OKX University Interview | Aleksandar: Wallet as a Service is crucial to Web3

Aleksandar Kuzmanovic is a professor of computer science at Northwestern University in the United States, and has been focusing on computer network research. The Northwestern Networks group he leads is committed to building protocols and systems that can increase the speed of Internet operation. He founded the bloXroute lab in 2017, hoping to promote network scalability by improving blockchain efficiency. Today, bloXroute has become a recognized network layer solution for multiple blockchains and is widely used by traders in the DeFi field.

Through interviews, we hope to understand how entrepreneurs with university backgrounds around the world see the future development of the Web3 industry, and how they integrate their expertise with blockchain technology? Therefore, we specially invite Professor Aleksandar Kuzmanovic to be the guest speaker of the "OKX University Interview" series. In his sharing, he said: "Wallet as Service is crucial to promoting the large-scale adoption of blockchain. This is the key for Web3 to welcome the next billion users." I hope his background and experience can provide us with a unique perspective on the industry. The following is the original interview text, I hope it will be helpful to you.

The "OKX University Interview" series is a special column specially produced by OKX, hosted by the official community ambassador of OKX, Mercy (@Mercy_okx), aiming to explore the industry perspectives of people from universities around the world and provide reference for friends who are starting a business and looking for employment in Web3.

1Please briefly introduce yourself.

I am Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, a professor of computer science at Northwestern University, focusing on computer network research. I lead the Northwestern Networks group, which is committed to building protocols and systems that can speed up the operation of the Internet. When I first came into contact with blockchain, I naturally regarded it as a computer network optimization problem, because blockchain is essentially a network that relies on efficient data transmission. This realization prompted me to establish bloXroute Labs in 2017 to focus on solving this challenge. At first, our vision was to promote the expansion of blockchain by improving its efficiency. Today, bloXroute has become a recognized network layer solution for multiple blockchains and is widely used by traders in the DeFi field.

2What is the current status of the Web3 industry in your opinion?

Web3 has developed rapidly in recent years, and now we can easily look back on the changes in the past decade. For example, when we founded bloXroute Labs in 2017, DeFi and MEV didn't even exist. This shows that innovation in this field is advancing at an astonishing pace. This is not surprising, because when building a new financial system, especially a system based on a new concept, there are always a lot of problems to be solved.

In my opinion, one thing is very clear: in the first few years, Web3 was mainly driven by people's vision of the potential of blockchain, and new blockchain projects emerged almost every day. Although there is still a lot of room for innovation in the field, I think the industry has entered a relatively stable stage now. Next, the real challenge is how to make blockchain easier for ordinary users.

3What do you think is the core driving force for the future development of the Web3 industry? What do you think of the current talent status of the Web3 industry?

I think this is definitely a multi-billion dollar question, especially about how to achieve mass adoption. As I mentioned earlier, significant progress has been made in blockchain performance. At the same time, I have recently observed that more efforts are being made to make this technology accessible to ordinary users. In my opinion, the development of "Wallet as a Service" (WAAS) is crucial, which effectively shortens the distance between blockchain technology and ordinary users. Now, users can use blockchain technology more and more conveniently without having to delve into technical details that they neither care about nor need to understand, and may not even know that they are using blockchain. In my opinion, these are very positive developments.

Of course, I hope that universities can play a role in this. Given that the field of Web3 is full of technical challenges and is at the intersection of cryptography, computer science, game theory, and finance, it is important to have a sound and rigorous method (including peer-reviewed publications) to systematically help solve these problems.

In the past decade, the attitude of Northwestern University and the academic community as a whole has changed significantly. Northwestern University itself is unique because we have a top-notch Kellog School of Management, which provides great potential and talent pool for entrepreneurship, and some of them have entered the field of Web3.

A similar trend is occurring in engineering schools. Blockchain courses in particular are being taught regularly by professors from a variety of fields, covering subjects ranging from game theory to computer systems. This is exposing more and more students to and engaging with Web3. It is exciting to see that Web3 has become a mainstream topic to a large extent.

4. What are the areas of the Web3 industry that are most likely to see significant change in the next 5-10 years?

In addition to bloXroute, my friend and colleague Professor Xinyu Xing (who recently joined us from Penn State) is also the founder of Sec3, a company focused on smart contract auditing. Smart contract auditing is obviously a critical area for the simple reason that even minor mistakes can lead to catastrophic consequences, as we have witnessed many times in the past. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that the implementation and deployment of smart contracts are rigorously verified.

For entrepreneurs who are interested in entering the Web3 space, I have two pieces of advice. The first point is more general - if you are confident in your idea or project, then go for it, show it, and fight for it. The second point is that it is never too late to have a good idea, especially in a relatively young field like Web3. I remember when I founded bloXroute Labs with my PhD student Uri Klarman in 2017, we faced similar challenges. At that time, it seemed that the industry had stabilized, as if there was not much room for new projects. But it turned out that this was not the case in 2017, and it is not the case now. There is always room for new ideas to develop.

5After years of deep cultivation in theWeb3industry, what insights do you have to share?

My academic and entrepreneurial journey in the field of Web3 is quite unique. At first, like many people, I had heard of Bitcoin a long time ago, but I didn't pay much attention to it, and I never thought it would have such a big impact. Many peer-to-peer systems have been developed over the years, and I thought Bitcoin was just one of them. The difference is that Bitcoin has the potential to be truly transformative because its goals go far beyond the scope of ordinary systems.

A few years after Bitcoin became popular, other blockchain technologies began to attract attention. So my students and I began to study blockchain and explore in depth where it could be applied. We published several academic papers in this field, and it was through these studies that we accumulated a deep understanding and practical experience of blockchain systems.

This experience eventually led to the birth of bloXroute Labs. We realized that just like there are private networks for content distribution or traditional financial services, there is also a great need for an efficient private network for blockchain. The biggest challenge is how to design an efficient network while retaining the core characteristics of blockchain decentralization.

Finally and most importantly, ideas must be put into action to make sense. Having an idea is just the beginning, it is just an idea. What really drives our success is a group of dedicated and passionate people, like Uri Klarman and Eyal Markovich of bloXroute, who are the reason why they are created, seen and used by people. Therefore, people with execution ability are the real key to success.

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