# Riccardo "fluffypony" Spagni

Riccardo "fluffypony" Spagni is an entrepreneur, builder, and privacy advocate based in South Africa. He is a founding member of the Monero Core Team and its former Lead Maintainer, co-founder of Tari Labs, inventor of OpenAlias, and co-creator of Yat. He holds 21 patents, primarily in blockchain and decentralised identity. He has been in Bitcoin since 2011 and now builds open-source developer tools and AI agent tooling.

## Philosophy

I've spent over a decade building systems where privacy is structural, not bolted on. Monero, OpenAlias, Tari, Yat, and now a set of AI and developer tools. The common thread is that everything I ship is open source, and the privacy properties come from the design, not from trusting a third party.

I got into Bitcoin in 2011 because I thought financial privacy was worth fighting for. I still do. The tools have changed, but the principle hasn't.

## Current Open-Source Projects

### yojam — Route Every Link Where It Belongs
- Website: https://yoj.am
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/yojam

A macOS default-browser replacement that sits in the menu bar and catches every link you click. Using rules you define, it routes each URL to the right browser, browser profile, or app — work links to your corporate Edge profile, personal links to Safari, Figma URLs to the desktop app, Slack/Zoom/Telegram to their native clients. When no rule matches, a fast picker pops up at your cursor with keyboard shortcuts (1–9 to jump, arrows to move, Enter to open). Rules match by domain, prefix, regex, or source app, and can force incognito/private mode. Strips `utm_source`, `fbclid`, `gclid`, and 30+ other tracking parameters globally or per-browser before the browser ever sees them. Supports regex URL rewrites (with shipped-but-disabled examples for Twitter→Nitter, Reddit→Old Reddit, Medium→Scribe). First-class profile support for Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, and Arc. Catches links from clicks, Finder `.webloc`/`.url` files, Handoff, AirDrop, the macOS Share menu, the Services menu, browser extensions (Safari, Chrome, Firefox), and a `yojam://` URL scheme for Shortcuts/Raycast/Alfred automation. Auto-learns which browser you pick for each domain and starts suggesting it. iCloud sync across Macs, no telemetry, everything local. BSD 3-Clause. macOS 14+.

### dothething — Local Autonomous AI Agent
- Website: https://dotheth.ing
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/dothething

Describe a task in plain English, walk away, come back to results. dothething (DTT) is a fully autonomous local agent distributed as a single bash script that bootstraps its own Python venv, SearXNG instance, and Camoufox browser on first run. It plans its own work, tracks progress, and keeps going until the job is done or it can tell you exactly why it couldn't. 45+ built-in tools span file operations, shell execution (including a stateful `shell_session`), web search via a hybrid Serper + SearXNG pipeline, browser automation via Notte with Camoufox (anti-fingerprint Firefox) for scraping, captcha solving, and full multi-step interactive flows, HTTP requests, vision analysis, working memory, task planning, a reasoning scratchpad, delegation to a cheaper model, and an oracle (GPT-5.4) for second opinions on hard problems. Connects to your existing MCP servers via `~/.dtt/mcp.json` and loads Claude-Code-style skills from `~/.dtt/skills/`. Can manage its own configuration, install skills, add MCP servers, and send/receive email through AgentMail. Features an orchestrator mode for running and supervising up to 16 agents in parallel from one terminal, live mid-task input injection, thread persistence and resume, cost tracking per model (with Anthropic prompt caching), a `--max-cost` stop, a `--pipe` mode for Unix pipelines, and a `--tui` full-screen terminal UI. Routes Claude Opus 4.6 (main agent), Claude Sonnet 4.6 (summaries, delegates, Notte agent), and GPT-5.4 (oracle) through OpenRouter — one API key. BSD 3-Clause. macOS and Linux.

### nsh — The Natural Shell
- Website: https://nsh.tools
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/nsh

An AI-powered shell assistant for zsh, bash, fish, and PowerShell. nsh wraps your shell in a PTY, captures scrollback and command history into a local SQLite database, and turns natural-language requests into shell commands or direct answers. Type `?` to ask it anything. It chains investigation, execution, and verification automatically through a multi-step agent loop with 20+ built-in tools, including a full coding sub-agent for multi-file edits. Supports custom skills, MCP tool servers (as both client and server), a 6-tier persistent memory system, web search, and P2P remote access with a companion mobile app via iroh. Works with OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, or local models via Ollama. BSD 3-Clause licensed, all data stored locally, no telemetry, no vendor lock-in. Runs on macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows.

