Amir Forouzani

Amir Forouzani is a researcher and technology contributor with a background in data science, engineering, and scientific research. He is the co-founder and CEO of Puffer Finance and previously worked as a data scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a graduate research assistant at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and a research assistant at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. ^[1]

Education

Forouzani graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2017. He then attended the University of Southern California, where he earned his MS in Electrical Engineering in 2020. ^[3]

Career

Forouzani worked as a Research Assistant at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics from June 2016 to December 2017. From May 2018 to May 2020, he worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, where his work also included electrical and integration engineering. From June 2020 to November 2022, Forouzani worked as a Data Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Forouzani began contributing to Puffer Finance in November 2022. He also held a full-time Contributor position at the company beginning in February 2023 and continues in both roles. ^[2]

Interviews

AI Moves Money

At TOKEN2049 in October 2026, Forouzani participated in a fireside chat with Richard Widmann of Google and Carl Jiang of Anchorage Digital on infrastructure for institutional and AI agent-driven payments. The panelists discussed Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), which supports controls over agent transactions through spending limits and agreed-upon purchase details, and how cryptocurrency-based pay-as-you-go payments could enable new types of purchasing activity. They suggested that adoption would likely begin with emerging use cases, including pay-per-call services and limited treasury experiments, before extending to established business-to-business and consumer payment flows. The discussion also covered the governance requirements for agent payments, including identity verification, authorization, spending limits, and accountability, as well as board-level oversight and separation of duties. ^[7]

Presentations

Agentic Economy

At TOKEN2049 in October 2026, Forouzani discussed the emerging agentic economy, in which AI agents conduct transactions and purchase data, computing resources, and other services. He examined the implications for Ethereum’s stablecoin and real-world asset activity, highlighting questions around transaction speed, settlement infrastructure, and security when granting AI agents access to financial accounts. Forouzani outlined Puffer’s development from a liquid staking platform toward Unifi, a scaling solution designed to support fast transactions and connectivity with Ethereum. He described its execution environment and real-time proofs, citing transaction times of approximately 20 seconds and finalization in 12 seconds. He also discussed partnerships with Google Cloud and Anchorage, which provide infrastructure and custody services relevant to agent-driven transactions, including controls such as trading and liquidation limits. The presentation concluded with a flash-loan demonstration connecting Layer 2 activity with Ethereum liquidity, along with an introduction to discussions on blockchain scaling, AI agents, and supporting infrastructure. ^[6]

Underwrite Yields

At the Digital Asset Yield Summit in May 2026, Forouzani discussed the security and risk-management requirements institutions face when allocating capital to decentralized finance (DeFi). He identified risks including hacks, irreversible transactions, composability, and operational security weaknesses, and outlined Puffer’s security measures, including upgrade time locks, community-controlled multisignature safeguards, two-ETH operator bonds, and guardian modules for verifying off-chain code. Forouzani also described liquid staking products designed for institutions that require segregated pools and know-your-customer (KYC) controls. He also presented Puffer Unifi, an execution environment designed to provide customizable transaction processing and allow institutions to set their own operational rules while accessing Ethereum’s security and liquidity. He explained that Puffer’s products were intended to address the needs of both individual staking participants and institutions seeking tailored blockchain environments and security controls. ^[5]