Base founder Jesse answers 100 questions from the community: How do you view the development of Base in the coming year?

Original title: "Base founder Jesse answers 100 questions from the community"

Original author: Zhou Zhou, Foresight News

Base may soon become the new king of L2.

According to Dune and DeFilama data, from October 6, 2023 to October 6, 2024, Base's revenue increased by 64.57 million US dollars a year, 7 million US dollars more than the second-place Arbitrum; TVL increased by 1.8 billion US dollars a year, and the current total TVL is 2.26 billion US dollars. During the same period, Arbitrum increased by 700 million US dollars a year, with a total TVL of 2.39 billion US dollars; Base's weekly transactions reached 35 million times, of which the number of daily transactions in recent months has more than doubled that of the second-place Arbitrum; the number of active addresses of Base increased by 59 million. Almost all important data indicators are in the leading position, and Base is considered to be one of the public chains with the best development momentum.

Last fall, Jesse launched Base, and in one year, Base stood out from dozens of L2s.

This fall (October 1), Jesse joined the Coinbase executive team and became one of the eight core executives. In addition to Base, Jesse will also lead the important product Coinbase Wallet and be responsible for almost all on-chain businesses of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States.

On October 2, Jesse answered questions from all users on Warpcast (Base ecological social platform), and systematically answered his and Base's development plans for the next year.

In this AMA, Jesse answered nearly 100 questions, covering topics and content such as: "Possible future products of Base: unsecured credit, regional stablecoins, Web3 social and creator tools", "Next steps for Base and Coinbase Wallet", "Base ecosystem infrastructure and applications, such as Warpcast, Moxie, etc.", "Views on memes, such as degen and basegod", "Personal interests and emotional life", etc. Foresight News has selected 60 of these questions and categorized them for readers.

What will be the next blockbuster application of Base?

Community: What project are you most looking forward to on Base next?

Jesse: I think we can do a lot of things on basenames - the framework recently launched on basenames is a good example. It feels like they will be an important part of closing the last gap in on-chain identity, thereby unlocking many other interesting on-chain applications.

Community: What are the top three products you hope people will build on Base?

Jesse: Currently, I think there are: 1. Unsecured credit on the chain (borrowing can be based on credit scores, historical transaction records, or other on-chain data) - this is a very important use case, which is now feasible with the help of identity tools such as usernames, builder ratings, etc.

2. Local stablecoins for each country - Each country should have its own currency on the chain, which will become an important focus for developers.

3. On-chain social media and creator tools - Current creator tools are not friendly to everyone. On-chain will become the most powerful creator platform in history, bringing a ten-fold better economic model and providing a better experience for consumers and creators through open data.

Community: (In terms of stablecoins) Are you still involved in on-the-ground promotion in Oakland and San Francisco? I think your cooperation with farmers markets and other community activities is great.

Jesse: Yes, we are still very active! We have a running stablecoin (OAK, which can be exchanged at swap.oak.community) and have conducted many offline tests. However, we paused at the end of last year because the PoS tool was not mature enough.

We've made a lot of progress on PoS over the last six months, led primarily by @chintan. We've started a more sustained marketing rollout on acceptusdc.com, and hope to spend the next six months fine-tuning merchant and user experience to eventually get everything "working smoothly" so we can reintroduce OAK in our marketing rollout in Oakland.

I think this is a great example of on-chain composability: if we get USDC working, OAK will work too, since it's just an ERC20 running on Base. From my perspective, this is pure magic.

Community: (On the Web3 social side) How did you get involved with Farcaster? What did you like about it that made you decide to stay?

Jesse: I knew @dwr.eth and @v from when I joined Coinbase, and when they launched Farcaster, they invited me to join. From the moment I joined, I felt it represented the future, so I invested a lot of time and energy in posting here. When I started Base, I invested the same time and energy.

Both of these investments have been hugely successful - Base's core developer culture has largely grown on Farcaster. I'm grateful every day to have such an open on-chain social platform, thank you Farcaster, Dan, Varun, and the rest of the team!

