Handshake

Ready to Serve

Application to contribute on Mayor-elect Mamdani's vision through my expertise in Bitcoin and AI

Get In Touch

About Ridwan Alam

I launched my podcast, Bitcoinomics, as a commitment to public financial literacy, aiming to demystify Bitcoin for a broad audience. Combining this educational mission with my technical background as an award-winning blockchain developer—recognized at MIT and Las Vegas hackathons for Bitcoin payment systems—I am now looking to scale my impact at the municipal level.

Bitcoin Proposition for Strategic Reserve: I want to join the NYC Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain to create a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. This is a framework I recently advocated for my hometown in Virginia (video above) to serve as a hedge against inflation and a revenue generator. For New Yorkers, this new revenue stream could fund vital public services such as housing, transit, and schools, ensuring our city remains an economic safe haven that effectively protects its residents.

Additionally, I am a results-driven AI Specialist and Data Scientist with over 9 years of total experience, including 4 years dedicated to data science, machine learning, and statistical modeling. My experience spans data-driven decision making, and implementation—skills that directly align with the needs of Mayor-elect Mamdani's transition team.

AI Proposition for 70k Applications: I can build a product that streamlines processing the +70,000 applications the Transition Team has received. This platform would utilize AI to categorize and rank applicants based on their skills, experience, and alignment with the administration's goals. This would enable the team to efficiently identify top candidates for various roles.

I believe in the power of people-centered governance, have a strong commitment to progressive values, and am ready to contribute to building an administration that delivers real affordability and equity for all New Yorkers.

Experience

Creator & Host

2025 - Present

Bitcoinomics Podcast

  • Translate technical Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and economics mechanics into educational content for a lay audience
  • Presented insights on global economic trends to foster financial literacy and preparedness among listeners
  • Execute a multi-weekly publishing schedule, handling research, recording, and post-production
  • Interview subject matter experts and industry leaders within the fintech and economic sectors
  • Building an active presence across Spotify, YouTube, Substack, and Twitter
  • Proposed a Municipal Bitcoin Strategic Reserve (Watch Presentation) to the Newport News, Virginia, City Council

Developer

2024 - Present

Blockchain Engineering Projects

  • Bitcoin CashuCloak Mobile App - View Demo
    • Las Vegas Bitcoin Hackathon Honorable Mention
    • Tech Stack: Python, React Native, Bitcoin Lightning (LND)
    • Engineered a privacy-focused mobile wallet utilizing steganography to encrypt BTC directly within image files
    • Implemented Lightning Network interoperability, enabling users to generate invoices and execute BTC settlements
  • BitLoan P2P Micro-Lending Platform - View Demo
    • MIT Blockchain Hackathon Participant
    • Tech Stack: Python, Streamlit, LNbits, Voltage
    • Architected peer-to-peer lending platform facilitating non-custodial Bitcoin borrowing via the Lightning Network
    • Integrated Voltage node infrastructure to ensure high-uptime liquidity management and secure transaction routing

Data Scientist

2025 - Present

DigiLabsAI Freelance

  • Government Stealth Startup Contract
    • Helped create an AI platform to collect and process posts from X and BlueSky
    • Performed sentiment analysis and topic modeling to extract insights, and structured the results in a Supabase database by linking raw posts with derived Natural Language Processing data
  • Law Tech Startup Contract
    • Architected a document comparison web application using Python.
    • Performed semantic similarity analysis across legal documents, delivering clustering of similar legal documents, a quantifiable similarity score between documents, and black-lining (difference visualization) of textual discrepancies

Data Scientist

2021 - 2024

The General Car Insurance

  • Developed Logistic Regression Model for lead transfers, resulting in a 2% increase in sales and $23 million in profit
  • Deployed Real-Time Bidding Generalized Linear Model, with Poisson Distribution, increasing Click-Through Rate by 80%, decreasing Customer Acquisition Cost by 47% and increasing Revenue/Spend by 91% by strategically targeting Lifetime Value and Expected Premium for advertising and marketing campaigns
  • Constructed a Random Forest Classifier Model using Natural Language Processing, including TF-IDF, Sentiment Analysis, and Topic Modeling, achieving 98% accuracy in identifying not-at-fault Claims
  • Executed A/B testing and conducted statistical analysis utilizing p-values and confidence intervals
  • Created data visualizations and dashboards with Tableau and Python for performance tracking
  • Performed data querying and aggregation using SQL in Snowflake and BigQuery and Python in Jupyter Notebook
  • Facilitated meetings with Marketing, Claims, Data Warehousing, and Data Engineering Stakeholders to formulate Business-to-Consumer (B2C) initiatives

Endorsements

Loading endorsements...

Add Your Endorsement

Why I Want to Join the Transition Team

Mayor-elect Mamdani's campaign demonstrated the power of organizing and the hunger for real change in New York City. The mandate is clear: deliver on affordability, transform our approach to housing, and build a city government that truly works for working people.

I want to be part of the transition team because this is an opportunity to fundamentally reshape how New York City governs. My skills in technology and strategic focus can directly contribute to setting up an administration positioned to deliver transformative change from day one, specifically within the New York City Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain.

I'm ready to work, think creatively, and collaborate with others who share a commitment to building a more just and equitable city.

Let's Connect

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my experience and skills can contribute to the transition team's success.

Email LinkedIn