The CryptoNewsAudio Podcast

CryptoCurrencyWire’s latest production features Layne Lafrance, Co-Founder of Flow, a decentralized, public, layer-one blockchain designed for building Web3 experiences for mainstream users.

To begin the interview, Lafrance discussed her background and path leading up to her role as the Co-Founder of Flow.

“I was one of the co-founders of CryptoKitties in 2017. It was an incredible landmark moment for the Ethereum network – bringing it to a halt,” Lafrance stated. “Prior to endeavoring to build the future of consumer applications and web3, I spent some time working with a company called Heartisans in Hong Kong, building a blood pressure watch. Now, I get to spend my time thinking about how the world of web3 and technical innovation will elicit significant social, economic and technical change.”

She then discussed a pivotal moment in her career and how it has impacted her journey in the web3 space.

“The moment that I held closest to my heart, especially throughout the design and development of Flow, was one with Heartisans – completely unrelated to crypto,” she continued. “At that time, people were finding my personal phone number and calling me, begging me to release the blood pressure watch. They said, ‘I don’t care what it costs; please, just give us this product. It’s going to change my life.’ That became the new benchmark for what product/market fit looked like. If people aren’t calling you, begging you to get the product, then you don’t have product/market fit. That was a really important litmus test for me going forward, to be sure that what we were creating was going to deliver real benefits to real people.”

“The core of why web3 is going to change the way we interact with the internet is most related to the notion of dynamic identity. With the existing internet, your identity, preferences and the data associated with all of that is held by companies that give you access to it only when it is useful to them. With web3, we totally flip that on its head… From a consumer lens, web3 makes sure that your identity is owned by you instead of a corporation. The Flow account model lets users store important data in their accounts and port it to any experience they want. It’s not determined by the application that set up the account or any agent they interact with throughout the process; it’s determined entirely by the user… This is so important to the next era of the internet, from both a security standpoint and a user experience standpoint.”