Reown CEO Aims to Make Blockchain Interactions Seamless for Mainstream Adoption

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, one of the most significant challenges remains: creating a user experience that is intuitive enough for mainstream adoption. Jess Houlgrave, CEO of Reown, believes that the solution lies in making onchain interactions feel seamless and invisible to the user.

Despite the rapid advancements in blockchain technology, many users still find the technology difficult to navigate. Houlgrave, with her extensive background in traditional finance and payments infrastructure, aims to bridge this gap by focusing on user experience (UX). Her goal is to develop tools that allow users to experience decentralization in its purest form without the need for technical expertise.

Houlgrave's journey into the crypto space was driven by a vision to rebuild financial systems in a more transparent, inclusive, and programmable way. At Reown, this vision is realized through features like Pay with Exchange, which allows users to pay directly from centralized exchanges such as Coinbase or Binance without leaving the checkout flow or inputting credentials. This feature addresses the fact that a significant portion of crypto holders still keep their funds on exchanges, removing unnecessary friction from the process.

Houlgrave emphasizes that usability should not be compromised in the name of innovation. True innovation, she argues, means making powerful tools feel simple and accessible. This philosophy is evident in Reown's approach to building for humans rather than developers. Complex blockchain processes like gas management, signing messages, and bridging are abstracted behind smart infrastructure, ensuring users never face them directly.

Reown's product stack, including WalletKit and AppKit, incorporates features like One-Click Auth and Link-Mode, which enable seamless and secure interactions across apps and chains. Another key development is Chain Abstraction, integrated into WalletKit, which allows users to spend stablecoins across different chains without manually bridging or switching networks. For example, a user holding USDC on Arbitrum can pay a merchant on Base, with Reown handling the cross-chain transaction automatically.

Houlgrave challenges the common misconception that prioritizing UX slows down innovation. She argues that building with UX in mind from the start is not a trade-off but a necessity for scalable innovation. The feedback loop between usage and iteration drives continuous improvement, making the tool better with each iteration. If users can experience better privacy, more ownership, and smarter digital experiences without needing to know what chain they’re on, then Web3 wins.

For developers in the space, Houlgrave advises building for people, not protocols. She suggests testing products with users who have never used a wallet, as their feedback will be more valuable than another developer's opinion. She emphasizes that the industry's next phase is not just about infrastructure but about experience. Reown is proving that the best innovation is the one people never have to think about, making onchain interactions feel as natural as anything on the web today.

Houlgrave's approach at Reown is not just about making onchain easier; it's about rewiring the entire conversation. By centering users instead of just protocols, Reown is demonstrating that the best innovation is the one that feels invisible to the end user. If Web3 is ever going to hit the mainstream, it won't be through more complexity but through simplicity, trust, and experiences that feel natural and intuitive.