Community: How is Farcaster being adopted within Coinbase? How fast is on-chain social growing? What will the year-over-year growth be? It doesn’t look like we’ve hit compounding hypergrowth for any on-chain social graph yet.

Jesse:There’s a lot of experimentation going on right now - almost everyone on the chain has a Farcaster account and actively uses it. I don’t have exact numbers, but I’m sure it’s 10x bigger and more relevant now than it was a year ago. We need to grow another 10x to start seeing compounding hypergrowth, but I’m optimistic about the future.

Community: What do you think of Moxie (the financial layer for Farcaster)?

Jesse:I’ve loved seeing the progress of @betashop.eth (Moxie founders) - it’s great to see them iterate on @airstack.eth and apply those learnings to Moxie. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Community: What on-chain products do you hope will thrive on Base in the future? For example: art, gambling, memecoins, etc.

Jesse: Well, basically any product? I think any Web2 product can be better built on-chain, and I want to support them all. However, I am currently paying special attention to social and payment products, which seem to be the best combination of emerging product market fit and viral growth momentum to quickly achieve acceleration from 0 to 1 billion users.

Community: What company, event, or service would you be most excited to see go on-chain tomorrow?!

Jesse: I find it really problematic that small businesses in the US only have 3-5% profit margins on average, yet have to pay 3-5% in payment processing fees. This is especially personal to me because I co-own a restaurant in Oakland (thisisdaytrip.com) and have seen firsthand how thin the profit margins are. I really want payments to go on-chain.

Community: I often feel like you and the Base team have made “onchain” a buzzword. While this has certainly helped bring more mainstream attention to our space, I also think it has diluted the definition of the term. Maybe I’m just a purist and our industry needs a new set of terms. What are your thoughts on using “onchain” to describe loose interactions with the blockchain to fully on-chain art, games, and protocols that truly embody the medium of blockchain (security, persistence, interoperability, trust, etc.)? Should we create a new word for the latter? Also, what are your thoughts on current terms like "cryptocurrency" and "NFT"? Since the last bull cycle, they have gained a negative reputation and should they be replaced?

Jesse: I think we need new language to describe what we are building to put it at the center of technological change and get rid of the historical baggage of crypto. So far, "on-chain" is the best word we have found.

I think "NFT" should disappear and we should start talking about "on-chain media", "on-chain music", "on-chain video", etc. It's easier to understand.

Community: How do you see Base developing in the next year (after the on-chain summer in 2025)?

Jesse: So far, every on-chain summer I feel like we have a great chance to achieve consumer virality, but it hasn't happened yet. I think the third time will succeed. This time next year, we will have had more than a year to really perfect the smart wallet to provide a seamless experience for users and developers, and provide an experience ten times better than Web2. The small products launched in the past year will go through another year of creative polish, and I believe we will have some real breakthroughs. Hopefully, our expansion efforts will provide enough block space to support all of this. We will once again usher in the third on-chain summer, and I believe we should be able to achieve true consumer viral growth.

Base, more than L2

Community: I'd love for you to share your thoughts on Base's development over the next year. I've been using Base for over a year now, and I can say that it's beyond any other Layer 2. It's more than just a Layer 2.

Jesse: It's much more than a Layer 2 - it's a global on-chain economy that will increase innovation, creativity, and freedom. If you haven't read it yet, you should take a look at our mission, vision, and strategy. This is where we're going.

Community: Will Base ever be separated from Coinbase as an independent entity?

Jesse: There are no plans to do so at this time, but I would say that from the beginning, the Base team has been given a huge amount of autonomy within the company. I think that's actually one of the biggest reasons for its success: @barmstrong basically gave our team free rein, and I've developed a great working relationship with him, and I'm constantly learning from him and incorporating feedback. I'm very grateful to be working for a company like this and around a founder and CEO like this.

Community: What lessons did you learn from building Clef and early Coinbase consumer products, and how do those lessons influence your strategy for scaling Base?

Jesse:At Clef (a tool for wallet management and transaction signing), we built identity products very similar to today's passwords and smart wallets, but we were too early. However, a lot of the underlying strategy and thinking back then is finally playing out now, and my decade of experience is helping me cope.

