The journey from international policy and trade finance to blockchain innovation might seem unusual, but for John Nahas of Ava Labs, it's precisely this diverse background that has helped shape Avalanche's distinctive approach to global blockchain adoption. In an industry often fixated on one-size-fits-all solutions, Ava Labs has taken a different path – creating purpose-built blockchains that cater to the nuanced needs of different industries and regions.

In this exclusive interview, Nahas shares insights from Ava Labs' remarkable international expansion and reveals why the next wave of blockchain adoption might look very different from what we expect.

Ishan Pandey: Hi John Nahas, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about your background and journey with Ava Labs?

John Nahas: Thank you for having me. I've been in startups and new businesses for 15+ years. I have degrees in Political Science and Communication with a Master's In Public Diplomacy, I came out of school as a policy and international affairs wonk. I had done some government and think tank work, with stints at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the U.S. Institute of Peace, American University of Dubai, and the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees.

I then got into new media and was Managing Editor and Director of Outreach and Partnerships for Mic.com up until its launch. Later, I went into international trade and trade finance for a boutique firm based in Southern California, where I did work in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Our small firm was later acquired by a large Russian conglomerate and we expanded our operations into Asia, CIS countries, and Latin American.

I got into crypto in late 2016, bought Bitcoin, and read anything and everything I could about blockchain and BTC. Then in 2017 I got into the ICO season, and around that time I was introduced to someone who was starting a new FinTech company using blockchain. I left my international trade job to be a founding team member at TokenVault, which later changed its name to Onsa. We built a digital asset investing, trading, and payment platform. Most notably, we worked on the on-chain money market token for Franklin Templeton, and later got acquired by Franklin in late 2019.

I took some time off in 2020 and got introduced to the team at Ava Labs, and was hooked and excited for the forthcoming launch of Avalanche. I joined in September 2020 and was one of the first couple people on the business team. Since then, we've expanded the team to cover institutions and capital markets, enterprise and consumer, wallets and exchanges, arts and culture, DeFi, and other sub-verticals, in addition to building out international teams in Korea, Japan, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Turkey, Middle East, South East Asia, where we're continually growing to tackle the local needs of users and developers.

Ishan Pandey: With your background in trade finance and digital assets, how do you see Avalanche transforming traditional sectors like finance and enterprise?

John Nahas: What excited me about Avalanche and is that it was built with multi-industry, and multi-use case, growth in mind. The entire architecture – a network of many sovereign L1 chains that are purpose built and interoperable – seemed to be missing in the sea of general purpose chains that continually launched. Given Avalanche's vision, architecture, and roadmap it made the most sense to be the destination for traditional finance and enterprise applications.

The ability for incumbent TradFi and enterprise partners to have their own chain, with their own rules, with/without their own token on a public, permissioned, or private chain but running on a public network with interoperability just made sense. This is what enterprises and institutions have been needing for many years. They tried enterprise chains, but those exist in a silo, so they lack the innovation, interoperability, and developers to continually push innovation forward.

Ishan Pandey: You've had extensive experience with international growth across regions like Korea, India, and Latin America. How does Ava Labs adapt its strategies for such diverse markets, and what have been your most significant learnings in scaling globally?

John Nahas: I am very proud of the success that our international teams have had. Our strategy is the same for all these diverse markets – hire the best local people possible. We have some of the brightest leaders in the Web3 space in Korea, Japan, India, and in all our targeted markets. They know the language, the culture, the business practices, the needs of users and builders, and help people solve problems using blockchain.

We approach all partners in the same way, as a solution to help them, not the other way around, which is the case with many general purpose chains that oftentimes are solutions in search of a problem, builders, and users. The biggest thing we've learned, and encountered, is how much innovation is happening abroad, particularly in Asia. They embrace and welcome new technology, and incorporate it in their life, and have been receptive, innovative, and forward-looking with blockchain technology and Web3.

Ishan Pandey: Avalanche is known for high throughput and scalability. What are some of the top use cases or projects you've seen built on Avalanche that truly showcase its potential? Could you share any specific success stories?

John Nahas: It is hard to pinpoint a single, or even a few favorites; it's like asking me which of my kids is my favorite. I will highlight that we've been tremendously successful with institutional and capital markets with projects like Republic's RNote, KKR and ParaFi tokenization, numerous FX stablecoins, our work with JPM, Citi, and ANZ, and many others. Enterprise and consumer use cases keep thriving, such as TYB and SK Planet's UPTN program for loyalty and rewards, TixBase and SI Tickets for NFT Ticketing, and many others. Gaming is innovative and real Web3 games are being built on Avalanche such as Off the Grid, Pulsar, Nexon's Maplestory Universe, and others. DeFi and on-chain innovation continues to be a focus area for us, as well as payments, AI, DePin, and fostering new innovative ideas.

