What Is It Like to Interview a Blockchain Engineer Who Is a "North Korean Hacker"?
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What Is It Like to Interview a Blockchain Engineer Who Is a "North Korean Hacker"?
We need to stay sharp.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWhat's it like to have an engineer who looks suspiciously like a "North Korean hacker" show up for a job interview?
Jonwu, a staff member at privacy protocol aztecnetwork, has a story to tell. He actually encountered such a candidate, and the interview left him equal parts amused and terrified—especially by one line the applicant wrote: "the world will see the great result from my hands." That sentence completely broke him. Who the hell talks like that? Jonwu even added it to his Twitter bio as a joke. Haha.
Here’s Jonwu’s account:
First, we at aztecnetwork were hiring and received an application from someone named "Bobby Sierra - Solidity Engineer" via @Greenhouse.
After internal review, the system assigned me to conduct an online interview.
I quickly scanned through the resume.
Name: Bobby Sierra
Position: Solidity Engineer
Location: Ontario
Languages: English and some ChineseExperience: F2pool, with some DAO and NFT projects listed on the resume.
Keep that in mind—it’ll matter later.
Then I read the cover letter, which opened with: "I am a blockchain developer with over 6 years of extensive experience."
Followed by a bunch of vague, generic self-promotion—which is understandable. Not everyone is good at writing cover letters.
But then, at the end, he wrote: "The world will see the great result from my hands."
...
Immediately, I thought: This dude sounds like a Bond villain.
I pictured a guy whose arms are literally laser cannons and whose eyes are made of plutonium or something.
"The world will see the great result from my hands"???
Who the actual f*** talks like that?
It was unsettling. I immediately checked his GitHub—12 commits in the past 12 months? That’s not “extensive experience.”
Also, the projects he claimed to work on seemed random:
BoredBunnies
PantherSwap
MetaverseDAO
Whatever, I told myself. Crypto is a strange and fun space full of weird and interesting people! Maybe Bobby is just eccentric.
Then, I started the interview!
Hi, this is jon from Aztec, is this Bobby?
“Yes. This is...Bobby Sierra.”
A few things stood out to me:
His camera was off;
More than five people loudly talking in the background;
A noticeable Korean accent;
I asked why it was so loud.
“Oh, I’m in the office.”
WTF—but why are five other people speaking a mix of Korean and English?
You might ask how I knew he was Korean.
Heh, I have several good Korean friends, so I’m very familiar with Korean accents—but this wasn’t the typical Korean-American, Korean-Canadian, or any regular Korean diaspora accent.
“Bobby” could speak English, but not naturally: stiff, overly formal, and almost incomprehensible.
So I said, “Bobby, please introduce yourself.”
“I, involved in many blockchain development, token issuance, many successful projects, very successful, many blockchain experience, all very good results. Okay?”
Let’s break this down:
1) The first part is pure nonsense—enough to disqualify him on the spot.
2) “Okay”
That “Okay” confirmed to me this guy was Korean. How do I know?
Because my friends’ moms always say crap like that before handing me a steaming bowl of galbitang.
“This is very delicious, eat while it’s hot, okay?”
Now alarm bells were ringing. I knew about the recent surge in North Korean hacking incidents.
I decided to dig deeper.
Where are you based, Bobby?
Bobby: “Based?”
As in, where are you right now?
“Oh, Hong Kong.”
“Hong Kong? Where did you last work?”
“Oh, Ateke.”
What’s that?
“German company, or French company. I don’t know.”
Your resume says you worked at F2pool. Can you tell me about F2pool?
“Uh uh uh, can you wait a moment?”
Then he asked me to mute myself for five minutes.
When Bobby came back, he seemed like a completely different person.
“Hello, are you there?”
Yes, Bobby, I’m here.
“I am experienced blockchain developer, I want new job, I very experienced, can bring value to your company, I want engineer job now. Okay?”
Regardless of whether it was true or not, I hung up.
We know groups like Lazarus—the North Korean hackers—are actively attacking major protocols and individuals.
Ronin lost $600 million; Arthur0x, Mgnr, and countless other high-profile accounts have been compromised.
I don’t know their attack vectors:
-
Do they get us to download a malicious .docx resume?
-
Get someone to share their screen and navigate to Metamask?
-
Gain access to our codebase and push a malicious commit?
I’ll leave it to the internet to speculate.
Honestly, I don’t know if these people are actually North Korean hackers. Bobby might just be a really incompetent guy—but every fiber in my body says that’s not the case.
Beyond fear and amusement, I learned a lot from this bizarre interaction.
1) Our entire world runs on trust. If someone shows us a resume and GitHub, we tend to believe them.
2) Smart contract risks are overrated. Anything can be an attack vector: hiring, events, travel, etc.
3) Never download attachments carelessly. Keep your wallet isolated on a separate device, etc.
Later, "Bobby" updated his GitHub, pointing to a brand-new account with significantly more code commits.
I believe these people are learning, adapting, and getting smarter.
Fortunately, they still can’t fix how utterly disconnected and inept they come across.
We just need to stay sharp.
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