The right voices in the right rooms can reshape product, policy and hiring outcomes in crypto, three executives told CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami conference on Tuesday. Each cited a moment from their own organization where an outside perspective changed what was being built, argued or prioritized.
Mastercard SVP of Blockchain & Digital Assets Maja Lapcevic said her company’s crypto team had initially seen infrastructure as the key to crypto adoption until a partner reframed the issue around ease of use. “We probably all thought that infrastructure was going to be the winning formula for crypto,” she said. “But one of our partners actually really helped shine a light on how we make crypto accessible, not complex, very simple to use.” That thinking helped push Mastercard toward cards tied to stablecoins, including for users in markets with limited access to traditional financial services, she said.
Crypto Council for Innovation Chief Strategy Officer Alison Mangiero said her organization had a similar realization around staking after bringing developers into policy discussions. “Sometimes we might think we understand or we put things in a bucket,” she said. “We take a shortcut and say, oh, it sounds like a fund. Oh, it sounds like interest or returns, when in reality what’s going on under the hood is fundamentally different.” After hearing from people building primitives, she said CCI understood the need to describe staking as a technical service rather than a financial product.
Clerisy co-founder and managing partner Alexandra Wilkis Wilson brought the argument to employment. “A lot of us fall into a very comfortable bias of hiring people who can’t just look like ourselves or remind you of your younger self,” she said. She recalled a 10-person startup where a Myers-Briggs analysis showed that eight of the 10 team members were extroverts. “It’s really important when you’re growing teams not only to bring diversity in on the outside, but also to think about diversity on the inside,” she said.
Mangiero concluded by framing the issue as one for the wider industry. Crypto “is having a moment right now where people are really interested in hearing our voice,” she said, “but it begs the question, what is our voice at the end of the day?” The conference, she added, “is called consensus for a reason.” Good policy, she said, requires the industry to ensure that diverse communities are reflected, including token holders and people who build on top of blockchain networks, while protecting consumers and allowing innovation to thrive.