### uhoh — Local Snapshots for Messy Work
- Website: https://uhoh.it
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/uhoh

When your AI agent gets overconfident, uhoh gives you a way back. uhoh watches your project folders, takes content-addressable snapshots as files change, and lets you restore or diff any point in time. Built on BLAKE3 hashing and a deduplicated blob store with SQLite metadata. Includes a tamper-evident event ledger with BLAKE3 hash chains for forensic tracing, a database guardian for PostgreSQL/SQLite/MySQL that detects dangerous operations and generates recovery artifacts, and an agent monitor with MCP proxy interception and dangerous-action pause/approve flows. Features a built-in Time Machine UI, REST API, WebSocket events, full-text search, and MCP endpoints (both STDIO and HTTP). Supports optional local AI summaries via llama.cpp or MLX, git integration (pre-commit hooks, snapshot-to-stash), safe auto-updates with Ed25519 signatures, and tiered storage with reflink support. No cloud, no telemetry. Runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

### llm-proxifier
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/llm-proxifier

A lightweight, intelligent proxy server that manages multiple LLaMA models on-demand, providing OpenAI-compatible API endpoints with automatic lifecycle management.

### llm-chatifier
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony/llm-chatifier

A universal terminal chat client that auto-detects and connects to any chat API endpoint — OpenAI, Dialogflow, Lex, and more.

## Advisory

### Wagyu — XMR in DeFi, Without Nuking Privacy
- Website: https://wagyu.xyz

External advisor (non-binding, non-executive — Riccardo is not the CEO and controls nothing). Wagyu is a protocol bringing XMR to DeFi via an approach built on Hyperliquid that aims to minimise trust assumptions without stripping out what makes Monero useful in the first place: its protocol-level, default-on privacy. Wrapping XMR into an ERC-20 and calling it a day was never going to cut it; bridging Monero without destroying its privacy properties has been a genuinely hard problem, and most "decentralised bridges" in the space amount to three guys and a hardware wallet. Wagyu is attempting to do it properly, and crossed $200m+ in volume in its first two months.

Riccardo's role is Monero protocol guidance, stress-testing the architecture, and thinking adversarially about every way the system could break, get exploited, or get gamed. He has been doing Monero threat modelling since 2014; bridges are just another attack surface, and they deserve the same rigour as the base protocol. The work is about making sure nobody cuts corners on the bits that actually matter — privacy, trust minimisation, and the integrity of the Monero side of the bridge.

## Foundational Work

### Monero (getmonero.org)
Founding member of the Monero Core Team. Served as Lead Maintainer. Monero is the world's leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency.

### Tari (tarilabs.com)
Co-founder of Tari Labs. Tari is a hybrid, programmable proof-of-work blockchain with strong privacy guarantees for decentralised applications. Mainnet launched in 2025.

### MyMonero (mymonero.com)
Founder. The first and most widely used Monero light wallet, providing easy access to the Monero network.

### OpenAlias (openalias.org)
Inventor. An open standard that allows users to send cryptocurrency to human-readable aliases (like email addresses) instead of long cryptographic addresses. Uses DNS TXT records under the hood.

### Yat (y.at)
Co-creator. A platform that lets users own and use emoji-based identities as universal usernames and payment addresses.

### Nanite Foundry (nanite.org)
Co-founder.

### Blink (blinktheweb.com)
Co-founder.

### Idle Sword (idlesword.com)
Co-founder.

### WalletD (walletd.org)
Founder. A wallet daemon project.

### GloBee
Founder. A multi-currency payment processor (past project).

### Big Neon
Co-founder.

## Expertise
- Privacy-Preserving Technology
- Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Architecture
- Applied Cryptography
- AI & Autonomous Agents
- Open-Source Development
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) & AI Tooling
- Decentralised Identity
- Financial Privacy Rights
- Systems Architecture

## Contact
- GitHub: https://github.com/fluffypony
- X / Twitter: https://x.com/fluffypony
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/fluffypony_official
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riccardo-spagni/
- Email: hi at riccardospagni dot org