It’s easy to talk about the promise of crypto. It’s harder to do the work that makes it real for someone in Nairobi, Penang, or Jakarta. Raza Zaidi, Head of Growth at Scroll, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, is working on just that, shaping the protocol’s infrastructure and strategy around real-world use and practical adoption. We sat down during EthCC in Cannes to talk about what it takes to move from narrative to access—and why stablecoins, compliance layers, and local ecosystems are at the heart of what’s next. It’s easy to talk about the promise of crypto. It’s harder to do the work that makes it real for someone in Nairobi, Penang, or Jakarta. Raza Zaidi, Head of Growth at Scroll, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, is working on just that, shaping the protocol’s infrastructure and strategy around real-world use and practical adoption. We sat down during EthCC in Cannes to talk about what it takes to move from narrative to access—and why stablecoins, compliance layers, and local ecosystems are at the heart of what’s next. It’s easy to talk about the promise of crypto. It’s harder to do the work that makes it real for someone in Nairobi, Penang, or Jakarta. Raza Zaidi, Head of Growth at Scroll, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, is working on just that, shaping the protocol’s infrastructure and strategy around real-world use and practical adoption. We sat down during EthCC in Cannes to talk about what it takes to move from narrative to access—and why stablecoins, compliance layers, and local ecosystems are at the heart of what’s next. Raza Zaidi Raza Zaidi Scroll Scroll EthCC EthCC You’ve worked on core infrastructure within Ethereum, where protocol design is often treated as a purely technical challenge. How do you bring the human side in? Even though our work at Scroll is deeply technical, we always start from the same place: What problem are we trying to solve, and why does it matter? Once we do that, it naturally leads to another question: Who is it for? The human element informs everything; if the tech doesn’t serve real people in meaningful ways, then what are we even doing? is Ethereum showed the world what’s possible with decentralized finance: lending, borrowing, open access to capital—these were the big breakthroughs. But that access didn’t get evenly distributed. In many parts of the world, the cost of using these systems remained high. So, for us, infrastructure isn’t only about protocol performance or throughput. It’s about lowering barriers. When we talk about accessibility, we’re talking about something very real: Can someone actually afford to use the network? Can they send a transaction, receive a payment, or get a loan without burning through ten dollars in fees? actually That’s why we’re big on zero-knowledge scaling. It’s complex, involving cryptography and a lot of backend engineering, but the result is practical. It means someone in Nigeria or Malaysia might only pay a fraction of a cent to use an app. That’s already much better, and we continue to push it further. Security is just as important. I often say building in Web3 feels more like building hardware than software. You don’t get to ship fast and fix later. People are trusting these systems with their money; sometimes for the very first time. If it breaks, it’s not “just a bug.” It’s someone’s savings gone. Whether it’s about cost, access, or security, this work really only matters if it expands what people can do and who gets to participate. What does human-centered work look like in your day-to-day? A lot of us at Scroll feel fortunate to be in a position where we can help level the playing field. For me, that means creating real opportunities in places often overlooked. There’s a certain prestige in partnering with institutions like Harvard or Cambridge. But what excites me is working with local universities in Thailand or Laos. There is so much untapped talent—bright, driven people who just need a door to open. To follow through on that, I moved with my wife and four kids to Malaysia. From here, we’ve been working directly with local developers, agencies, and content creators. Because it’s not just about giving people access to tech. The tech is a means to an end. What really matters is what people build with it—and whether they get the chance to build at all. Human-centered, to me, means sitting down with creatives who’ve never had a shot at this kind of support. They’re smart, curious, full of ideas, but they can’t exactly board the next flight to San Francisco and plug into the usual VC networks. Even if they could get a visa, the cost makes it unreachable. The internet helps, yes, but it doesn’t close that gap. That’s why we built a startup school. We’re seeing local builders come through and bring their ideas to life. And it also shapes our culture at Scroll; how we hire and cultivate talent, how we collaborate with partners, or even how we build onchain payment tools. Being human-centered isn’t a separate effort. It really is at the heart of everything. You mentioned a startup school; what is it? The startup school came together in 2023 with a simple idea: if you’re serious about building, wherever you are, you can join us. We offer structure, a place to land, and peers to learn and grow with. The Scroll team’s right there beside you—we build together, and we don’t sugarcoat our feedback. It’s honest, sometimes tough, but always meant to