Ryan Wyatt has quickly become a prominent figure in the crypto space since joining Polygon Labs early last year – but he’s arguably more known for his gaming and esports background. He even wrote a bestselling book about popular esports team OpTic Gaming. He then founded and grew YouTube Gaming from 2014 to 2022 as the company’s Global Head of Gaming. Here are the latest comments from Wyatt, who has an important place in the Polygon team…
Polygon Labs head describes the process of entering the crypto space
Given its importance in the gaming world, what ultimately drew Wyatt to crypto? In the latest episode of a podcast called GM, Wyatt said that he “really just got caught up in the idea of digital property, that we’re going to keep spending more money on digital items.” He acknowledged that as both spend and intimacy increase, people “want for more autonomy and ownership” over their digital items, and that Blockchain makes this possible. He admitted that this issue led him to the crypto space.
Wyatt, who joined Polygon Studios as CEO in February 2022 and took the role of president at the recently rebranded Polygon Labs, said he’s beginning to understand why some people are “very excited” about the economic side of cryptocurrency. But for him, embracing Web3 was about seeing the potential future impact of true digital ownership. The possible benefits for gamers are clear, even if some video game fans have outright dismissed NFTs.
Gamers are already spending money on digital items they can’t resell or use in other games and worlds in games like Fortnite and Call of Duty. Blockchain-based games could potentially give players this level of control with wider benefits. Interestingly, Wyatt said he chose Polygon Labs over other potential opportunities because of its ability to work with creators and developers in a wide variety of fields. It has helped grow the creator economy at YouTube, and now it wants to do the same for Web3 creators without being tied to just the playground.
Web3 call for next Jeff Bezos
He added that while rival layer-1 platforms such as Solana and Avalanche are definitely gaining momentum, as we reported on Kriptokoin.com, the Ethereum space already has established users and developers. Wyatt also likes that the founders of Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network that enables faster and cheaper transactions than the mainnet, signaled long-term goals by purchasing and integrating ZK scaling projects in 2021. In addition, Wyatt believes he can help elevate Polygon by transferring his experience from the Web2 world. Wyatt used the following statements:
I also felt that where I could add value was to help scale and help make it more versatile by adding some non-Web3-specific elements to Polygon. And so I really fit in with Sandeep [Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon] and the team because I felt like we were so complementary to each other’s skill sets and weaknesses.
Early in his career, Wyatt wrote in his OpTic Gaming book that he hopes to one day lead a company. Now he does it, albeit in a very different industry. He also thinks that the next tech giant or intellectual will come from the web3 industry. “I have no doubts,” Wyatt said, that he hopes the “new Jeff Bezos” on web3 is building on Polygon.
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