Cook, Artist, Developer, Teacher, Cat Owner
Infrastructure Engineer specializing in cloud and blockchain platforms for regulated financial services.
I design, build, and operate production blockchain infrastructure in-house, provisioned entirely as code. Every change, from infrastructure and Kubernetes config to secrets, DNS, and container images, flows through GitOps with a strict dev to prod promotion ladder, multi-account least-privilege boundaries, and observability as code. Over the past several years I have delivered settlement and compliance infrastructure for the financial sector, including helping architect platforms behind one of the largest blockchain initiatives backed by the Bank of England.
More recently, I have built the guardrails that let AI agents operate regulated infrastructure safely alongside me: scoped credentials, mandatory environment confirmation, branch isolation, and audit-grade traceability into Jira and Git, applying the same engineering standards I bring to the rest of the platform.
My expertise spans Terraform, Kubernetes and EKS, AWS, and HashiCorp Vault, with particular depth in PKI, certificate automation, and security and compliance in highly regulated environments, alongside the broader blockchain stack including Hyperledger Besu (QBFT), FireFly, and Blockscout.
Beyond my core work, I mentor engineers and build applications to keep exploring new technologies. Outside of tech, I enjoy trail running and studying Japanese and Lithuanian.
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What I've been up to
I am currently a Platform Engineer at Adhara, an international fintech company that specializes in high-value payments and liquidity management solutions based on blockchain technology. Here are some key points about my experience:
I am a part of the new extended platform engineering team within the DevOps tribe, which is an exciting opportunity for me to work with cutting-edge technology.
As a Platform Engineer, my role is to help design and build automated pipelines and environments for the company’s leading-edge technology solutions.
I am responsible for troubleshooting deployment and networking issues and creating proofs of concept.
My experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, Vault, Helm, EKS, Prometheus, and Grafana, are essential, as is my extensive knowledge of CI/CD and Linux.
Working in Fnality to create a network of decentralised Financial Market infrastructure (dFMIs) to deliver the means of payment-on-chain in tomorrow’s wholesale banking markets.
Working along with the biggest banks around the works to achieve a decentralised financial market. Constant work with Boe, CHAPS and FMID.
I’ve been part of the hiring process by performing interviews for the new platforms and non-platform engineer members in Fnality. Contributing to more than 20 hires.
A big part of my time has gone to creating PKI systems and various scales mainly using Hashicorp Vault.
During my time in Fnality, I’ve compleated a Hashicorp Vault certification, an AWS Cloud Practitioner and a Hashicorp Terraform certification
The tech stack we use: K8S, EKS, Terraform, Atlantis, Concourse, AWS, Azure, Helm, Grafana, Prometheus, Hashicorp Vault, Gitlab, Keybase, Docker, Notary, Harbor, Consul,
Main Knowledge: Certificate Authorities, SSL, PKI, TLS, TUF, EaaS, IaaS, IaC, Smart Contracts, Ethereum, Besu Hyperledger, Swift (financial messaging services), Morse Code (5 WPM)
Security Stack: Hashicorp Vault, Openssl, Stunnel, Gost,
Programming Languages: Python, Javascript, HCL, Bash,
Markup Languages: XML, HTML
Empello reveals ad placements and advertising flows, so that action can be taken against fraudulent advertising.
I was in charge of the technical operations department, consisting of 3 tech-ops engineers in the London office, 1 overseas and 30+ contractors around the world that create the infrastructure network Empello is build on. Where I meet my good friends and colleagues Pawel Czyrnek and Claudiu Vitega we still work on projects together.
I was also in charge of the finances for my department having to give balance sheets at the end of every month. We maintained and ran the network infrastructure based on VPNs / TP-Links using 3G / 4G networks around the world.
Part of the role was debugging VPN systems using Zyxel and TP-links. As well as using custom Python scripts to deliver automated mobile advertising results to compliance analysts.
There was a lot of development as part of the role; we created Django web apps for accounting and finances. As well as build and deployed URL scrappers in python on Ubuntu servers,
develop projects to better the infrastructure within the company and make APIs using Django Rest Framework for internal use.
We had to give maintenance to the company’s legacy software, hire team members and contractors when needed and provide IT training for tech and non-tech employees.

Mother Nature Science ensures children ages 5 to 12 everywhere are able to ‘have fun with science’, and with that instils a clearer understanding of what science is really about and how it affects the world around them.
I gave lectures in a fun and interactive way, finding exciting ways to explain to kids science concepts. I also developed lesson plans, and establish a reward system to manage behaviour. We also would have to report back to the parents on a daily bases the progress that the kids were having
For about two years, from 2014 to 2016 I worked as an extra on multiple tv shows, documentaries, and movies. It was a great experience seeing and working behind the scenes. These are some of the projects I was involved in. My favourite show to be on was Black Mirror San Junipero,
Passport to Murder Mexican drug dealer 2016
Black Mirror Drinker 2015
Life on the Road Fan 2015
Modern Life is Rubbish Dancer 2015
Head & Shoulders commercial Crowd 2015
Undercover Nurse 2015
The Royals Picnic Scene 2015
Crashing Property Guardian 2015
Some posts
Medium Posts
Stories by Valente Vidal on Medium
- How to Back Up and Restore Multiple Ethereum Validators from One Recovery backup (Without Taking… 03/24/2026
- The Blockchain That’s Been Running Since 1991 (And it’s not Bitcoin) 01/20/2026
- The Story The Imitation Game Didn’t Tell 01/20/2026
- Why 0.4 Percent of Java Changed Software History 12/13/2025
- From Hype to Reality: Notes and Reflections from the London Blockchain Conference 10/24/2025
- Running Blockscout’s Smart-Contract Verifier on EKS with a Private S3 SOLC mirror 09/12/2025
- Why IaaS and Retail PaaS Fell Short, and How Kubernetes Took Over 06/11/2025
- 5 Years on the Fnality Project: What I Learned About Engineering, Leadership, and People 05/22/2025
- Setting Up HashiCorp Vault with Imported Private Keys for PKI 10/03/2024
- Setting up a quick Username/Password Proxy using Squid and AWS 09/08/2024
Projects
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Who doesn't love travelling
I Love Gadgets
Everyone who knows me knows that I love gadgets here are some of my favorites that I have in mind.
The Playdate – https://play.date/
The Remarkable 2 – https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2
The Emotiv Epoc X – https://www.emotiv.com/product/emotiv-epoc-x-14-channel-mobile-brainwear/
Mus-01-orange-p-40mm – https://uk.mavenwatches.com/products/mus-01-orange-p-40mm