On the Coinbase consumer side, this was my first time building a team and thinking strategically and executing long-term. I learned many lessons from doing things right and wrong, and now I'm applying those lessons to the expansion of Base and the wallet, while also learning new lessons. Of course, there are many other things to build!

Community: Will you show proof of reserves for cbBTC? Or conduct an audit?

Jesse: Yes.

Community: Why wasn't Base included in the recent communication about how OP Hyperchain will work? It feels like the Base logo was intentionally not included, and I'm curious why?

Jesse: I'm confused by this as well - we are the first chain to connect to Hyperchain after OP mainnet, and we are very excited about future interoperability. I'll ask them.

"Meme, changed my mind"

Community: Hey Jesse, congratulations! What an amazing journey! What has changed your mind in the past year?

Jesse:The first thing that comes to mind is memecoins.

At the beginning of the year, I basically thought they were a complete distraction and a waste of energy. Every post of mine was bombarded with a lot of memes, which was very uncomfortable. However, through many conversations with @basegod, I began to realize that this is actually meaningful. They are the online memes (memes) that I know and love, just presented in a new on-chain form. This opened my eyes and adjusted my attitude significantly.

Community: What is your view on degen, and what are the obvious potentials besides being a tipping token, meme coin and overall brand?

Jesse:I am inspired by @jacek's (head of degen) leadership as an independent founder. It's a very hard job, especially when it's related to assets with volatile prices. I find him to be consistently positive, thoughtful, and unafraid to do the right thing. Thank you, Jacek.

Community: What motivated you to list degen on Coinbase? Do you prefer red or blue?

Jesse:I did not list degen on Coinbase and have no knowledge of why it (or other assets) were listed. Coinbase's asset listing team is isolated from other teams to avoid any shady behavior, which I think is a good thing! However, I am indeed happy that it is listed - and hope that more Base assets will be listed on Coinbase as well. I prefer blue.

Community: On platform X, there is discussion about Base's leadership not embracing degen culture and memes as much as they should. What would you say to those people?

Jesse: I think people overestimate Base's influence on the performance of memes (or other products) and underestimate the ability of these teams to provide actual value to people, whether it's culture, fun, or other aspects. Some things to know:

1. I have no influence on Coinbase's listing process (there is a wall between the listing team and almost all teams in the company to avoid improper behavior).

2. I own almost all the memes and NFTs on Base.

3. I am active in multiple communities on Twitter and Telegram, participating in interactions and amplifying voices.

4. I am constantly listening and learning about what works and what doesn’t.

With this background, I can say that I work hard every day to help builders of all kinds succeed, including memes. This is reflected in many aspects, but currently it is mainly focused on (1) making it easier for new users to enter the chain; and (2) creating a scalable and manual way to grow.

"Privacy is an important human right!"

Community: As we move towards the future on-chain world, will you embrace privacy-preserving assets or technologies, or is this still not in the plan?

Jesse: Yes! A few weeks ago we had our Base 2025 strategy meeting, where we outlined important investments that must be made in privacy next year. 2023 is L2 (Base), and 2024 is the smart wallet (Coinbase wallet). Privacy will be the next major technical upgrade we are going to solve.

Community: Just now, you said that you are working on a private on-chain world. What kind of world is this? How will you do it?

Jesse:In the short term, I think we should build a compliant privacy pool on Base. People can use this privacy pool like they use coinbase.com to get a new private address. In addition, others can build features like "get a new private address in one click" in the wallet, which is a simple primitive feature, but it can unlock many possibilities.

In the medium term, we need to conduct research and development to explore how to integrate privacy natively into the smart wallet and Layer 2 stack. My vision is that you can send and receive information from private.jesse.base.eth, completely privately and without UX complexity. Exactly how this will be achieved is less clear, and we need to do more research to determine the best path and start executing.

Community: This is exciting! You should check out the work of @moritz and the @fluidkey team on ENS and stealth addresses for inspiration.

