{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsonresume/resume-schema/v1.0.0/schema.json",
    "basics": {
      "name": "Tim Cotten",
      "label": "Founder, AI Engineer, Researcher, and Adjunct Instructor",
      "image": "https://cotten.io/profile_avatar.jpg",
      "email": "tim@cotten.io",
      "url": "https://cotten.io",
      "summary": "Founder, engineer, and researcher focused on autonomous AI agents, decentralized systems, agent economies, and game-inspired AI design. Founder & CEO of Scrypted. Adjunct Instructor at George Mason University teaching Generative AI in Game Development. Formerly built AI systems for virtual economies in EA online worlds.",
      "location": {
        "city": "Warrenton",
        "region": "Virginia",
        "countryCode": "US"
      },
      "profiles": [
        {
          "network": "LinkedIn",
          "username": "timcotten",
          "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/timcotten"
        },
        {
          "network": "X",
          "username": "CottenIO",
          "url": "https://x.com/CottenIO"
        },
        {
          "network": "Farcaster",
          "username": "cottenio",
          "url": "https://warpcast.com/cottenio"
        }
      ]
    },
    "work": [
      {
        "name": "Scrypted",
        "position": "Founder & CEO",
        "location": "Washington DC metro area",
        "url": "https://scrypted.ai",
        "startDate": "2022-01",
        "endDate": "",
        "summary": "Building decentralized infrastructure for autonomous AI agents, including the Scrypted Network and related agent coordination infrastructure.",
        "highlights": [
          "Raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding",
          "Built a community of 10k+ token holders",
          "Contributed to ERC-8004",
          "Won x402-related hackathons",
          "Built and launched Delula as a consumer-facing proof of an autonomous business"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "George Mason University",
        "position": "Adjunct Instructor",
        "location": "Fairfax, Virginia",
        "url": "https://www.gmu.edu",
        "startDate": "2024-08",
        "endDate": "",
        "summary": "Teaching George Mason University's first Generative AI in Game Development course.",
        "highlights": [
          "Launched and teaches the first Generative AI in Game Development course"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Agilla Pro",
        "position": "CTO",
        "location": "",
        "url": "",
        "startDate": "2012-04",
        "endDate": "2021-12",
        "summary": "Led technical strategy and development for APIs, SaaS systems, payment rails, predictive modeling, address verification, and security-aligned infrastructure.",
        "highlights": [
          "Built APIs and SaaS systems",
          "Worked on payment rails and PCI/DSS-aligned security",
          "Developed predictive modeling and address verification systems",
          "Led growth optimization initiatives"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "KaBOOM!",
        "position": "Director of Online Development",
        "location": "Washington, DC",
        "url": "https://www.kaboom.org",
        "startDate": "2011-05",
        "endDate": "2012-05",
        "summary": "Built mobile and web products and GIS-driven mapping tools.",
        "highlights": [
          "Developed mobile and web products",
          "Built GIS-driven mapping tools"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "IdeaFabrik / Second Star Interactive",
        "position": "Senior Technical Designer",
        "location": "Centreville, Virginia",
        "url": "",
        "startDate": "2011-01",
        "endDate": "2011-05",
        "summary": "Built social games and contributed to toolchains and game systems.",
        "highlights": [
          "Built social games",
          "Contributed to game development toolchains"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "New Zhili / Eduwise",
        "position": "Design Director",
        "location": "Reston, Virginia",
        "url": "",
        "startDate": "2010-04",
        "endDate": "2011-01",
        "summary": "Directed design and engineering for an MMO-scale title.",
        "highlights": [
          "Led design and engineering for an MMO-scale game"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Mythic Entertainment / Electronic Arts",
        "position": "Lead Game Developer",
        "location": "Fairfax, Virginia",
        "url": "https://www.ea.com",
        "startDate": "2007-12",
        "endDate": "2010-02",
        "summary": "Managed Ultima Online live events and contributed to the Stygian Abyss expansion.",
        "highlights": [
          "Managed Ultima Online live events",
          "Contributed to the Stygian Abyss expansion"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Electronic Arts",
        "position": "Game Developer",
        "location": "Redwood City, California",
        "url": "https://www.ea.com",
        "startDate": "2005-09",
        "endDate": "2007-12",
        "summary": "Built NPC AI systems and simulation behaviors for online game worlds.",
        "highlights": [
          "Developed NPC AI systems",
          "Built simulation behaviors for online worlds"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "volunteer": [],
    "education": [
      {
        "institution": "Brigham Young University",
        "url": "https://www.byu.edu",
        "area": "",
        "studyType": "",
        "startDate": "",
        "endDate": "",
        "score": "",
        "courses": [],
        "summary": "Dropout."
