In an interview, Ankr's VP of Product, Josh Neuroth, elaborates on the significant advantages of blockchain technology and the possibilities that lie ahead.

Josh Neuroth , the VP of Product at Ankr Before joining Ankr, Josh Neuroth specialized in product ownership and management roles at various web2 companies, where he focused on creating products and infrastructures that enable businesses to expand successfully.

In his position at Ankr, Neuroth leads a talented team that includes product managers, technical writers, developer relations professionals, designers, and product marketing experts. He collaborates closely with Ankr’s global engineering squad, which handles the creation of smart contracts, APIs, and even entire new blockchains.

Neuroth's introduction to the blockchain world was sparked by a friend's recommendation of Bitcoin in its early days. His exploration of this technology revealed its impressive potential, highlighting blockchain’s significance as a transparent and self-sufficient system, particularly valuable in today's digital age where establishing facts can be challenging.

Beyond its role in cryptocurrencies, Neuroth anticipates that the use of blockchain will extend to crucial areas such as data storage, creating a foundation of truth, and unlocking new possibilities for enhanced connectivity and product innovation. With advancements in technologies like AI and AR/VR, he is eager to see how blockchain will facilitate smoother interactions between machines.

In this interview, we chat with Neuroth about the range of offerings from Ankr, their recent partnerships with tech powerhouses like Microsoft and Tencent, and his reasons for being optimistic about the future of blockchain.

Can you explain the responsibilities linked to being VP of Product at Ankr, and what unique skills and experiences do you contribute to this role?

Taking the helm of product direction at Ankr is a substantial responsibility, as this sector demands an acute awareness of industry dynamics that require robust infrastructure. Adaptability is essential in this rapidly evolving landscape, where technological advances can emerge unexpectedly. My previous leadership roles in product management equipped me with insights into computing infrastructure, platform engineering, and user experience, which have all converged at Ankr with the goal of developing a worldwide node infrastructure for the blockchain sector, ensuring our infrastructure meets performance standards, and delivering a platform experience that effectively communicates the excellence of our innovative products to the broader Web3 community.

According to your LinkedIn, your role at Ankr marks your first journey into the web3 arena. What was it like transitioning into this space?

Transitioning to this vibrant and sometimes unconventional blockchain environment was incredibly thrilling. However, once you grasp the underlying principles of these systems, designing new products becomes manageable. From a product perspective, blockchain still necessitates traditional computing resources like servers and cloud infrastructure, and has considerable demands for node networks; ensuring robust infrastructure for these systems is not as disparate as many might think.

Ankr caters to a varied clientele. How do you gauge customer needs and convert that understanding into actionable product enhancements? Can you share some examples?

Absolutely, our team's extensive experience in Web3 has allowed us to adopt a 'by developers, for developers' methodology when creating our products. By analyzing industry trends through conversation, social media, and customer feedback, we’ve often been able to introduce new products and features ahead of our competitors. For instance, we pioneered a liquid staking solution aimed at resolving the inefficiencies associated with locking up cryptocurrency for staking. Additionally, we developed the first service for creating app-specific blockchains, simplifying the launch process for businesses and Web3 ventures. Both innovations emerged from closely listening to insights from the industry and feedback from our most engaged customers.

How do you manage the balance between Ankr’s long-term product vision and the immediate needs and priorities of the market and its customers?

Ultimately, our long-term vision is centered around providing top-tier infrastructure within the blockchain space. While we have our predictions about how this will evolve, we recognize that market directions can be unpredictable. This emphasizes the importance of staying attuned to our customers and doing everything we can to present them with the finest solutions for building Web3 applications supported by fast and reliable blockchain infrastructure.

Gaming SDKs play a crucial role in Ankr’s product offerings. What measures do you take to ensure these SDKs are user-friendly and integrate smoothly with various gaming platforms and engines?

We designed our Gaming SDKs with the goal of simplifying the integration of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs into existing video games. To streamline the process for developers, we tailored these SDKs for some of the most well-known gaming engines like Unity and Unreal, encompassing all necessary elements in one comprehensive package that developers can easily follow using our technical documentation. Moreover, our close collaboration with Mirage, a strategic gaming partner, allows us to provide additional tools needed by Web3 game developers for game development, marketing, and management.

Ankr operates in a competitive market. What differentiates your products from the competition, and how do you ensure they cater to the unique requirements of your target audience?

Our team’s breadth of experience in designing, operating, and managing blockchains truly sets us apart from the competition. We have assisted leading companies such as Binance, Polygon, Optimism, and many others in enhancing the architecture of their networks and optimizing node operations for speed and performance. A standout feature of our services is how we’ve established our infrastructure for these networks, deploying bare-metal nodes at data centers globally. With a distributed network of nodes, we can offer low-latency connections to blockchains, putting us closer to Web3 users no matter their location. Given that nearly all products and services from ourselves and competitors rely on strong node infrastructure, maintaining our technical edge is crucial.

Ankr has recently entered into substantial partnerships with Microsoft to provide enterprise node services, and with Tencent for Web3 infrastructure. What significance do these partnerships hold for the Ankr ecosystem?

These partnerships are major milestones that herald the integration of our offerings with various cloud services. Essentially, they extend the capabilities of flagship products like Ankr’s RPC Service, connecting Web3 developers, applications, DeFi protocols, and other use cases to different blockchain networks. Furthermore, on platforms such as Microsoft Azure Marketplace, businesses will find user-friendly and secure avenues to connect with blockchains or establish their dedicated blockchain, empowering them to launch their Web3 projects, whether that entails an NFT rollout, a virtual world, or any innovative application they envision. These collaborations are amplifying our customer reach and bridging the gap between blockchain technology and everyday digital interactions.

Product development often involves tough decisions and trade-offs. Can you share an example of a challenging decision you faced and how it influenced the product's success?

It’s consistently challenging to decide to temporarily shelve one project to redirect resources toward a more promising product that will yield immediate benefits for customers. In 2021, we chose to halt work on several developments to concentrate on our RPC service, which we anticipated would become or flagship offering. This decision has proven fruitful, as our RPC service now caters to over 55 million unique IP addresses monthly, amounting to approximately 13% of all global Web3 utilization. Allocating resources to the most promising projects—even if it means pausing others—is vital for maintaining momentum.

What are the primary advantages that Ankr’s appchains offer to developers and businesses aiming to create their blockchain applications?

Ankr’s AppChains service equips enterprises with everything essential to build, launch, and scale their Web3 initiatives within a tailored blockchain environment. Our AppChains are specialized sidechains developed by our engineering team, built on top of leading blockchain ecosystems such as Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche. zkSync Josh Neuroth, the VP of Product at Ankr, discusses the real-world advantages of blockchain technology and its future possibilities in an article featured on Metaverse Post.

As the VP of Product at Ankr, Josh Neuroth plays a crucial role in developing innovative product offerings for the company. His background prior to Ankr includes significant experience in various web2 companies.

In a recent piece, Ankr's VP of Product, Josh Neuroth, elaborates on the practical applications of blockchain technology and its promising future.

With a focus on blockchain's real-world applications and future possibilities, Ankr's VP of Product, Josh Neuroth, shares his insights.

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In an engaging discussion, Josh Neuroth, Ankr's VP of Product, shares insights about the company’s product lineup, recent alliances with tech giants Microsoft and Tencent, and his optimistic outlook on the future of blockchain.

Read more:

• Blockchain Network
• Neuroth believes that blockchain technology can be applied to various sectors, such as data management, transparent verification, and fostering improved connectivity and product innovation.