Jesse:Yes, I’m in touch with them and very excited about this path!

Community: What do you think of the “compliance” of the Base privacy pool? Will Coinbase still need to see the keys for all transactions, or will it pursue more ambitious privacy guarantees through zero-knowledge proofs that Coinbase cannot blindly see transactions that are considered innocent?

Jesse:We haven’t started working on this yet, so I can’t say exactly what we’ll build. However, I’m inspired by @ameensol’s work on privacy pools and think we can achieve full privacy compliance through a mechanism similar to opt-in and opt-out. That said, there’s still a lot of work to do to ensure this goal can be achieved.

Community: I appreciate that you hold this view, which will set an important precedent for the industry and raise the bar for everyone. Coinbase releasing a compliant on-chain privacy solution could be one of the most impactful moves in this space.

Jesse:Thank you, there is still a lot of work to do. However, privacy is an important human right. That's why we went to court on the Tornado Cash issue. We will not stop pushing for privacy protection.

Jesse's promotion accelerates the integration of Base and Wallet

Community: How did you join the Coinbase executive team? How does this (promotion) affect your daily operations at Base? What does this mean for the future of Smart Wallet? How many people do you think are using on-chain now?

Jesse:1. About six weeks ago, @barmstrong (founder and CEO) and @max (VP of Product) and I discussed the possibility of me joining Coinbase Wallet. We saw the great work that Base and the Wallet team were doing on Smart Wallet and thought that integration would accelerate the development of the platform. After discussion, we decided that this was the right way forward.

2. The impact on Base is minimal - I have an excellent leadership team and will continue to work closely. Most plans remain unchanged, with the only exception being the smart wallet, where we will accelerate the integration of different teams.

3. According to data estimates, there are currently about 5 million to 10 million people making some kind of on-chain payment, 1 million to 2 million people making on-chain transactions, and less than 1 million people trying emerging applications such as social, music, and games on the chain. There is a lot of room for growth in the future, and we are beginning to have products that can achieve this goal.

Community: In your new position, in what ways do you think you can drive changes in Coinbase that were not possible before?

Jesse: Thank you, frankly, I am very fortunate to have stayed in the company for a long time and played my value step by step, and I have been involved in most of the company's decisions.

However, this promotion will give me more recognition and a stronger voice. I hope that with this new platform, I can drive the company to move more actively towards the future on-chain world. The technical platform is ready, and now we need to build on-chain applications with real potential.

Community: Coinbase's alumni network has cultivated countless blockchain project founders, and as the founder of Base, you are no exception. But what made you decide to stay at Coinbase and build a project like Base from scratch instead of trying to build an external application or protocol yourself?

Jesse:I love working within existing systems to improve them. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's always been part of my personality.

In 2021, after I finished my job leading consumer product engineering, I took a break and thought I'd leave. But I jumped back in and saw an opportunity to "have a voice" - if I could figure out a way to bring Coinbase on-chain, it would have a huge impact. With my organizational knowledge and trust, I was in a unique position to be able to make this happen.

A few years later, I think this has all been vindicated. Base wouldn't be what it is today without Coinbase. I'm so grateful for this opportunity!

Community: What do you see as the biggest challenge in your new role? How can we (the community) help you solve that challenge?

Jesse:I think the biggest challenge in the new role is basically the same as the biggest challenge in the old role: no matter how good Base or the wallet is, the reality is that we can't achieve it alone. People will only come to the chain when there are truly useful things to do on the chain.

That's where you come in. Continue to communicate with customers, build things that people really need and can solve real problems, and continue to provide feedback on how to make these jobs easier, while ensuring that the products you build are accessible to ordinary people. There is still a lot of work to be done, and it can only be done together.

Community: What changes would you like to see in your new position and role at Coinbase?

Jesse:Over the past two years, as Base has grown, the company has increasingly started building on-chain. But it's still a small percentage of the overall attention and resources. I'd like to see that percentage grow to the point where on-chain becomes the majority of the company's business.

