# Dominic Romanowski

> Dominic Romanowski is an Australian crypto builder, co‑founder of Derive (originating as Lyra Finance) and a Lyra Foundation core contributor. He previously wor...

- Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/dominic-romanowski
- Categories: People in crypto
- Tags: Developer, Founder
- Created: 2026-05-11T23:31:46.043Z
- Last updated: 2026-05-12T17:33:50.172Z
- Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki)

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**Dominic Romanowski** is an Australian software engineer and blockchain developer best known as a co‑founder of [Derive Protocol](https://iq.wiki/wiki/derive-protocol), a [decentralized finance (DeFi)](https://iq.wiki/wiki/defi) project. His professional background spans [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) engineering and backend development, with roles at technology firms and crypto‑native organizations, alongside contributor responsibilities connected to Derive’s ecosystem. [\[1\]](#cite-id-IUJYmCwI0H2WBpdY) [\[2\]](#cite-id-R2xQMic3Rm22GCKG)​

## Education

Romanowski studied computer science at the University of Sydney from 2014 to 2018, earning a bachelor’s degree in the field. Prior to university, he attended St Patrick’s College, Strathfield, graduating in 2013. [\[4\]](#cite-id-ygmKHR9s9zPPjvo3) 

## Career

Romanowski began his career as a research assistant at the University of Sydney between 2016 and 2017, where he participated in a summer research program focused on Soufflé, a Datalog-to-C++ translation system.

In 2017, he worked as a blockchain engineer at Synthetix before joining BLOCK8, where he continued working on blockchain infrastructure and development until 2019. He later joined Canva as a backend engineer, working there from 2019 to 2021.

In 2021, Romanowski became a core contributor to the Lyra Foundation, which supported the development of the Lyra decentralized options trading protocol. The project later evolved into [Derive Protocol](https://iq.wiki/wiki/derive-protocol), expanding its focus toward broader on-chain derivatives infrastructure.  [\[1\]](#cite-id-IUJYmCwI0H2WBpdY)  [\[2\]](#cite-id-R2xQMic3Rm22GCKG)  [\[4\]](#cite-id-ygmKHR9s9zPPjvo3)