Building atthe edge ofweb3 / AI.
I'm Simon Piazolo— engineer & founder helping a new generation of builders ship onto decentralized rails. DevRel @ Theta Labs · Founder of OpenTheta · Co-organizer of THETA EuroCon.
A short introduction.
- Based
- Switzerland
- Roles
- Founder · DevRel
- Studied
- RWTH · MIT Sloan
- Founded
- OpenTheta '21
- Wins
- 4× hackathons
- Talks
- 5× intl. confs
- Languages
- DE · EN · ES
- Open to
- Collabs & talks
Frankfurt-born engineer who got hooked on distributed systems writing a bachelor's thesis on Hyperledger at RWTH Aachen — and never quite left the rabbit hole.
Today I run OpenTheta, scaled to $15M+first-year volume on Theta, and serve as Theta's first Developer Advocate. I co-organize THETA EuroCon (2024 & 2025) and BlockJam, shipped sTFuel liquid staking for TFuel, run the TEC Incubator (including $50K into each of the first three startups), and have four hackathon podium finishes across Theta and NEAR.
Before all that: AI/ML at ZF Friedrichshafen, embedded firmware at Containerwerk, a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA in flight at Lisbon MBA × MIT Sloan.
Things I'm building.
OpenTheta
Built the MVP solo and scaled OpenTheta to $15M+ first-year volume— one of Theta's highest-volume launches. Onboarded 50+ creators and 100+ projects. First public showcase of Theta's patented NFT DRM technology.
ThetaSwap
OpenThetaoperates ThetaSwap — acquired and scaled Theta's native DEX over 3+ years, with an integrated fiat on-ramp via Wert.io so users can go from card to swap without leaving the flow.
THETA EuroCon
Organizing Europe's flagship Theta conference in Berlin — scaled from 70 to 100+ attendees across the 2024 and 2025 editions. Programming, sponsors, speakers, plus the adjacent BlockJam build week.
theta-euro.com ↗TEC Incubator
Structured and ran the inaugural Theta Ecosystem Incubator — mentorship track, BlockJam hackathon, investor demos. Placed $50K into each of 3 startups: Covelant, Surff, and Checkmate.
Developer Advocate
Lead technical advisor across Theta blockchain, EdgeCloud compute and AI infra. Workshops at 42 Berlin, hackathon judging, docs, and a direct line between protocol engineers and ecosystem builders. Integration support for Theta blockchain & Video API.
BlockJam 2025
Ran BlockJam 2025, the in-person hackathon ahead of THETA EuroCon — teams built on Theta Blockchain and EdgeCloud with six-figure prizes and mentorship.
BlockJam details ↗Hackathon Wins
1st — Agents Without Masters, NEAR AI · 2025 · Track WinnerNFTs, Theta · 2023 · 2nd DeFi, Theta Q1 · 2022 · 2nd NFTs, Theta Q3 · 2021. Also juror at Theta Network hackathons (2024).
sTFuel
The liquid staking protocol for TFuel on Theta Network — earn staking rewards without locking liquidity.
stfuel.com ↗