As part of this process, I think there's an incredible opportunity for Coinbase to build on-chain at scale. For example, if we execute well, I think we could soon have hundreds or thousands of smart contract engineers working together. This is an opportunity to build a generational team and tooling, and pave the way for countless organizations in the industry.

Community: In the photo of the Coinbase executive team: It could have been a real person photo of Jesse, but it's a Cryptopunk. What does that represent to you?

Jesse:My Punk is more of a part of me than anything else I own at this point. On the internet and on-chain, I feel like it really represents me. I feel uncomfortable when I see my real face on the Internet.

“Next year we will buy hot dogs on Coinbase Wallet”

Community: In your opinion: What is the biggest factor that has hindered the development of cryptocurrency in the past decade? What is the biggest factor that will drive the development of cryptocurrency in the next decade?

Jesse:1. Fees; 2. Wallets; 3. Identity.

We need to improve 10 times in wallets and identity while keeping fees low as demand grows. If we can do this, we can grow rapidly. Smart Wallets and Farcaster social graph are huge drivers in this regard.

Community: What do you think of the current cryptocurrency user experience? Is Coinbase developing a wallet system that can warn users before interacting with suspicious addresses?

Jesse:The user experience needs to reach a state of "security by default". Yes, we are working hard to develop better tools so that users don't have to worry about clicking the wrong link and losing money. This is unacceptable for everyday users.

Community: When do you expect to be able to use Coinbase Wallet to buy hot dogs at baseball games?

Jesse: Hopefully next summer? We're starting to make real progress on acceptusdc.com, and I think the user experience for both merchants and consumers has improved a lot over the past year.

But we still have more work to do: we need to improve PoS to better support cryptocurrencies, and we need to enable scan code payments. Our team is pushing both of these, and I'm sure there will be a lot of progress in the coming year.

Community: What changes will you make to Coinbase Wallet? Is it possible to add framework functionality to Coinbase Wallet in the future?

Jesse:1. Easier to use; 2. Better performance; 3. Clearer use cases for each tab; 4. Clearer distinction between app (as a daily on-chain utility) and wallet (powering multiple apps); 5. It might be cool to add framework functionality to Coinbase Wallet.

Community: What has made "a true consumer-facing on-chain wallet" a top priority for your personal time and energy?

Jesse:I've been saying for the past three years or so that we need to solve three big problems to drive consumer adoption: (1) lower fees; (2) make a truly usable wallet; and (3) bring identity to the chain.

Last fall, after we launched Base, @wilsoncusack came to me and said, "Jesse - I know we're off to a good start, but we can't get complacent. We need to 10x again, and I think solving the Smart Wallet problem is the way to do that." I resisted at first - frankly, I was very tired and unsure if I was ready for another big strategic push - but he kept pushing, and eventually we decided to try. We built the first prototype, then worked with @chintan and @sid to bring an MVP (minimum viable product) of the Smart Wallet to market. We knew there would be a lot of problems to solve, but we wanted to release a product that we could build in the open.

Now, we realize that the best way to accelerate the wallet and Base is to work together. There's still a lot of work to do!

Community: Please tell us honestly where Coinbase Wallet stands as a gateway for the masses to get into crypto/onchain, and how does it compare to other wallets? Can you comment specifically on whether this wallet has too many features and whether this affects the user experience?

Jesse:I think it's a 4/10 right now, and we need to get it to 10/10. Thanks so much to the team for the great work, and a lot of progress has been made over the past few years, but we still have a lot of work to do.

I don't think it's done too much - I actually think it will do more in the future. But we need to distill the key use cases (payments, apps, discovery, etc.) and make them simple and intuitive. At the same time, we also need to solve some key structural challenges that make it very difficult for ordinary people to get on-chain. Smart Wallets are the last piece of infrastructure that will allow us to break through these barriers.

Community: Can we export the recovery phrase for Coinbase Smart Wallet to BIP39 format?

Jesse:Currently key signers cannot be exported. However, I believe you can add a recovery signer and export it to BIP39 format! We will also add more flexibility to add signers so you can do whatever you want.

Community: Do you think Coinbase Wallet will become the main Coinbase ecosystem app in 1-2 years? Do you think Coinbase Wallet will be more than just a wallet?