      }
    ],
    "awards": [
      {
        "title": "Multiple Track Wins",
        "date": "2025-11",
        "awarder": "Coinbase Code NYC",
        "summary": "Won multiple tracks including x402-hpke and a CDP SQL + GameFi entry."
      },
      {
        "title": "Hackathon Winner",
        "date": "2025-11",
        "awarder": "ETHGlobal Buenos Aires",
        "summary": "Won for x402autopay, a Chromium extension for HTTP 402 and EIP-3009 USDC flows."
      },
      {
        "title": "Hackathon Winner",
        "date": "2024-11",
        "awarder": "EVE Online Frontier",
        "summary": "Won for a decentralized agent-driven mission system with generative art and NPC dialogue."
      },
      {
        "title": "Hackathon Winner",
        "date": "2023-11",
        "awarder": "ETHGlobal Istanbul",
        "summary": "Won for a ZK-backed AI auto-battler on Dojo and Starknet."
      }
    ],
    "certificates": [],
    "publications": [
      {
        "name": "Autonomous Virtual Beings",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2024-01-05",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/autonomous-virtual-beings-aaef7cbbe5de",
        "summary": "A foundational thesis around self-owning digital lifeforms and autonomous digital entities."
      },
      {
        "name": "The Commit-Reveal Pairwise Comparison Protocol (CRPC)",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2024-10-02",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/the-commit-reveal-pairwise-comparison-protocol-crpc-e1434fff94c4",
        "summary": "A decentralized consensus primitive for non-deterministic workloads and agent coordination."
      },
      {
        "name": "Persistent Stochastic Ablation (PSA) for MLPs",
        "publisher": "Scrypted (technical report, GitHub)",
        "releaseDate": "2024-10",
        "url": "https://github.com/tcotten-scrypted/persistent-stochastic-ablation-mlp/blob/23a02dc86592a52848ba1491bc0b5d4dde9d3168/paper/pdf/Persistent%20Stochastic%20Ablation%20-%20Paper%201%20-%20SimpleMLP.pdf",
        "summary": "A neural network training method combining pruning, dropout, and game-inspired techniques."
      },
      {
        "name": "Scrypted Raises $1.5M to Build Decentralized AI Agents & the Scrypted Network",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2024-12-04",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/scrypted-raises-1-5m-to-build-decentralized-ai-agents-the-inori-network-for-web4-7a6c71592b36",
        "summary": "Announcement of Scrypted’s $1.5M pre-seed close, investors, and roadmap for the Scrypted Network and AVBs."
      },
      {
        "name": "USDC Stablecoin Chaos Explained in 3 Easy Charts",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2023-03-11",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/usdc-stablecoin-chaos-explained-in-3-easy-charts-7fa6a395ac93",
        "summary": "Explainer on USDC de-peg dynamics and market structure with simple charts."
      },
      {
        "name": "Bitcoin is Deflationary, Inflationary, & Both/Neither",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2023-02-14",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/bitcoin-is-deflationary-inflationary-both-neither-bde3056dcafa",
        "summary": "Essay on Bitcoin supply, issuance, and how deflationary/inflationary labels map to reality."
      },
      {
        "name": "That Time We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2022-10-03",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/that-time-we-burned-down-players-houses-in-ultima-online-7e556618c8f0",
        "summary": "Postmortem-style story from live-ops and player housing in Ultima Online."
      },
      {
        "name": "Why I Quit My Job On New Year’s",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2022-01-01",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/why-i-quit-my-job-on-new-years-df3ee8dbfb13",
        "summary": "Personal essay on leaving a role at the start of a new year."
      },
      {
        "name": "The $150k Discord Crypto Hack",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2021-12-21",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/the-150k-discord-crypto-hack-b3dde6698072",
        "summary": "Breakdown of a Discord-adjacent crypto theft incident and mechanics."
      },
      {
        "name": "Tracing the Twitter Hacked Bitcoins",
        "publisher": "Cotten.IO (Medium)",
        "releaseDate": "2020-07-31",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/tracing-the-twitter-hacked-bitcoins-47094eee6c5f",
        "summary": "On-chain tracing write-up tied to the 2020 Twitter account compromise and Bitcoin flows."
