Category Labs (formerly known as Monad Labs) is a team of systems engineers and researchers on a mission to design and build at the frontier of decentralized technology. We strive to design and build step-function improvements over existing blockchain solutions. After raising $225M in series A funding, led by Paradigm, we are growing our team.
The RoleWe are seeking Summer Research Interns to join our team and engage in advanced research in the fields of mechanism design, cryptoeconomics, distributed systems, programming languages, cryptography, and governance. This list is not exhaustive; if you have valuable and relevant perspectives, we encourage you to apply.
This internship provides a unique opportunity to gain perspective of cutting edge technology, to advance the science and technology of decentralized systems, and deliver impact at a large scale in industry.
Research projects will be inspired by the challenges of building a first-of-its-kind blockchain and exploring new research directions unlocked by decentralized systems. You will have the opportunity to propose your own research projects.
While you will learn from Category Labs’ researchers, engineers and other interns, you will also collaborate as an independent and equal peer.
The research internship can be extended to part-time employment as per your availability and the needs of the research project, and may foster future collaborations.
Conduct novel and best-in-class research on above mentioned topics.
Contribute to the creation of technical content, including academic peer-reviewed papers, blog posts and white papers.
Collaborate with the engineering team to implement prototypes, build simulations, and conduct experiments to test your design, models and assumptions.
Engage in discussions with team members and visitors to refine research ideas and share insights from your own research.
You are currently enrolled in a PhD program in a relevant field such as computer science, economics, mathematics, social science, or a related discipline. (Exceptional masters and undergraduate students will also be considered.)
You are passionate about decentralized systems, and have a basic background to hit the ground running.
You are a good communicator capable of explaining complex ideas in simple terms, making research findings accessible to a broader audience.
You possess a clear research vision and the ability to pursue innovative ideas that align with Category Labs’ mission and objectives.
You are collaborative, self-motivated, and adaptable, with a desire to tackle challenging problems and learn new concepts and techniques in a fast-paced environment.
Challenging problems. You’ll work on extremely challenging problems with massive impact. See our Blogs and Papers & Talks for a flavor of the problems we are solving in the real world.
Huge opportunity. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standard is ubiquitous, but existing EVM-compatible chains are very slow. Monad’s core innovations offer developers the best of both worlds (portability and performance) and are a game-changer for mass user adoption in crypto.
The right team. You’ll be part of a small, exceptional team.
Culture. We’re a lean team working together to achieve very ambitious goals. We are united in our culture of collaboration, low egos, and high-quality outputs. As an early member of our team, you’ll help to shape our culture.
Compensation. You’ll receive a competitive salary.
Resources and growth. We’re well-capitalized, with backing from leading venture funds like Paradigm, Electric Capital, Greenoaks, Dragonfly, and Coinbase Ventures. We keep a lean team, and this is a rare opportunity to join. You’ll learn a lot and grow as our company scales.
Duration of internship is roughly 12 weeks, and should be between May 18th – Aug 28th
Residency in New York, NY; strongly preferred but not required.
Please include, in addition to the application below:
Resume/CV
Letters of recommendation (1-2 letters, optional but recommended).
Recommenders should email their letters of support to [email protected] with the "[name of the applicant], Research Intern 2026" in the subject line.
For full consideration, please submit applications by November 28, 2025.
Top Skills
What We Do
Category Labs (formerly known as Monad Labs) is a team of systems engineers and researchers on a mission to design and build at the frontier of decentralized technology. We strive to design and build step-function improvements over existing blockchain solutions. Such greenfield systems include from-scratch databases, Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanisms, JIT compilers for EVM bytecode, and much more.
We recently raised $225M in series A funding, and are backed by Paradigm, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and others.
Category Labs is building the next generation of blockchain infrastructure with Monad, an EVM-compatible layer 1 that dramatically improves performance. Deep optimization is needed across all levels of the stack - from the database layer, to the virtual machine layer, to the consensus and networking layer - in order to streamline EVM transaction processing. We are introducing these low-level optimizations, allowing consumer-grade hardware to deliver exceptional performance while maintaining a high degree of decentralization.