Jesse: I think there will be more differentiation between the Coinbase app and the Coinbase Wallet app. Both will have important impacts in different ways in the future, Coinbase will be more of a financial product, and Coinbase Wallet will be a tool for daily use. I agree with this.

Community: Do you think the App Store ecosystem like Apple will once again decide to restrict cryptocurrency/smart wallet apps to evade App Store fees? What will the reaction be to that kind of restriction?

Jesse: Apple is already pretty strict at the moment, and I certainly hope they don't get more strict. If they do, I think it will prompt the emergence of real competitors and break up the existing App Store dual monopoly.

Overall, I am optimistic about the future and believe that the inevitability of an open on-chain economy will become increasingly clear, and businesses large and small will find ways to adapt and take advantage of this trend.

Jesse's Daily Life

Community: Where do you get your constant energy from? Do you have a morning ritual that helps you get started for the day?

Jesse: Hey, I’m not sure I can pinpoint one specific reason, but a few things come to mind:

1. I have a great wife, a great family, and close friends who are a ton of support.

2. The amazing team at Base who do a ton of work so I can be free and energized for any situation.

3. I’ve naturally had a very unwavering focus and drive since I was very young. Not sure where this came from, but it’s something my friends and family have observed and commented on (both in a good and bad way!).

In terms of morning rituals, my rough schedule is:

1. Wake up

2. Exercise (lift weights or go for a 45-minute to 1-hour run/bike session at 60-70% of my max heart rate)

3. Make myself breakfast and a decaffeinated cappuccino

4. Get to work

It’s nothing special, but it seems to work for me.

Community: Do you play sports? What kind of sports do you enjoy?

Jesse:I’m mainly lifting weights, running, and biking right now, but I’ve also started playing some tennis. I played competitive soccer growing up and all the way through college. Still love it, but I’m more injury prone so I’ve decided to step back now to reduce risk, which is a shame.

Community: What’s your evening routine? How do you focus on developing good daily habits and rituals?

Jesse: My wife and I play little games like Connections, Wordle, and mini crossword puzzles, then I read a little (like a book or Slack) and then I close my eyes and go to sleep. Nothing complicated really! I do love playing these little games with my wife though - it’s a new habit I’ve added in the last year and a great way to connect and relax.

Community: What was it like when you were first married? Is it different since you got married?

Jesse: Not much - we’ve been together a long time! Maybe a little more certainty and peace of mind now.

Community: What was the highlight of your summer wedding?

Jesse: Ah! So many great moments!

One of my favorite memories was that after dinner, the music and dancing was actually a few blocks away in the little beach town where we had our wedding. So we took a boom box, gave everyone tambourines and crowns, and did a parade from dinner to the venue. Walking with the whole team at sunset to our favorite music was truly a memory of a lifetime.

Photo by Jesse

Community: If you could only listen to three albums, what would they be?

Jesse: Wow, that’s a hard one! Drake’s “Views”, Anderson Paak’s “Venice”, Kanye West’s “The College Dropout”.

Community: What are some of your non-crypto hobbies?

Jesse: 1. Exercise — running, biking, weightlifting; 2. Spending time with my wife and close friends; 3. Working to improve the living environment in Oakland and the East Bay; 4. Eating good food.

Community: What is your ideal IQ?

Jesse: I don’t know if there is an ideal IQ, but I would say that (1) I’ve never taken an IQ test; and (2) if I had to guess, I’d guess my IQ is in the top 10-20%, but not in the top 1%. I’ve found that for me personally, I’ve never had that “genius” feeling — but I’ve been able to work very hard and make the most of the knowledge and abilities I already have.

Community: What's your favorite color?

Jesse: Yellow!

Community: Beer or wine?

Jesse: Beer! Specifically, IPA (a very popular style among beer lovers, with a high alcohol content and a noticeable hop aroma, and a bitter taste). However, I gave up drinking about two years ago, so I only drink non-alcoholic IPAs now.

Community: Winter or Summer?

