Meet the Nomic Team  — Octavian Popescu, Software Engineer

We're excited to be continuing our spotlight series on the team behind the Nomic Foundation.

Meet Octavian Popescu — Software Engineer on our Ethereum Development Runtime (EDR) team at Nomic Foundation.

What is your name, and what do you do at Nomic?

Hey! I’m Octavian Popescu, and I’m a software engineer on the EDR team. I’ve contributed to various areas of the project, and I’ve been spending most of my time lately improving Solidity testing.

Where are you located? Is that where you are from originally?

I live in Bucharest, Romania. I’m originally from a smaller city, about 350km away from Bucharest.

Who are you outside of work? What do you like to do in your spare time?

I’m very passionate about technology in general, not just coding. I enjoy gaming, as well as building and upgrading computers. I’ve built my own home server over the past couple of years, on which I self-host a variety of open-source services (storage, media, smart home, notes, etc.). I always try to keep up with the latest releases in both software and hardware.

Aside from the nerdy stuff, I love traveling and experiencing different cultures. I also have an everlasting passion for football ⚽.

What were you doing professionally before joining Nomic?

Before joining Nomic, I was at a major tech company working on low-level development of a security product. Shipping critical code to hundreds of millions of devices shaped my approach to code quality and my sense of responsibility toward the end user.

Why did you decide to join the team?

From the beginning, I felt that Nomic’s core values and its mission to empower other developers really resonated with me. The people I met during the interview process were very kind and passionate about their work, which made me realize this was exactly the kind of team where I could do my best work.

I also had a desire to work in Rust professionally for some time, which aligned very well with the low-level, high-performance Rust work that the EDR team is doing.

What are the things that you enjoy and appreciate about working at Nomic?

First and foremost, the people I work with. I appreciate that I’m constantly learning, not just from the problems we solve, but also from the knowledge my teammates share. Working in a fast-paced and constantly evolving ecosystem like Ethereum keeps the work exciting. I also appreciate Nomic’s commitment to open-source software, which directly benefits the wider Ethereum community.

Which one of our core values resonates with you the most and why? How do you see it being “used” at Nomic?

It’s difficult to pick just one, so I’ll pick three:

• High Standards: Coming from a background in low-level security software, I’ve seen firsthand how cutting corners during the development stage can have very big consequences. At Nomic, I see this value in action every day. We always take the time to rigorously design and test any new functionality, and we balance this with pragmatism, ensuring that our high bar for quality always serves the end goal of a robust product.
• Time is Precious: Efficiency is a form of respect: we value our users’ time by shipping tools that actually work, and we value each other’s time by keeping our internal processes lean and our communication intentional.
• Kindness: One of the things I noticed immediately is that kindness is a prerequisite at Nomic. I see this value being used every day in how we conduct code reviews and navigate technical disagreements.

What are you excited about when you think about your future at Nomic?

Looking ahead, I’m enthusiastic about our potential to keep raising the bar for development tools in the Ethereum ecosystem. At the moment, I’m very excited about the work we’re doing to improve performance and user experience across the board.

What is your best tip for staying productive and happy when working remotely?

Having worked remotely for my entire career, I’ve learned that productivity is closely tied to the way you manage your environment. My tip is to remove both digital and physical distractions to find your focus. You should also take the time to step away from the computer, go outside and clear your mind — my dog helps me with that every day 🐶.