Johnnatan Messias

Johnnatan Messias is a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS), specializing in blockchain governance, decentralized finance, and network transparency. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MPI-SWS in collaboration with Universität des Saarlandes, advised by Prof. Krishna P. Gummadi. His work focuses on improving fairness and accountability in decentralized systems through empirical analysis of blockchain transactions and governance mechanisms.

Primary research areas include DeFi protocol vulnerabilities, blockchain scalability solutions (especially rollups), and transparency in transaction ordering. He develops measurement tools like Glasnost for detecting network differentiation and SatelliteLab for heterogeneous network testing. Recent work examines governance centralization in DeFi, arbitrage dynamics in layer-2 systems, and economic sustainability of token distribution mechanisms.

Publications demonstrate consistent methodological innovation in analyzing blockchain data, combining network measurements, statistical modeling, and game-theoretic frameworks. Key contributions include revealing voting power concentration in DAOs, quantifying rollup performance during inscription surges, and detecting opaque transaction prioritization in Bitcoin and Ethereum. His empirical studies have exposed systemic issues like miner collusion in fee markets and arbitrage inefficiencies in AMMs.

Dr. Messias has contributed to academic service as program committee member for FC, AFT, WWW, and other major conferences. He developed open-source tools including WhatsApp Monitor for tracking misinformation and public datasets for ZK-Rollup research. Current projects investigate the impact of inscriptions on EVM networks and design frameworks for decentralized insurance on blockchain infrastructures.