About

Ventral Digital LLC is a research and consultancy firm specializing in Information Security and Privacy.

The term ventral (ven-truhl; of or relating to the venter or belly; abdominal.) is conventionally used in medical context. To us, it represents the excitement and seemingly endless flow of energy one experiences when both the intellectual and primal interests are in alignment.

patrickd

Patrick Drotleff

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Previous to being a Security Researcher, Patrick worked in the Web2/SaaS space for over 10 years, writing and reviewing code, always feeling drawn towards the security aspects of technology. During these years he developed a keen sense for identifying edge cases and became-well practiced at technical writing that breaks down complex topics into intuitive explanations. He finally broke into the Web3/Blockchain space through the very first Secureum Bootcamp and was selected as a mentor due to his continued activity as alumni. Patrick has since worked as an independent consultant in BlockSec, reviewed various projects together with other independent researchers at Spearbit, and endeavored into many rabbit holes on the Ventral Digital blog. Drawing inspiration from The Sovereign Individual, Patrick advocates for the development and securing of key technologies that enhance privacy and decentralize trust and power.

Since 2021	Independent Security Researcher in Web3/Blockchain Secureum Bootcamp Mentor and Epoch 0 alumni Security Research Contractor at Spearbit Audited projects such as Cozy Finance, Paladin, Art Gobblers, and SushiSwap Consultant/vCISO for Optimism's Bedrock upgrade
2018 - 2021	Freelance Senior Backend/DevOps Engineer Technologies: AWS, Azure, Kubernetes Specialized in refactoring, migration, and design of SaaS APIs with cloud services Organized company internal CTF challenges for developers
2016 - 2018	SaaS/JS Senior Backend Developer, DevOps, full-time @ maloon GmbH Technologies: ELK Stack Specialized in research, prototyping, and quality/security reviews Responsible for evaluation of applicant developers
2013 - 2016	SaaS/JS Backend Developer, DevOps, part-time student @ maloon GmbH Technologies: CoffeeScript, JavaScript, TypeScript, MongoDB, NodeJS, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, Redis Implemented data synchronization services between various databases Implemented web crawlers for sales lead generation processes
2011 - 2013	Drupal/PHP Developer, DevOps, part-time student @ maloon GmbH Technologies: Drupal, PHP, nginx, Apache2 (SUExec), haproxy, LXC Research & Development of Social Media synchronization MVPs Mentor in the Drupal Community and responsible for security/quality reviews of contributed plugins Created various online tools, such as simplytest.me, easing the testing and review of Drupal patches and modules
2011	Started Bachelor of Science in Information Technology @ TH Ingolstadt Technologies: LaTeX, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Java, C, Assembly, WebGL, SQL, GWT, LUA Game design with Löve engine, mobile game optimization Thesis on SaaS API design

Guest Writers

0xNorman

Wu Enbang

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Norman, a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Mathematics, has distinguished himself as an independent auditor. He has won 3 Code4rena bounties in a roll during his college years. Currently, Norman is interning at Movebit, a leading audit firm in Sui and Aptos ecosystems. With a great passion for blockchain, Norman is honing his skills as an auditor to secure the web3 ecosystem.

Parsely

Darren Chapman

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Darren has almost 20 years of experience in IT within the Banking Industry and holds certifications from IBM, SAP, and Sun Micro Systems. Darren currently specializes in the IBM Middleware stack, developing integration solutions in numerous technologies. After deciding to follow a life-long interest in security, he gained the PNPT certification from TCM Security. With his found passion for blockchain, Darren is honing his skills as an auditor to contribute to the vibrant world of Web3.