help teams level up and keep moving. We focus on what matters: how to go to market, how to find your first 100 users, how to build something real and sustainable. In crypto, people still get caught up in launching a token and hoping it pumps. That’s not the goal. We ask: What problem are you solving? Who is it for? Can it actually work? We see how important it is to think beyond simply handing out a grant. What makes the difference here is standing next to builders, helping them sharpen their ideas, make tough calls, and stick with it through the ups and downs. In our first season, fourteen teams flew in: from the US, Canada, Kenya, India. Half were local. The energy and talent that came through were incredible. Now, we’re looking to run four seasons a year. It’s all part of the same mission: backing underrepresented builders, creating access, and making sure this tech actually reaches the people who need it. Working with builders in places like Kenya, India, or Malaysia, what have you learned about their challenges that the broader space can learn from? This year, I spent time in Lagos, Nairobi, and across Southeast Asia. If there’s one thing I wish more people in Web3 understood, it’s that context is everything. Too often, builders in so-called “emerging markets” get grouped together, as if they were all facing the same problems. But the reality is more nuanced. The challenges in Kenya aren’t the same as in Nigeria. The constraints in Malaysia are different from those in India. And that’s where Web3 still has work to do. We talk a lot about decentralization, but we keep applying the same playbook everywhere and calling it global. Real support means taking the time to understand what’s happening on the ground. It means showing up, listening, adapting—offering what’s useful, not just what’s standard. Another thing that I noticed again and again was the hustle. The grit. The sharp economic awareness that comes from navigating systems that don’t play fair. That kind of environment breeds a different kind of builder—one who’s not chasing hype, but solving for something urgent and real. That’s why I believe builders in these regions are going to shape what we call the “open economy”. In most systems today, your access to capital, opportunity, and even basic tools is decided by where you’re born. It’s not a choice—and yet it determines so much. Web3 has a chance to shift that. To create systems where participation doesn’t depend on geography, where ideas and effort matter more than your location or background. We’re still early, but the people who’ve been forced to build around constraints their whole lives, are the ones already laying the foundation. Is there a need they have that isn’t taken seriously enough? Attention. Many founders feel that the space is overly focused on hype, leaving little room for anything else. And sure, hype has its place. But crypto spans a whole spectrum of people and goals, and not everyone fits the loudest mold. ttention For many, it’s overwhelming. They’re trying to break through the noise, and sometimes they’re not even sure this is the right ecosystem to do that. Do they push through on crypto Twitter? Or do they focus on building and hope it finds traction outside the bubble? When I shared a video about moving to Malaysia, it got 250,000 views. People reached out from Singapore, Hong Kong—some even flew in to visit. And they all asked the same thing: why move there? I told them I wanted to go narrow. Because I believe this is where we can make the biggest impact. And what I heard back, again and again, was: thank you for paying attention. That’s what seemed to matter most. Sometimes the most meaningful thing we can offer isn’t capital or advice, it’s showing up and paying attention. Can you share some examples of real-world projects built on Scroll? Absolutely! Let’s talk stablecoins. We tend to put them in one bucket, but there are different types—some yield-bearing, some backed by fiat and used for payments. Each serves a specific purpose, and together they’re becoming core infrastructure for the open economy. This is especially relevant in regions like East Africa, where foreign exchange systems are still incredibly inefficient. If someone wants to convert Kenyan shillings to, say, Chinese yuan, they often have to go through the US dollar first—sometimes even through a third currency. It’s costly, slow, and frustrating for local businesses. Celo has done a lot of great work in that sector, but there’s still a lot of friction. On the individual level, stablecoins like USDT help preserve value in high-inflation contexts. Now, we’re also seeing a shift toward stablecoins that don’t just preserve value but also generate yield. ViFi (Virtual Finance) is launching on Scroll in August, backed by investors like Bankless, with a fully onchain FX protocol. In practical terms, it lets users swap a local stablecoin into any currency without routing through the dollar. ViFi (Virtual Finance) ViFi (Virtual Finance) The idea isn’t new, but execution matters. ViFi is doing the work on the ground, building local OTC integrations, securing partnerships, and designing with users in mind. Because it’s not just about the tech; you have to know who you’re solving for and bring the solution into the platforms and experiences they already use. The "build it and they will come" mindset doesn’t work here. Then, there’s Project Mocha. It may sound like a hackathon idea—tokenizing