Researcher Spotlight: @cmichelio Lead Security Researcher at Spearbit, Christoph has helped secure the most sophisticated DeFi systems to date, bringing a proof-driven mindset that reshapes how organizations think about risk. His story is available below.

He studied math and computer science with a focus on cryptography. That academic path led him to Web3, where the open-source nature and composability of smart contracts immediately stood out.

Before security, Christoph's path ran through fullstack and blockchain development. The turning point came when real-world exploits and six-figure bounties showed how much impact there was in finding and fixing bugs.

Each review begins with a core question: what would it take to steal funds? From there, he models system state, defines attack paths, and looks for a proof. If that proof fails, an exploit is possible. If it holds, the protocol is safe.

Christoph has worked across most major DeFi platforms. His long-term collaborations include reviewing nearly every upgrade to the Sky protocol, formerly MakerDAO, where governance and economic systems evolve continuously.

To avoid getting bored, he seeks novelty: protocols that require pen-and-paper modeling, new chain paradigms like Move, and teams building for crypto-native primitives. He’s still a believer in DAOs and wants to see them succeed.

While most of his process is manual, he’s watching the evolution of AI in auditing. His interest isn’t hype, it’s evidence. He wants to benchmark outputs, test prompts, and measure signal gain across different classes of bugs.

For @cmichelio, smart contracts are systems of rules. He defines the risks, traces the logic, and identifies where assumptions fail. It is not just about finding bugs. It is about proving what should or should not be possible.