# Derek Alia

> Derek Alia is a San Francisco software engineer and founder whose career has moved through mobile apps, decentralized communities, on-chain financial infrastructure, and now collaborative AI systems for scientific work. He co-founded Futureswap, helped take its decentralized perpetuals protocol from an experimental launch to more than $4.2 billion in reported cumulative trading volume, and raised a $12 million Series A in 2021. His current public profiles identify him as a co-founder at muni, where the recurring idea in his work remains intact: give people capable tools, make the system legible, and let participation shape what comes next.

- **Role:** Co-founder at muni
- **Organizations:** muni, Futureswap, Tribes, Aragon, Simplr
- **Education:** Computer Science, University of Washington, Advanced Software Engineering Immersive, Hack Reactor
- **Known for:** Co-founded Futureswap, an Ethereum-based decentralized perpetuals protocol., Helped Futureswap reach more than $4.2 billion in reported cumulative trading volume by October 2021., Raised a $12 million Series A for Futureswap in October 2021, bringing reported total funding to $13.6 million.

## Career timeline

- **Before 2019** — Worked in software engineering, including frontend development at Aragon and engineering work at Simplr; later co-founded the decentralized content platform Tribes.
- **2019** — Co-founded Futureswap in San Francisco and participated in an ETHDenver team that built an Ethereum 2.0 beacon-chain simulator.
- **2020** — Futureswap launched an alpha on Ethereum and later withdrew it after three days to continue developing the protocol.
- **2021-01** — Futureswap launched V2; its first public update reported more than $40 million in first-week volume and $25 million in the ETH/USDC liquidity pool.
- **2021-10** — Futureswap raised a $12 million Series A led by Ribbit Capital, Framework Ventures, True Ventures, and Placeholder; total reported funding reached $13.6 million.
- **2021-2022** — Appeared in interviews, podcasts, and conference programs discussing decentralized leverage markets, Ethereum scaling, regulation, and open financial infrastructure.
- **2026** — Current LinkedIn and X profiles identify Alia with muni, a San Francisco collaborative platform for agentic scientific exploration.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Futureswap, an Ethereum-based decentralized perpetuals protocol.
- Helped Futureswap reach more than $4.2 billion in reported cumulative trading volume by October 2021.
- Raised a $12 million Series A for Futureswap in October 2021, bringing reported total funding to $13.6 million.
- Launched a protocol version that reported more than $40 million in first-week trading volume and $25 million in its ETH/USDC pool.
- Participated in an ETHDenver team that built an Ethereum 2.0 beacon-chain simulator in 2019.
- Spoke at industry events including ETHSeattle and appeared on multiple podcasts about decentralized markets.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Alia's current X bio identifies him with @muni_bio, and his LinkedIn profile lists muni as his current organization in San Francisco.
- **2026-06** — bioArena announced its rename to muni, describing the project as a collaborative workspace for agentic scientific exploration.
- **2026-05** — Alia's public GitHub profile was updated and continued to list San Francisco, his @derekalia X account, and a portfolio of 66 public repositories.

## Links

- Website: https://www.muni.bio/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekalia
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/derekalia
- GitHub: https://github.com/derekalia

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/derek-alia
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18