Status: Applied 2026-01-25

Subject: Application - Full Stack / Infrastructure Engineer

Hi Cake Wallet Team,

I'm a full stack engineer with 15+ years of experience scaling systems, building security-focused infrastructure, and shipping open-source software. I've implemented hot wallet payments for Monero, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin with auto-quoting based on cart totals. Your mission of making self-custody achievable and financial privacy approachable resonates deeply with my own work.

My crypto payment integrations in production:

- https://blog.makepostsell.com/c/91d9119d-9c8e-11f0-9d98-02dfe05770ee/how-to-accept-monero-payments - Technical writeup of my Monero integration with automated cash register, risk thresholds, and cold wallet sweeps
- https://unsandbox.com/pricing - Code execution API accepting XMR, DOGE, BTC, LTC with refund address management
- https://git.unturf.com/engineering/make-post-sell/make_post_sell - Open-sourced to public domain

What I bring:

- Direct crypto payment integration experience, including Monero
- Security engineering background (Mandiant, Cofense) with SOC2/FedRAMP experience
- SRE expertise scaling systems for millions of users (Remind during COVID lockdowns)
- DevOps depth: CI/CD pipelines, containerization, infrastructure-as-code
- Open-source contributor mindset with multiple public projects
- 12+ years of successful remote work

I'm comfortable learning Flutter & Dart to contribute to the mobile codebase. My strength is breadth. I can own backend services, harden infrastructure, implement payment integrations, and improve developer workflows. With a small team, that versatility matters.

I believe financial privacy is a fundamental right, not a luxury. I'd love to help Cake Wallet bring that freedom to more people.

Portfolio: https://russell.ballestrini.net
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/russellballestrini

Looking forward to connecting.

Russell Ballestrini
russell@unturf.com
