In this edition of Coffee with Calyptus, we had a chat with Arash Mahboubi, the Director of Product at OKX . Arash is all about pushing the boundaries of Web3, especially when it comes to wallets and gaming.
He’s been navigating the product space for over a decade, and now he’s tackling some of the toughest challenges in blockchain, from improving UX to making Web3 apps ready for billions of users. Arash shares some eye-opening insights that you won’t want to miss!
Can you walk us through your journey into the Web3 space and what specifically drew you towards product management in the space?
I’ve been building products for over a decade and everyone has it’s own challenges. In Web3, not only do you have to solve the UX and market problem, but also infrastructure, economics and a whole host of new complexities that you haven’t experienced previously. It’s this new set of challenges that excite me and draw me in every day.
The second is the people in the space. They are some of the most passionate and smart folks I’ve worked with, and product management is all about working across an org, inside and out.
What emerging trends or innovations in Web3 do you find most compelling, and how do you envision them shaping the future of the space?
We’re still early and are figuring out what the building blocks of the future web will look like as we build it. One of these is just figuring out what infrastructure we need to support the billions of users and apps that will emerge over the coming years. Whilst many teams are experimenting on the underlying infrastructure, others are identifying and building consumer apps to meet the needs of current and future users.
There are many verticals of applications that excite me, but primarily those in gaming and wallets. Wallets are the first entry of users into the new web and the cornerstone of every interaction. New innovations like Account Abstraction really start to tackle the UX challenges we’ve all struggled with for years.
What do you believe are the must-have features of an ideal Web3 wallet that can effectively onboard new users and enhance their overall experience?
Your wallet will become synonymous with your identity and financial security. This means safety and security are critical, but so is the ability to take my wallet anywhere I want to interact on this new Web. Think of it as the web2 authentication standards we see today where I can take my social identity provided by centralized entities to any website.
Current innovations in wallets like chain abstraction, paymasters for gas fee management and the ability to interact with various dapps and making significant improvements to new user onboarding.
What crucial advice would you offer to developers looking to create impactful Web3 products that can stand out in this competitive market?
Focus on solving problems for your current users. Ultimately users are looking for the easiest way to solve a problem they have, e.g. (I need X token to play this game. What is the cheapest and quickest way for me to get it). Be the best at solving that problem and you win. Simple, right?
