AimChat

I work the full stack, from the screen someone taps to the ledger underneath it. The parts I'm known for are the invisible ones: moving money correctly, verifying who you are, settling when it says it did.

8yrs
full-stack in TypeScript and Node, fintech and chain
5yrs
founding CTO, from the contracts to the SDK to the team
3ERC
standards as a base, then extended by hand: escrow, vesting, dividend splitters, gasless meta-tx, upgradeable proxies
15K reg
handled in 30 min at launch, the Google I/O Extended Sri Lanka 2019 registration platform
the stack, top to bottominterface → chain
Languages
TypeScript·JavaScript·Solidity·Go·Python·PHP·Java·Dart·Swift
Interface
React·React Native·Next.js·Angular·Flutter·Vue
Services
Node·NestJS·Express·GraphQL
Data
PostgreSQL·MongoDB·DynamoDB·Redis
Blockchain
Solidity·EVM·Stellar·ERC-20/721/1155·UUPS·meta-tx·ethers.js·Truffle·Hardhat·Foundry
Cloud
AWS Lambda·SQS·API Gateway·Serverless·Terraform·Cognito·Docker

Selected work

02 · fintech & chain · 2018 to now
01 CHAIN co-founder & CTO · 5 years · the whole platform

NIFTRON

A blockchain-agnostic Blockchain-as-a-Service platform for tokenizing real-world and digital assets. I built it from zero and wrote the entire initial codebase myself, every Solidity contract (ERC-20/721/1155 with transfer restrictions and role-based access, plus escrow, vesting and timelocks), the Node.js backend and the Go services indexing chain events concurrently, all on AWS, then recruited and led the team who built on it. It grew into a full ecosystem: a platform that other products were built on top of.

the platform
  • Developer console · deploy chain-agnostic apps
  • Client & server SDKs · tokenize from any app
  • Hosted identity, wallets & auth
  • IPFS storage, explorer & marketplace
in-house products
  • Nexentry · KYC onboarding + mobile
  • DePro · on-chain product provenance & traceability
  • Gaming · on-chain game assets (POC)
client projects, on the platform
  • Elevate · tokenized marketplace
  • CreditNature · nature-credit market
  • Amaten · gift-card exchange
  • AimChat · UNNE-T · cards below ↓
shipped on the platform · in-house & client
Nexentryin-house CreditNatureclient Elevateclient Amatenclient AimChatclient
Colombo · 2020·$285K raised·backed by Lankan Angel Network & Spiralation
Solidity · EIP-712 · UUPS · Stellar · Go · AWS · IPFSCrunchbase ↗
02 FINTECH lead · BaaS · regulated

Mist Financial

Banking-as-a-Service for international students proving funds for Australian visas, under ASIC and AUSTRAC. I architect and lead the backend, a 10-service Node microservices system on AWS covering identity, KYC/AML, money movement, documents, e-commerce and notifications, working directly with the CEO and product, and owning technical direction and production releases for an 8-engineer team. Built the KYC/AML pipeline end to end, and cut our AWS cloud costs by about 40%.

Lambda · Express · DynamoDB · Terraform · KYC APIs10 services →
03 CLIMATE freelance · platform + on-chain

EcoFutures

Tokenizing environmental assets for a conservation, reforestation and green-tech organization. I architected the whole on-chain layer as a modular multi-contract protocol, a forked upgradeable ERC-20, core / admin / bank / lens separation, a shared library, and gasless meta-transactions, handling escrow, timelocks, dividend distribution and land easement rights. Shipped and hardened across six production iterations.

modular protocol · upgradeable ERC-20 · meta-tx · escrow / dividendsecofutures.io ↗
04 CHAIN freelance · infra

Cross-chain bridge

Bridge infrastructure between Ethereum and Polygon with custom token verification and security mechanisms. Also a BEP-20 token plus an NFT top-level-domain registry, where domain ownership lives on-chain as an NFT.

ETH to Polygon · verification · BEP-20infra →
05 CHAIN freelance · indexing infra · 2026

Ink Chain indexer

A production on-chain event indexer for Ink Chain. Polls the EVM chain with viem, decodes ERC-20 transfers and Uniswap V2/V3 swaps, and writes them atomically to Postgres via Prisma, raw logs plus typed tables. Exposes a GraphQL API with filtering and stats, and streams new events to clients over WebSocket subscriptions.

viem · Prisma / Postgres · GraphQL · WebSocketreal-time →
Client delivery at NIFTRON the studio shipped beyond chain too · product · mobile · delivery
06 PRODUCT client · via NIFTRON · chat

AimChat

A multi-platform messaging product. Split the backend into PHP microservices, chat, geo, accounts, and token services, behind a TypeScript gateway, with a React Native app and a native iOS client in Swift. Wired on-chain token rewards into the chat economy.

PHP microservices · React Native · Swift · on-chainmulti-platform →
07 DELIVERY client · via NIFTRON · courier

UNNE-T

An on-demand courier / delivery marketplace. Separate Flutter apps for customers, drivers, and admin over a Java backend and shared Dart packages, fully containerized. End to end: order dispatch, driver matching, live tracking, and Stripe hold-then-capture escrow payments.

Flutter / Dart · Java · Stripe · Dockerorder to delivered →

“Takes ownership. Doesn't panic. Works quickly. Takes initiative. Solves problems.”

Shariq Khwaja · Fractional CTO, Mist Financial · Technology Transformation Executive, 25 yrs
What NIFTRON's clients said · the platform I built & led

“DePro has transformed our rewilding process, bringing transparency and accountability to every step. Monthly progress updates give us the confidence that we're on track. We're grateful to Niftron for such a valuable tool.”

