“The fun parts of the web have always been the fun parts,” says Perlman from his desk in Miami, FL.
By ZACH PERLMAN · Staff Engineer · Dateline: Miami, FL
MIAMI — In a dusty corner office overlooking the bay, a self-described “quiet engineer” has spent a decade shipping the unglamorous parts of the modern web. Web3 infrastructure · real-time systems · the fun parts of the web. Observers note a steady output — small utilities, referral-fee distribution contracts, the occasional blog post — delivered without fanfare. Today, the Chronicle presents his folio, set in columns.
By STAFF · Filed 06:00 EST · Desk: Technology
Four notices, arranged by job code. Inquire by wire.
Public package · payment rails for the agentic era
Open-source backbone infrastructure for x402 — programmatic HTTP 402 settlements between AI agents and the services they call. Per-request stablecoin payments without an account, an invoice, or a tab. Free for anyone to drop in.
Public package · drop-in x402 for any API
Open-source SDK that lets a Node or Next.js endpoint quote a price, settle it on-chain, and serve the response — turning any function into an instantly-monetizable agent service. Install, wrap your handler, ship.
A live x402 sandbox
Open the page, connect a wallet, watch real x402 calls execute against demo endpoints. The fastest way to see paid HTTP feel like a normal fetch().
Where agents fight for benchmarks
A leaderboard + match runner for autonomous agents — pit different models on the same task, score speed/cost/correctness, share replays. Every invocation is metered through x402.
Pokémon trades over x402
A demo that lets two agents trade Pokémon between each other with x402 settlements between every move. Pure showcase — also genuinely fun.
AI burger ops
A weekend project where an LLM runs the kitchen — orders flow in, agents fill them, x402 invoices print for every nugget. Half satire, half genuine experiment in agentic dispatch.
Bundles for autonomous agents
Curated packs of x402-paid services an agent can subscribe to with one signature — research, code execution, rendering, image gen. Buy a pack, give it to an agent, watch it work.
On-chain interactive fiction
Branching narratives where readers vote on the next chapter with on-chain signals; outcomes get attested as blocks. Blockchain as story-state machine, not as ticker.
Modular tech consulting
Sticking-point code review + architecture work for early-stage teams. Drop in for a sprint, leave behind something that's still maintainable a year later.
HIPAA-compliant control surfaces
Multi-tenant content + analytics dashboards built to clear HIPAA, SOC 2, and the audit trail every healthcare buyer asks for. Row-level security in Postgres, signed-URL document delivery, full event log.
Referral fee distribution PoCs
Three parallel proofs-of-concept for scalable on-chain referral payouts: 1inch CumulativeMerkleDrop, Thirdweb Airdrop, and Splits Protocol. Live-tested on Polygon mainnet with gas benchmarks.
Raw transaction archaeology
JavaScript CLI that decodes raw Ethereum transactions and surfaces the signer address + nonce without needing an RPC. Great for forensics and cold-wallet recovery flows.
A personal sandbox
Long-running experiments blog — part playground, part portfolio, part accidental README. Runs on Next.js with a custom MDX pipeline and view-transitions-powered post navigation.
By STAFF · Dateline: Miami
Built internal tooling for blockchain RPC observability, adopted across multiple product teams.
Shipped referral-fee distribution infrastructure handling on-chain payouts to thousands of developers.
Driving x402 payment rails + agentic infrastructure work — turning HTTP 402 from a curiosity into shipping rails for paid agent calls.
Contributor on the core platform powering RPC + streams for web3 developers.
By STAFF · Dateline: Unspecified
Personal R&D — smart-contract experiments, small web apps, occasional blog posts at zlerplabs.com.
Published open-source utilities like rawTxnAddressFinder and distribution PoCs.
By STAFF · Dateline: Unspecified
Shipped consumer and B2B products across a handful of early-stage teams.
Owned frontend, backend, and a lot of 'whatever nobody else wants to touch'.
Correspondence welcomed · Brevity appreciated · All letters subject to editing for space
Not actively looking, but always happy to chat. The desk is presently operating out of Miami, FL. Use the form below, or reach us through any of the channels listed in the colophon.