Ishan Pandey: You oversee business development for Ava Labs. What do you think are the key factors in building successful partnerships in the blockchain space?

John Nahas: The most important principle we set out to achieve is creating a win-win partnership for us and any counterparty. Oftentimes in a negotiation, someone feels the need to win at the expense of the other side. These are partnerships – one side's success means success for both, so we should make sure that any deal or negotiation fulfills the needs of both parties. Both sides have things they need, and no two deals are the same, so it takes time, work, and attention to ensure a positive outcome for both parties.

Our three pillars are tech, team, and incentive. If there is an understanding of the tech, and its ability to deliver the best product, then 50% of the battle is done. Then comes the team – if we want to work with each other, then at a minimum 30% is also done. I would argue that relationships generally matter as much, if not more, than the tech. People want to work with people they like. If we have alignments on tech and team, then the incentive (financial, technical, marketing, etc.) becomes easy because it comes from a place of mutual success. Too often in this space we see a focus on incentives first, which is backwards and creates problems down the line.

Ishan Pandey: Institutions are gradually adopting blockchain, but some challenges persist. From your perspective, what are institutions doing right in this space, and where do they still fall short?

John Nahas: I think the most exciting thing institutions are doing is deploying assets on-chain, like Blackrock and Franklin Templeton and numerous asset managers internationally. Also, there are a lot of POC's, which crypto-centric people tend to deride, but they are a key first or second step for real adoption and growth of these large and often bureaucratic incumbents. Keep in mind, what we see today has taken 1-2 years, and once that first step is done, more innovative and real world applications and assets are being developed which also takes time.

The key challenge holding back mass institutional growth still is regulatory uncertainty. For a long time the crypto world fought against bad regulation. However, we're at a point where even somewhat bad regulation (the severity depends) is better than no regulation. No framework exists, no idea of what's acceptable or not, and institutions and enterprises will simply not take a risk of deploying an asset, or an application, if it could one day be on the wrong side of the line in terms of regulation. They would rather wait and do nothing. We need clarity, but there are some good steps being taken.

Ishan Pandey: In your view, what advantages do purpose-built blockchains offer over general-purpose ones, especially when serving diverse industries like finance, gaming, and enterprises?

John Nahas: General purpose blockchain remind me of AOL, Prodigy, and the early days of the internet – they are a one size fits all solution for applications, assets, and developers. But we know that is not how the world is. There is nuance and each unique need calls for a bespoke solution. Builders and innovators across enterprise, institutional, gaming, and crypto native needs solutions to their problems, not the other way around.

Purpose built chains give a wide variety of customization: native token, native gas token or no gas token, custom virtual machine, compliance, jurisdictional rules, steady fees, sovereignty –the list is endless. We believe that purpose built chains, especially Avalanche L1s, are the Wordpress moment for blockchains and will proliferate new chains, with novel use cases and assets, but with the added benefit of interoperability.

Ishan Pandey: Looking ahead, where do you see the next wave of adoption coming from?

John Nahas: In the short term, I think gaming has a great lead, followed by consumer applications, most notably because they use blockchains without it being the main attraction. Adoption will come when blockchains are used to enhance an experience or a product, or unlock a feature, not when it's the feature.

We've seen this with Off The Grid, TYB, and many other applications like Polymarket as well. The watershed moment – and what I'm most excited about – will be when we have a killer-app moment, like social media was for Web2. But I don't know what that will be. Up until now we made existing applications and use cases better. The real moment for the industry is when something new and novel arises and uses this technology.

Ishan Pandey: Finally, what advice would you give to leaders looking to scale their blockchain businesses internationally?

John Nahas: This is the same advice I would give to any builder, but internationally it is more relevant. Isolate the problem you are trying to fix, then decide if a blockchain or crypto can help achieve that or make it better. Then research both the tech, and the team, that you are interested in working with. Ignore flashy headlines, big checks and grandiose promises, and look and test the tech that works and provides you the solution you need, and diligence the team behind it and ask existing projects about their experiences. International teams need to solve for their users, work with tech that allows them to do that, and with local teams that know the market and their needs.

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