trees—but these are real farmers, well beyond the proof-of-concept stage. They’ve sold thousands of trees already. What I love about them is that they’re not trying to pitch crypto. They come from a farming lineage and see crypto as a tool to make their operations more efficient. Project Mocha Project Mocha They told me, “We have a farmers’ association. We grow the coffee beans, we sell them. We just want better margins.” And that’s what crypto enables. Today, if they want to fund their supply chain, they take out loans with high interest rates. That eats into their margins. Meanwhile, the Kenyan coffee industry keeps shrinking, even as global demand grows. Onchain funding gives them better access to capital, lower fees, and smoother payments. It turns an unprofitable business into a sustainable one. Another great one is ether.fi Cash, which targets a different group entirely—crypto-native users. They already have 2,000 KYC’d users and over 50 million in total value locked, and that’s just in the first few weeks. You deposit stablecoins, earn yield, and if you want to spend it, you get a card you can use anywhere. ether.fi Cash ether.fi Cash 50 million in total value locked 50 million in total value locked It works like any other credit card—Amex, Visa, whatever—but built on crypto rails, with cashback and everything. The UI is familiar, the UX is smooth, and users don’t have to change their habits. That’s how we get real adoption. What else needs to be built, whether it’s tech or infrastructure, for the open economy to scale? I live and breathe this every day. And the answer is actually pretty boring: compliance. Compliance is the real bottleneck right now. The KYC, KYB, KYT, local licenses, regulation. Everyone talks about liquidity, but liquidity isn’t the issue; it’s access. The real problem is the gatekeepers. The people who control the flow of money in and out. Getting onchain is still hard. I can’t tell you how many times someone has tried to go through the flow and said, “I’m not comfortable with this. Never mind.” Or they go through a centralized exchange like Coinbase, but the experience is still clunky, limited. You don’t really get what the open economy is about. And that’s why it’s risky to focus on a few big players. I like that we have many Layer 2s, many projects. Some are local, some global, but there are enough people to serve, and we need a range of approaches. The same goes for compliance. When only a handful of entities control that layer, it’s bad for users and bad for the market. You get monopolies, high fees, and friction. We need a better onboarding experience, yes, but also more competition in the compliance layer. More modular, open, efficient systems—not just for the sake of regulation, but to unlock real usage. Because if we solve that, everything else starts to move: OTC flows better, on-ramps and off-ramps become usable, and liquidity reaches the people who need it. The next wave of progress will come from this work, and I think we’re close. unlock real usage What’s your piece of advice to teams building for the real world? There’s a scene in Moneyball I always think about. Brad Pitt’s character says, “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we’re going to lose to them out there.” The team he’s managing doesn’t have the same budget or resources, so playing the same game is a losing strategy. That’s true in crypto, too. If you’re building a wallet or a DEX and think you can out-Coinbase Coinbase, you’re missing the point. You need a different playbook. Moneyball That starts with distribution. Talk to people on the platforms they already use—not just TikTok or Instagram, but Reddit. That’s where people are posting real problems. Don’t show up with your product; show up with curiosity. Ask questions. Get into the weeds. Figure out what’s broken for them. And when you start designing a solution, resist the urge to follow the same patterns. Ask yourself: What is the real barrier here? Sometimes it's education, but often it’s deeper—like compliance, or cost, or a total lack of local infrastructure. Maybe social login gets someone through the first step. Great. But can they actually move capital onchain? Can they cash out? If not, what’s blocking them—fees, local licensing, monopolies in the OTC market? You have to trace the problem all the way down. That means doing the unsexy work: talking to regulators, building integrations, grinding through red tape. The founders making real progress are the ones who sit with the hard stuff. They don’t default to what’s familiar. They don’t chase vanity metrics. So, go deep and don’t be afraid to do the work most avoid. What’s been your biggest EthCC takeaway so far? That stablecoins aren’t a niche anymore. They’re here, and they’re powering the next wave of adoption. We talk a lot about onboarding, but much of the capital moving through this space still circulates within the same networks. Stablecoins—especially when used in real-world contexts—are starting to shift that. They’re opening the door to new users and fresh capital, rather than recycling what’s already here. And here’s a bit of a hot take: parts of crypto, as we’ve known it, are already starting to fade. “Not your keys, not your coins,” used to be the line. But most people don’t think that way anymore. We’re seeing compromises on decentralization in the name of scale. Whether that’s good or bad is up for debate, but that’s the direction things are going.
