From Banking to Blockchain: Infinito Marketing Leader, Ms. Ellena Ki, Talks Enabling Mass Adoption and Women in Blockchain
Before she was Marketing Leader of Infinito, the blockchain R&D house behind the globally acclaimed mobile crypto wallet application Infinito Wallet, Ms. Ellena Ki spent over 15 years in traditional finance. Today, she leads Infinito’s Marketing team to promote the company’s various business and consumer products, services, and solutions; all while spreading awareness about the values of blockchain technology. In celebration of International Women’s Day, let’s sit down with Ellena and discuss how she found her calling with blockchain.
Q1: Seeing that your background prior to blockchain is banking, what kind of revelation have you arrived at regarding these two industries?
Ellena: Indeed, my professional background for over 15 years was finance in Japan and Hong Kong. I worked for Euroclear Bank in Hong Kong as part of a client account management team dedicated to support central banks in Korea and others in the APAC region. In particular, my work centered much around intercontinental finance services, the flow of money across borders, including fixed income, equities, funds, settlement, custody, collateral management, fund settle, and more.
In truth, as significant as finance is in our daily lives, banking is a notoriously slow-moving industry in many ways, even in this technology era. International transactions is slow and the fees are massive. Databases are entirely centralized and clunkily managed, meaning increased chances of hacks wipe away data and funds. After years of dedication in the finance world, I wanted to try out something new and eventually ended up in the blockchain world.
It was then that I discovered blockchain can bring great and much-needed improvements to our current banking systems. The transparent yet secure way data is recorded on tamper-proof ledgers means that database breaches, funds misappropriation, and thus, lack of consumer trust, will become issues of the past entirely. Blockchain’s unique smart contract technologies will also streamline and optimize transaction speeds plus fees significantly. Finance is a heavily regulated industry, so such massive technology overhauls will certainly not occur overnight. However, I do believe that the industry leaders are gradually seeing the values blockchain can bring to this traditional sector, and at Infinito, we are always ready to help businesses and consumers across all industries realize and benefit from adopting blockchain.
Q2: What is your role at Infinito as a Marketing Leader?
Ellena: At Infinito, our Marketing team is dedicated to establishing a strong branding amongst crypto communities and the blockchain industry as a whole. Therefore, we work with Business and Technical teams to make our products, services, and solutions not only functionally capable but also professionally presented and a joy to use for customers.
We also strongly believe in the power of partnerships, as we can leverage one another’s expertise to enhance our lineup of offers and deliver better value to our communities. Therefore, our team is focusing our efforts on forging strategic partnerships with other industry experts so that we can bring value not only to our company but also to our customers, businesses and consumers alike.
Q3: Which achievements of Infinito are you most proud of?
Ellena: If you had ask me last year, it would have been being the industry’s first in many fields: universal wallet for EOS, ADA, and security tokens through integrated KYC feature. All of these milestones are made possible through intensive efforts in partnership building and collaborative technical integrations.
This year, however, is all about practical blockchain applications. So, I am very proud of Infinito Wallet finally becoming a universal gateway to both leading cryptos and innovative blockchain services, with the launch of our in-wallet DApp browser, Infinito App Square. Additionally, we officially launched Infinito Blockchain Platform earlier this year, with the goal to become the number one choice of platform for anyone looking to integrate or develop practical blockchain applications and services. Infinito also reached a landmark collaboration with the government of Uzbekistan to promote blockchain awareness.
Both Infinito Wallet and Infinito Blockchain Platform are truly game-changers for the blockchain industry, both of which has an extensive lineup of value offerings for customers unlike any other on the market. We are extremely proud of these accomplishments and is always eager to bring more innovations to the industry!
Q4: What is it like being a woman in such a new, tech-focused industry?
Ellena: Personally, I am very comfortable with it, as I have always been working in male- dominated environments; first finance and now blockchain. However, unlike finance, tech and especially blockchain are still young sectors open to new possibilities. They are also key industries that can majorly impact our daily lives and potentially the future of our society. Therefore, it is important for women to join this field and help shape the future together.
Q5: What do you think blockchain need to reach mass adoption?
Ellena: As much as I am a believer in blockchain technology, I too must admit that it is not always very accessible. This technology is quite complex and not a lot applications built on it are user-friendly, which makes the average consumer shy away. So I believe that as blockchain service providers, we must impact user experience in meaningful ways and practically transform blockchain functionality to be of service to consumers’ daily tasks. Because of this belief, Infinito puts heavy focus on the user experience of all our products, services, and solutions. We also channel our efforts to build strategic partnerships with other experts in the industry who share our vision to enable blockchain mass adoption for consumers and businesses by focusing on the practicality and accessibility of our innovations.
Q6: What are your goals to expand Infinito in the years ahead?
Ellena: As mentioned, we believe in producing practical and accessible blockchain innovations that can be easily adopted en masse. So naturally, we will focus on enabling more practical blockchain services in Infinito Wallet through App Square and wallet integration with esteemed technology partners. We are also committed to bring more useful and versatile tools, services, and solutions to Infinito Blockchain Platform. And on our journey, we will also forge more strategic partnerships with other blockchain experts to help us reach these goals and also conquer underexplored territories in blockchain, such as tokenized securities. Please look forward to our innovations in this and the coming years!
Q7: Do you have any advice for women looking to join blockchain industry?
Ellena: This applies to everyone and not just women, but I would advise all who seek to join the blockchain industry to be flexible and think beyond technicalities. Blockchain is a fast-moving space that evolves everyday, so you need to be as adaptable as possible and stay open to new possibilities, whether it’s new technical protocols or different angles to market businesses.
And, of course, never gloss over the user experience. Blockchain is new, difficult to understand, and rather tech-focus, so it is not always intuitive and easy to use, especially for the average consumer. Translate technicalities into friendly, easily comprehensible values that people can understand and benefit from, no matter how small. This, I believe, will go a long way in making your blockchain innovation more appealing to a wider spectrum of audience and help enable mass adoption of this technology much more effectively.
About Infinito
Infinito is a leading Japanese blockchain technology house with over 300 experts and 3+ years of professional experience in the field of cryptography and blockchain technologies. We help businesses of all scales easily realize blockchain values to their business. Infinito builds and operates an Ecosystem of products, solutions, and services, either ready-made or custom tailored, to help businesses and developers seamlessly implement, develop, and run blockchain applications securely, efficiently and compliantly. At the same time, Ecosystem consumers can access and enjoy these innovations with utmost convenience and safety. Infinito Wallet, our universal mobile wallet app, prides itself on being widely appraised as one of the world’s most powerful cryptocurrency wallet solution for the safe storage and usage of crypto assets.
Infinito is actively expanding its ecosystem by collaborating with blockchain industry players around the globe to become the one-stop solution for businesses and consumers looking to utilize blockchain. Contact info@infinito.io to learn more about our lineup of services and solutions for businesses and developers, or simply to become an ecosystem partner.
Infinito Blockchain Platform website: https://www.platform.infinito.io/
Infinito website: https://www.infinito.io/