Cain BlytheFounder & CEO, CreditNature (spun out of Ecosulis)

“DePro has given me a competitive edge in the organic rice industry, a secure, tamper-proof record of my product's origin, process and quality. It's helped me build trust with my customers.”

Shashi MegawarnaFounder & CEO, Dev Ceylon

“DePro has given us a competitive advantage in our plastic hanger manufacturing, a verifiable record of origin, process and quality. It helped establish trust with our luxury brand clients.”

Nalin AnthonyChief Executive Officer, KSPA

“With DePro, we profile our entire product journey and prove our dedication to sustainability and women empowerment. It gives our customers complete transparency.”

Kasuni RathnasuriyaFounder, KUR Collection

How they work

03 · press run · the core use-case of each build
NIFTRONblockchain-as-a-service · auth to minted, transferable tokensin-house
01ConfigureSDK + project keys
→
02Authenticateuser via NIFTRON
→
03Mintcertificate / badge / SFT
→
04Transfertoken to a user
→
05Settlepayment / cross-chain
idle · press run
CreditNaturenature-credit marketplace · minted, sold, revenue auto-splitclient
01Connectwallet + login
→
02Mintnature-credit NFT
→
03Listfixed price / auction
→
04Buycollector purchases
→
05Splitproceeds to stakeholders
→
06Trackownership + activity
idle · press run
AimChatmessaging · chat, earn AimCoin, redeem at merchantsclient
01Verifyphone OTP signup
→
02Walletcustodial, per user
→
03Chatreal-time messaging
→
04EarnAimCoin + NFT minted
→
05Claimgasless via relayer
→
06Redeemmerchant coupons
idle · press run
UNNE-Ton-demand delivery · order to settled, with escrowed paymentclient
01Createcustomer posts order
→
02Matchhold funds, offer drivers
→
03Acceptdriver adopts, hold captured
→
04Deliverpickup → transit → dropoff
→
05Confirmcustomer confirms, payout
→
06Completepayment settled
idle · press run
EcoFuturesconservation land easements · verified, auctioned & vested on-chainfreelance
01Submiteasement request
→
02Verifyaudit + mint NFT
→
03Auctionbid for rights
→
04SettleKYC + escrow
→
05Releasetimelocked vesting
→
06RewardTree token payout
idle · press run

The systems, running

04 · the trust-critical layer · identity · contracts · payments
ERC-20 minton-chain
1,000,000TKN
supply is fixed until you mint
mints, emits a tx, waits for a block confirmation.
Event pipelineasync
✉
SQS
→
λ
Lambda
→
▤
Dynamo
the async layer behind payment workflows.
KYC / AMLstate machine
receivedintake
identity3rd-party
sanctionsscreen
clearedAUSTRAC
identity, then sanctions, then clear or flag.

The record

05 · each role linked to the last
Mar 2025present
Lead Full-Stack Engineer
Mist Financial (Dijital Team) · regulated BaaS, ASIC/AUSTRAC
Architect and lead a 10-service Node microservices platform (identity, KYC/AML, money movement, documents, e-commerce, notifications) on AWS + Terraform · working directly with the CEO and product, owning technical direction and production releases for an 8-engineer team; 700+ PRs shipped. Integrated onboarding across third-party KYC / identity and onboarding providers. Introduced Claude-based agentic testing for automated bug detection.
Feb 2020Feb 2025
Co-Founder & CTO
NIFTRON · blockchain-agnostic tokenization platform (BaaS)
Built the company and the entire stack from zero: Solidity contracts, meta-transactions, a multi-chain SDK, hosted identity & auth, IPFS storage, a developer console, AWS infra, and Go services for concurrent event indexing. Ran it as a platform and a studio: in-house products (Nexentry, DePro) plus client projects delivered on top (Elevate, CreditNature, Amaten, AimChat, UNNE-T). Led engineering, finance, and compliance.
Apr 2019present
Freelance Software & Blockchain Engineer
Self-employed · international clients, ongoing
Cross-chain bridges, tokenized asset platforms, dApp architecture, payment processing, and technical consulting. Recent: an Ink Chain event indexer · viem, GraphQL, Postgres, real-time WebSocket streaming.
Feb 2019May 2020
Blockchain Developer
Blockevent · Stellar-based event registration & ticketing
Built Blockevent, the blockchain-based (Stellar) registration platform for Google I/O Extended Sri Lanka 2019 (Dialog Ideamart, Google Developer Group Sri Lanka), which handled 15,000+ registrations within 30 minutes of opening. Tokenized tickets as Stellar tokens; research on protocol upgrades and financial smart contracts.
Feb 2018Apr 2019
Software Engineering Trainee
99X Technology (Tracified, now Tillit) · blockchain supply-chain traceability
One of the founding engineers on Tracified (now Tillit); built the Tracified Gateway from scratch in Go: gorilla/mux routing, goroutines for concurrent chain ingestion, test suites in Mocha and Chai.
foundation
First Class Honours · Corda Certified
BSc (Hons) Computer Science & Software Engineering · Bedfordshire HND IT · SLIIT · CGPA 3.82, Dean's List Corda Certified Developer (R3) Publication · Jigsaw, decentralized knowledge sharing

Let's build something that settles.

azeemashraff@gmail.com ↗ book a 30-min call ↗
résumé / CV whatsapp linkedin email github +94 76 578 5123
open to senior / lead roles or select freelance & advisory · remote-first · UAE · Saudi · Qatar · Singapore · Australia