# Nick Almond

> Nick Almond is a British physicist, educator, and governance designer who moved from a two-decade academic career into Web3, where he leads Factory Labs, founded FactoryDAO, and serves as Head of Governance at Jito.

- Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/nick-almond
- Categories: People in crypto
- Tags: Solana, Developer, Founder, Influencer, Researcher
- Created: 2026-09-21T00:13:18.777Z
- Last updated: 2026-09-21T00:13:18.777Z
- Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki)

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**Nick Almond** is a British physicist, educator, and governance designer who works on [decentralized autonomous organizations](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dao) (DAOs) and [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) governance.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) He serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientist of Factory Labs and Head of Governance at [Jito](https://iq.wiki/wiki/jito).[\[1\]](#cite-id-7dg4l4owwu)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

## Early Life and Education

Almond studied at the University of Liverpool. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics between 2000 and 2003, graduating with second-class honours.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) He then took a one-year Master of Research (MRes) in Biophysics between 2003 and 2004, awarded with Distinction.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) He continued to a Doctor of Philosophy in surface science and biophysics from 2004 to 2008.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a professional recognition for teaching in UK higher education.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

## Academic Career

Almond spent roughly two decades in British higher education before moving full time into crypto, holding roles that combined subject teaching in mathematics and physics with institution-wide leadership of learning and teaching strategy.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### Liverpool John Moores University

Almond began his professional career as an Educational Project Manager at Liverpool John Moores University from May 2008 to September 2010, where he developed educational material to promote astrophysics in schools.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### Liverpool Hope University

Almond joined Liverpool Hope University in September 2010 and held three successive posts over seven years. As Lecturer in Mathematics and Mathematics Education from September 2010 to September 2012, he led modules in number theory and cryptography, mechanics, linear algebra, calculus, the history of mathematics, and technology in education.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) From September 2012 to April 2015 he was Lecturer in Education and Director of Postgraduate Courses, serving as programme lead of the university's education masters suite with strategic oversight of 16 masters courses, including a "flying faculty" provision delivered in Abu Dhabi.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) From April 2015 to September 2017 he served as Senior Lecturer in Higher Education and Director of Learning and Teaching Development, responsible for institution-wide learning and teaching initiatives, technology-enhanced learning strategies, the PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and the university's network of communities of practice.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### London College of Fashion

From September 2017 to January 2021, Almond was Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Enhancement at the London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts London. In that role he directed learning and teaching across the college, worked on governance and strategic organisational development, and led the unit "Emerging Technology in the Fashion Industry" alongside research into [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) and emerging technology.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) This post marked the point at which his academic interests began to converge on [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) and governance, work he would carry into his later crypto ventures.

## Career in Crypto and Web3

Almond's move into crypto overlapped with the end of his academic career; from mid-2020 he held [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) roles concurrently with his final university appointment before transitioning fully into [Web3](https://iq.wiki/wiki/web3).[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### finance.vote

From July 2020 to September 2023, Almond was Protocol Leader at finance.vote, which he describes as a quadratic-voting-based prediction market.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) Quadratic voting is a governance mechanism in which the cost of casting additional votes on an issue rises quadratically, so that intensity of preference can be expressed while limiting the influence of concentrated holdings. [\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### Factory Labs and FactoryDAO

Almond founded Factory Labs in April 2022, initially serving as Founder and Architect of FactoryDAO, a next-generation modular DAO creation protocol.[\[4\]](#cite-id-ebcb009717)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) In that founding role he worked on cryptoeconomics, decentralised governance design, token economics, and voting systems design.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) In September 2023 he became Chief Executive Officer of Factory Labs, leading governance design, DAO infrastructure research and development, AI research, DAO outreach, education initiatives, and [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) architecture.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

### Jito

Almond serves as Head of Governance at [Jito](https://iq.wiki/wiki/jito), a Solana-based project.[\[1\]](#cite-id-7dg4l4owwu) This position applies his governance-design work directly within the [Solana](https://iq.wiki/wiki/solana) ecosystem, a network he has publicly characterised as "business crypto."[\[1\]](#cite-id-7dg4l4owwu)​

## Research and Publications

Almond's academic research spanned mathematics education, teaching and learning programming, higher education governance and development, innovative teaching and learning methods, and the challenges faced by international students and expatriates.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) His publication record comprises five works with four citations and an h-index of one, four of them published since 2015.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) His most-cited work, "The Flying Faculty," co-authored with Daniela Mangione and published in 2015, examines internationalising curriculum in an Arabic context and reflects his experience overseeing overseas masters provision.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) Other works include a 2015 paper on a virtualised collaborative writing methodology for developing postgraduate academic literacy, and a 2012 study on interactive starting points for problem solving in undergraduate mathematics co-authored with Susan Pope and Anesa Hosein.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt) His recurring academic collaborators included Daniela Mangione, Vicky Neale, Susan Pope, and Anesa Hosein.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​

Almond's technical work extends into open-source software, where he has developed tools reflecting his interests in governance and knowledge structuring. These include a quadratic-voting-based token distribution simulator supporting sequentialised follow-on rounds; "flslides," described as a framework for structuring knowledge as markdown slides; "BGTranslate," an AI-powered teleprompter-style translation system; and "sbv-analyser," a hypergraph-based visualiser for semantic ballot vote data.[\[2\]](#cite-id-gq56qz6clt)​