Taking the plunge. India will see tremendous boom in Web 3 innovation: Binance CTO

At a time when there is a lot of uncertainty over the longevity of cryptocurrencies, especially in India, where regulators continue to shy away from crypto-friendly laws, Binance is looking to India as one of the future hubs of talent and innovation in this space. Indian-origin Rohit Wad, Chief Technology Officer of Binance, told businessline that India will be one of the hubs for hiring new talent (interns) and investing in start-ups in the Web 3 space.  

While crypto exchanges struggle to operate in India, on the back of strict tax laws and the RBI’s dislike for cryptocurrency, Wad wants to bootstrap young Indian talent in the crypto space. Despite Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently acknowledging publicly that there is no viable business for the crypto exchange, Binance hopes to incorporate talent from elite Indian universities into their workforce. Wad said Mumbai is among the five global tech hubs that Binance will focus on for the 2023 summer internship cycle.

“While we are a remote-first company, and employees can work from home, it will be good if they are able to meet once in a while. This is why we will focus on a few cities across the globe, where we will focus on the initial recruitment cycle for internships. Recruitment will not necessarily be restricted to these cities, however,” Wad explained. Binance is focussing on cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, Mumbai, and a few more. “There is going to be a tremendous boom, in the innovation that comes out of India. In fact, as a beginning step, I would like to see if we can find interns in India and get them bootstrapped on crypto,” he said.

While Indian crypto exchanges are struggling with investment on the back of restrictive regulations, along with bear market conditions in the crypto space globally, Wad remains optimistic about India’s Web 3 ecosystems. “In many ways, India is ahead of certain countries, ahead of us in Seattle, on the technology front.  India has a widely used UPI, which is something we cannot do at this level here; there are several lessons that global companies could adopt. We believe that amazing companies can be anywhere in the world, if they are standing out, we will love to invest in them and love to partner and love to learn,” said Wad. Binance was one of the early investors in the Indian blockchain platform, Polygon. Wad noted that Binance is likely to invest in some (at least one) Indian start-ups in the coming years.

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