Amirul Ashraf
- Full name
- Muhammad Amirul Ashraf
- About
- Ashraf is a generalist with a deep streak in performance optimisation. From core contributions on Nethermind's flagship Ethereum client (cutting state/snap sync from ~3 hours to ~35 minutes, and shipping the HalfPath and FlatDB database layouts) to high-QPS backend work at Grab, Ashraf is most at home where there is a performance curve to bend. His work spans small contract jobs to enterprise employers such as Amazon and Grab, across C#/.Net, Go, Rust, Java, TypeScript and Ruby.
- Specialization
- Performance optimisation, databases & storage, Ethereum execution clients
- Skills
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- Performance optimisation: profiling and hot-path tuning, sync and pipeline optimisation, memory and allocation tuning, benchmarking
- Databases & storage: RocksDB internals and tuning, custom storage layouts, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Solr; ZFS, NVMe-oF, iSCSI, RDMA
- Blockchain: Ethereum execution client internals, state/snap sync, Protocol Guild
- Server-side: C#/.Net, Go, Rust, Java, Ruby on Rails; large micro-service architecture, high QPS, high reliability and big data systems
- Frontend: TypeScript, React, Electron
- Github
- https://github.com/asdacap/
- Email address
- asdacap@gmail.com
- Language
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- English
- Malay
- Education
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- Master of Artificial Intelligence, University of Malaya (2025). Pass with Distinction, CGPA 3.74.
- Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (2017). CGPA 3.601, "Best Computer Science Student" of the batch.
- Attachments
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- Experience
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Nethermind - Ethereum Core Developer (.Net) (Contract)
Remote, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Core contributor on Nethermind's flagship Ethereum execution client. Member of the Protocol Guild.
- Worked on The Merge and subsequent protocol upgrades; Nethermind's network share grew from ~3% to ~33% over this time.
- One of the top three code contributors since 2022, with 750+ merged PRs and 750+ PR reviews.
- Cut state/snap sync duration from ~3 hours to ~35 minutes.
- Proposed and shipped the HalfPath database layout (~40% faster block processing, 20× less database growth), then its successor FlatDB, now Nethermind's default state backend.
- Led a large-scale architecture refactor to decouple the client from its state storage.
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Amazon Prime Video - Software Development Engineer
London, United Kingdom
- Part of the Quality Platform SDK team for Digital Video, Mobile and Web Tech org, developing tools and software to help write and automate testing.
- Reduced the service codebase by 60% by creating a DSL to remove boilerplate and replacing a significant portion of the service with an open-source library.
- Fixed bugs in internal tools, reducing the failure rate by 90%, through better observability, unit test coverage and robustness against intermittent mobile device failures.
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Grab - Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
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Grab - Software Engineer, Backend
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
- Implement and maintain Grab's safety related features such as customers face recognition integrations, textual machine learning pipelines and others.
- Quickly adapted to Grab's vast back-end architecture, which helps bring the new KL team up to speed.
- Exposed to the culture and practices needed to work with a large micro-service architecture with very high QPS and reliability requirement.
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Petronas ICT - Senior Full Stack Developer (Contract)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Develop an improved version of a gas delivery monitoring system for Petronas Terengganu Operations Coordination Center. System consist of several AngularJS SPA connected to a .Net API server with MS-SQL database. -
Petronas ICT - .Net Developer (Contract)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Develop a .NET MVC system to replace current IBM BPM based solution. Modified IBM BPM BPDs and interface with .NET MVC as a transitional solution through IBM BPM's REST API's. -
NetByteSEC - Full Stack Developer (Part Time)
Bangi, Malaysia
- Developed DEALS, a website defacement tracker, including a backup URL scraper service in the Phoenix framework.
- Developed a Quality Management System for a client in Ruby on Rails, with RSpec tests and a Docker setup for easier deployment.
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- Projects
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TreeTerm - TypeScript, Electron
A terminal multiplexer for running multiple AI coding agents across machines over SSH. Sessions survive client restarts and disconnects, and workspaces are Git worktrees. -
Parrot - .Net Native AOT
A local coding agent that runs interactively, takes one-shot prompts, or is hosted as a service for remote clients. -
GreenDotRDMA - Rust
A storage-appliance web UI exporting ZFS zvols over NVMe-oF and iSCSI, showing at a glance whether each export is actually served over RDMA.
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- Activities
- ACM-ICPC: problem setter for the Asia Regional Kuala Lumpur Contest 2019 and the Al-Khawarizmi National Programming Competition 2018–2019; top 60 of 150 Southeast Asian teams at the Asia Regional Singapore 2015.