Interview with Claudia Lagorio, COO of Bitfinex and Tether
3 min read
The Cryptonomist interviewed Claudia Lagorio, COO of Bitfinex and Tether to talk about smart working, DeFi and diversity.
How is it to work in a male industry? I suppose you are also the only woman in Bitfinex…
I wouldn’t define it as a male industry, many women are involved in its development, supporting the crypto revolution in many ways and their contribution shouldn’t go unnoticed.
For example, in Bitfinex and Tether, women are covering various roles, including technical and leadership positions.
Having a diverse and well-balanced team is part of our strength. Everyone contributes with their talents, personality, and background to the development of our products and, more generally, to the crypto community’s growth.
How do you manage your company working only remotely? This way covid-19 didn’t touch you at all, right?
Managing a completely remote and distributed company requires both strong organisation and good adaptability. Efficient communication is the key, and finding the right tools is the first step to achieve it. Your needs go from just sending a quick message to a colleague to collaborating and developing complex projects that involve multiple departments.
Our industry, and the world around us, are continually evolving and we face new challenges every day.
Even though Covid-19 has touched everyone from a personal perspective, working remotely and from various locations has demonstrated once again to be a winning choice. Our unique setup allows us to be resilient and to always provide a consistent and outstanding service with the peace of mind of working from a safe environment.
What do you think about DeFi ?
DeFi has the chance to set the standard for a more transparent ecosystem of financial services.
Both Bitfinex and Tether are following the DeFi space closely as it continues to evolve. We are collaborating with projects or funding or integrating them in our suite of products. In particular, we are supportive of initiatives that are building financial products that aim to enhance levels of financial inclusion. These projects serve those who have difficulty obtaining access to standard banking services. Another important aspect for us is the focus on the adoption of layer 2 scalability solutions to make the DeFi space ready for the next 100 million users.
NFT is one of the great trends of 2021, any future news about it at Bitfinex?
We have seen NFT interest growing rapidly since the beginning of 2021. At the moment we are closely looking at the ecosystem without direct involvement. While having the potential to improve and solve many complexities of the digital property industry, we urge users to carefully evaluate before investing in the ownership of NFTs.
What do you expect from 2021 after the great news of the end of the dispute with the NYAG?
We can finally focus our energies towards what we do best: the development of ground breaking products. Keep an eye on our social media channels because something big is coming.
How do you see Bitcoin in 5 years? And the industry in general?
We are witnessing big players entering the crypto space right now and I expect crypto will reach hundreds of millions of people. Bitcoin based-products will mature and become more accessible to the average user. Concepts like the circular economy and living on crypto will become more sustainable, while bitcoin will grow to become the first unstoppable Internet currency.
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