Jesse: I like both - but I especially love snow. I grew up in Washington, DC, and one of my hobbies as a kid was being an amateur meteorologist. On the East Coast, there are winter storms called "nor'easters," and they develop in a very specific way - they start in the central United States, and then the low pressure system moves to the southeast, then north, and along the coast. Depending on the path of the storm, it could rain or snow.

I used to stay up late watching the GFS and ECMWF models run, and track these storms on forums with other weather nerds like me. The models predict the future frame by frame, about a minute apart every 6 hours, and everyone tries to interpret what's going on and predict what the models are doing. Of course, there are always differences between the predictions and what actually happens, just like when trying to predict the future.

I still love reading the weather reports.

Aspiration, Mission Vision

Community: Why did you join the crypto industry? What has kept you going for so many years?

Jesse:I grew up in a quaker school and felt a strong calling to make the world a better place. The Quaker values have deeply influenced me, especially: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and responsibility.

When I first learned about cryptocurrency, I immediately felt that this new technology could be an important lever to promote these values. It can help simplify complex legacy systems, promote unity and peace among people across borders, promote transparency, help communities take control of their own destiny, and provide fair opportunities for everyone. From that moment on, I felt that this was my life's work. To be honest, I thought it would happen in a few years... but now it has been about 12 years. Hopefully soon.

Community: How do you balance your multifaceted nature between working for a large company and being a public influencer who only talks about crypto?

Jesse: Haha, honestly, it’s hard and probably the most anxiety-inducing thing for me. The internet (especially Twitter) can be a very cruel place. However, my guiding principle is that I should always be myself no matter what. This may not please everyone, but at least I know I’m being authentic. This mindset has served me well so far!

Also, while I tweet a lot about crypto, it’s not the only thing I talk about. I also frequently post about Oakland, the East Bay, and how we can create more for the local community. I’m particularly passionate about this and invest time in it during evenings and weekends.

Community: How do you think people’s perception of the industry affects our ability to realize the full potential of cryptocurrency, both technically and culturally?

Jesse:I’ve always been optimistic and wanted to believe otherwise, but the reality is that it does affect us. If you look at the data, the average public perception of cryptocurrency is very negative and it’s not getting better. This poses a big barrier to getting people to try and benefit from this new technological paradigm.

I think there are two important aspects to solving this problem:

1. Build real, useful, and impactful on-chain products. We have more of these every day, but the more specific they are, the more they help people see the value.

2. Change the way we express these things. Using the term “on-chain” and thinking of it as a technology platform is more appealing to people.

There’s still a lot of work to do.

Community: In addition to blockchain, what other decentralized technologies do you think we should be building?

Jesse: There’s only one idea that jumps out at me right now: more decentralized energy generation. It feels like an important building block for a more resilient society, and I think it will also be an important lever for addressing climate change.

Community: That sounds like a small nuclear power grid that could independently power a city. I’m not sure about the safety of these, but I’d like to see remote areas have these types of generation methods, or have power outlets that are small and powerful enough, like in places like North Carolina, to stay powered.

Jesse: I couldn’t agree more.

Community: What’s your best mentoring advice?

Jesse:Always lead with curiosity and questioning - it's easy to jump to solutions, but most of the time if you start asking questions that you're genuinely curious about, you'll help the mentee find the right answers themselves (and often better than what you could suggest).

Community: Does that scrappy feeling in you ever go away?

Jesse:The scrappy feeling in me never goes away. By the way, we need to stop chasing other people's tails and start being true warriors. It's easy to get lost and distracted when we're always trying to react to other people, products, or competitors. I've found that this pattern usually leads to bad results - bad products, bad go-to-market strategies, and incremental progress.

What’s harder is to identify what we want to be and do our best to get there. This can be scary because it often means looking 1-2 years into the future and mapping out a path that doesn’t exist yet. This path usually requires a lot of effort, but it gives us the opportunity to be ten times more successful.

Throughout my career, I’ve found that the process of observing, making decisions, and moving forward with determination can ultimately help you find the right direction, even if your predictions are wrong.

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