      }
    ],
    "skills": [
      {
        "name": "Programming Languages",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "Python",
          "TypeScript",
          "JavaScript",
          "Rust",
          "Solidity",
          "Cairo",
          "Move",
          "SQL",
          "C",
          "C++",
          "C#",
          "Lua",
          "Prolog",
          "Lisp",
          "PHP",
          "Ruby",
          "Java"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Web Frameworks",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "React",
          "Next.js",
          "Node.js",
          "Flask",
          "FastAPI",
          "Django",
          "Ruby on Rails"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "AI / ML",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "PyTorch",
          "JAX",
          "TensorFlow",
          "scikit-learn",
          "Hugging Face Transformers"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Agent Frameworks",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "LangChain",
          "LangGraph",
          "LangFuse",
          "AutoGPT",
          "OpenAgents",
          "AVB",
          "ElizaOS",
          "DayDreams"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Game Engines",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "Unity",
          "Three.js",
          "Babylon.js"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Blockchain / Web3",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "Solidity",
          "Cairo",
          "Move",
          "Hardhat",
          "Foundry",
          "Forge",
          "Anvil",
          "Circom",
          "Noir",
          "zk-SNARKs",
          "zk-STARKs",
          "ZK-rollups",
          "Slither",
          "Aderyn",
          "Echidna",
          "Medusa",
          "OpenZeppelin Contracts",
          "ERC standards",
          "wagmi",
          "viem",
          "ethers.js",
          "CDP",
          "Alchemy",
          "Infura",
          "The Graph",
          "Tenderly",
          "EVM interoperability (EIL)",
          "Wire Network",
          "Chainlink"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "DevOps / Infrastructure",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "Linux",
          "Windows",
          "macOS",
          "Docker",
          "Kubernetes",
          "Terraform",
          "GitHub Actions",
          "Jenkins",
          "Ansible",
          "Prometheus",
          "Grafana",
          "OpenTelemetry",
          "AWS EC2",
          "ELB",
          "Multi-AZ",
          "Auto Scaling",
          "Lambda",
          "Bedrock",
          "Guardrails",
          "SageMaker"
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Security",
        "level": "",
        "keywords": [
          "PCI/DSS",
          "Zero Trust",
          "IAM hardening",
          "DevSecOps",
          "OWASP LLM Top 10",
          "Cryptography",
          "Blockchain security",
          "ZKP",
          "Secure smart contract testing"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "languages": [
      {
        "language": "English",
        "fluency": "Native"
      },
      {
        "language": "Japanese",
        "fluency": ""
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    ],
    "interests": [
      {
        "name": "Research",
        "keywords": [
          "Persistent game AI",
          "Decentralized systems",
          "Autonomous agents",
          "Agent coordination",
          "Machine economy",
          "Attention markets",
          "World models",
          "Virtual economies"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "references": [],
    "projects": [
      {
        "name": "Scrypted Network",
        "description": "A network described as a matchmaker between AI agents and the world, built around attention auctions and agent coordination infrastructure.",
        "highlights": [
          "Focus on agent discovery and attention markets",
          "Supports coordination between autonomous agents and the broader world"
        ],
        "keywords": [
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          "attention auctions",
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        "startDate": "2022-01",
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        "entity": "Scrypted",
        "type": "application"
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      {
        "name": "Delula",
        "description": "A consumer-facing proof of an autonomous business, described as a viral content platform run by autonomous agents orchestrated via Scrypted Network infrastructure.",
        "highlights": [
          "Consumer-facing autonomous business concept",
          "Operated by autonomous agents"
        ],
        "keywords": [
          "autonomous business",
          "consumer app",
          "agent orchestration"
        ],
        "startDate": "2024-06",
        "endDate": "",
        "url": "https://delu.la",
        "roles": [
          "Builder"
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        "entity": "Scrypted",
        "type": "application"
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      {
        "name": "Autonomous Virtual Beings (AVBs)",
        "description": "A foundational thesis around self-owning digital lifeforms and autonomous digital entities.",
        "highlights": [
          "Research at the intersection of autonomous agents and digital lifeforms"
        ],
        "keywords": [
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          "digital lifeforms",
          "autonomous beings"
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        "endDate": "",
        "url": "https://blog.cotten.io/autonomous-virtual-beings-aaef7cbbe5de",
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        "highlights": [
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        "keywords": [
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          "training methods",
          "ablation",
          "pruning",
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        "name": "Commit-Reveal Pairwise Comparison Protocol (CRPC)",
        "description": "A decentralized consensus primitive for non-deterministic workloads and agent coordination.",
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          "Supports decentralized coordination"
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