Nikolai Mushegian was a blockchain architect, entrepreneur, cryptocurrency expert, and technical Angel Investor, in Web 3.0 and protocols. He played a significant role in the early development of the MakerDAO, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. Nikolai also contributed to the design of the first Maker/DAI contract system and was a technical partner in the first iteration of the Balancer, which is an automated market maker. He was also often referred to as the "DAI architect" within the crypto community. ^{[1][2][3][4][8]}

Early Life and Education

Nikolai Mushegian's parents were Russian immigrants who moved to the United States for better job opportunities. Nikolai grew up in Kansas, United States, with his siblings and parents, but moved to Florida to pursue his profession and business. ^[2]

Nikolai attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and gained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2014. ^[1][2]

Career

Nikolai began his career as a software engineering intern at Apple between May and August 2013 where he helped the company improve tools for operating system performance analysis. He also served as a core developer at Bitshares, a proof-of-stake blockchain network, from May 2014 to February 2015. Nikolai also worked for Google as a software engineer from June to August 2015 and moved on to become the CEO of Dapphub between October 2015 and January 2018. ^[1][4]

Mushegian contributed to the advancement of various blockchain projects, gaining recognition for his instrumental role in designing decentralized financial platforms and stablecoin systems within the realm of blockchain technology.^[9]

He partnered with MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen as the original technical collaborator for the project. During the period from 2015 to 2018, he actively contributed to the protocol and the development of the decentralized stablecoin DAI, as indicated on his personal website. ^[9]

He also played a role in the establishment of projects like the automated market maker Balancer and Reflexer's RAI, which is a stablecoin backed by ether and based on DAI's framework. He also worked on a cryptocurrency project named Rico, which aimed to establish a free-floating decentralized stablecoin system. The project's objective was to position itself as a "spiritual successor of DAI" and adhere to DAI's original vision without making any concessions in its design and implementation. ^[9]

Achievements

Nikolai was involved in multiple blockchain projects, and among his successful efforts was the development of best practices for earned value management programming as a component of DApps. The aforementioned features consisted of DSProxy delegate call-based dynamic atomic composition, DSNote generic logging utility, DSAuth flexible authorization pattern, WETH, and the contract with the highest Ether balance. ^[4]

Investments towards DeFi Research

Nikolai Mushegian gave his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), 3,200 MKR tokens, which are valued at around $1.38 million as of June 2023. Mushegian expressed his intention to establish a research program focused on Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols and decentralized applications (DApps) through his donation. The allocated funds were meant to sponsor the research of Master's and Ph.D. students.^[4][6]
According to him:

"I am very concerned about the increasing rent-seeking behavior from some of the big players in this space, and also from existing banks and tech giants."

Death

Nikolai Mushegian was found dead on October 29, 2022, in Puerto Rico where he was discovered by a surfer off Ashford Beach, fully clothed and carrying his wallet. ^[3][2][7]

About four hours before his death, Nikolai tweeted:

"CIA and Mossad and and elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean Islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex gf who was a spy. They will torture me to death." ^[5]

Despite the shady circumstances surrounding his death, his family said they do not suspect any foul play in his death, which was unrelated to the tweet. Sources claimed that he was a 'paranoid' and 'troubled young millionaire' with a history of mental health problems. ^[2][7]