Habib Yajam

01About

I am a researcher passionate about building trustworthy digital systems. My work in applied cryptography sits at the intersection of theory and real-world impact, focusing on privacy-enhancing technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and verifiable systems such as blockchain consensus protocols.

I thrive in interdisciplinary environments, having connected cryptography with AI (through federated learning) and economics (via game-theoretic analysis) to solve complex problems. My approach spans the entire research lifecycle — from drafting a security proof on paper to implementing robust protocols in Golang and Python.

I currently co-found and lead the technology team at ZharfaTech, building enterprise generative-AI solutions, after completing a PhD at the University of Tehran on the analysis and improvement of blockchain consensus protocols.

02Research Interests

• Privacy-Preserving Cryptographic Protocols
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs & Verifiable Computation
• Cryptographic Protocol Design & Applied Cryptography
• Decentralized Trust & Digital Identity Systems
• Consensus Protocols & Scalable DLT Architectures
• Formal Security Modeling & Game-Theoretic Analysis
• Intersections of AI, Data Privacy & Decentralized Systems

03Selected Publications

• 2023 · IEEE Transactions on Network Science and EngineeringJABS: A Blockchain Simulator for Researching Consensus Algorithms

  Habib Yajam, MohammadAli Akhaee

  doi:10.1109/TNSE.2023.3282916

• 2023 · Journal of Information Security and ApplicationsA Scalable Decentralized Privacy-preserving E-voting System based on Zero-Knowledge Off-Chain Computations

  Ashkan Emami, Habib Yajam, Mohammad Ali Akhaee, Rahim Asghari

  doi:10.1016/j.jisa.2023.103645

• 2023 · IEEE AccessFederify: A Verifiable Federated Learning Scheme based on zkSNARKs and Blockchain

  Ghazaleh Keshavarzkalhori, Cristina Pérez-Solà, Guillermo Navarro-Arribas, Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí, Habib Yajam

  Accepted, in press

• 2023 · The ISC International Journal of Information Security (ISeCure)Analysis of IOTA Tangle Stability in High Transaction Rates

  Habib Yajam, Elnaz Ebadi, MohammadAli Akhaee

  doi:10.22042/isecure.2023.380480.904

• 2025 · 2025 29th International Computer Conference, Computer Society of Iran (CSICC)ZharfSima: Benchmarking Vision Language Models for Persian Language and Culture

  Ali Edalat, Hadi Kamkar, Amir Mohammad Rasekh Mehrabi, Sadjad Nojavan, Saeed Aghamiri, S. Mohammad Fakhraie, Habibollah Yajam, Mohammadsadegh Alizadeh

  doi:10.1109/CSICC65765.2025.10967416

• 2020 · 2020 17th International ISC Conference on Information Security and Cryptology (ISCISC)Improvements on Easypaysy: The Bitcoin’s Layer-2 Accounts Protocol

  Elnaz Ebadi, Habib Yajam, MohammadAli Akhaee

  doi:10.1109/ISCISC51277.2020.9261905

• 2018 · 2018 9th International Symposium on Telecommunications (IST)Improvement on Bitcoin’s Verifiable Public Randomness with Semi-Trusted Delegates

  Habib Yajam, Elnaz Ebadi, MohammadTaghi Badakhshan, MohammadAli Akhaee

  doi:10.1109/ISTEL.2018.8661008

Full publication list on Google Scholar · Writing: Introducing JABS: Just Another Blockchain Simulator (HackerNoon)

04Experience

• 2023 — Present
  Co-Founder & CTO — ZharfaTech — Enterprise Generative AI Solutions

  Co-founded and scaled the company from 5 to 40 people, leading R&D in generative AI and securing major enterprise and government contracts.

• 2023 — Present
  DLT & Cyber Security Consultant — Investech Venture Capital

  Technical due diligence on blockchain and cybersecurity proposals, guiding venture funding decisions.

• 2022 — 2024
  Manager of Cryptographic Protocols R&D — Arg Group Industry Co.

  Led a team of 6+ researchers and developers; managed a large-scale Certificate Authority system in Golang from architecture to deployment.

• 2022 — 2024
  Cryptography & Security Advisor — Muon Network (open source)

  Audited a threshold-signature protocol, identified a critical vulnerability, and designed a secure concurrent implementation fix.

• 2018 — 2019
  Blockchain & DLT Consultant — Ministry of ICT Research Institute (ITRC)

  Sole PhD-level technical consultant on the national blockchain regulatory framework project.

• 2016 — 2022
  Cryptography Researcher & Back-end Programmer — Arg Group Industry Co.

  Developed and analyzed security protocols; hands-on cryptographic implementation and assessment.

05Education

• 2015 — 2023
  PhD, Telecommunication Engineering — Secure Communications — University of Tehran

  Thesis: Analysis and Improvement of Scalable Consensus Protocols in Blockchain Technology · GPA 19.45/20

• 2011 — 2013
  MSc, Telecommunication Engineering — Cryptography — Sharif University of Technology

  Thesis: Analysis and Improvement of Secret Handshake Protocols

• 2006 — 2011
  BSc, Electrical Engineering — Communications — Bahonar University of Kerman

  Thesis: Image Hash in Radon Transform Domain

06Skills & Service

Academic service

• 2021 — 2025Reviewer, The ISC International Journal of Information Security (ISeCure)
• 2018Executive Committee, Hyperledger Workshop, University of Tehran
• 2014 — 2015Executive Committee, Code-based & Lattice-based Cryptography Workshops, Sharif University of Technology

Certifications

• 2012Cryptography I, Coursera
• 2013Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation, edX

English (professional working proficiency, TOEFL 109/120) · Persian (native)
Hiking · Mountaineering · Photography · Amateur Astronomy