Highlights
Bitcoin Pizza Day is all about celebrating the increasing practical utility of digital assets. On this day, as part of the Binance Employee Spotlight series, we introduce our culture star, Cynthia. Continue his journey at Binance embodying our hardcore, user-centric culture.
Discover why talented people like Cynthia join Binance and thrive here through a vibrant culture of collaboration, pursuit of purpose, and opportunities for growth. We'll look at Cynthia's unique journey from traditional finance to the freedom of cryptocurrencies, driving the adoption and utility of borderless payments.
Learn how Cynthia and her colleagues serve users, building trust through innovative solutions that power Binance's vision of a globally connected monetary future.
Every day, crypto changes our global financial landscape, affecting the lives of millions of people around the world, and every transaction opens a path to a more connected future. In 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz sparked a revolution when he exchanged 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, starting the path of real-world crypto transactions. Today, digital assets have become a trillion-dollar industry, driven by a wide range of participants around the world. However, it is the people behind the scenes who drive this transformation forward.
Users are at the forefront of Binance's mission, driving every decision we make. This Bitcoin Pizza Day, we pay tribute to those who are working tirelessly to shape a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem. Among them is Cynthia, Product Manager at Binance, whose dedication embodies our commitment to serving users around the world.
The pride of a Product Manager
As Head of Product, Cynthia designs simplified payment solutions for millions of users around the world. It works to attract more users to cryptocurrency by helping them understand the monetary freedom it provides, directly incorporating our user-centric culture. By creating products that demonstrate the usefulness of cryptocurrencies, their work is fostering the future of Web3 adoption. "Product managers are like mothers," she explains. "Each of your products is like a baby." Seeing that the products you've created resonate with users and facilitate their experiences instills a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Cynthia's colleagues describe her as humble and stalwart, qualities that help her thrive in Binance's dynamic environment. "When facing various challenges and difficulties at work, I need to remain calm and focused, using professional knowledge and skills to solve problems," Cynthia describes. "This allows me to take on more responsibilities and challenges on the project, and partners can trust me more."
From cross-border payments to cryptocurrencies
Cynthia remembers realizing at a young age that technology has the power to tangibly and quickly improve people's lives. This realization sparked her interest in innovation and led her to pursue a bachelor's degree in engineering in college. What captivated her was the potential to combine technical disciplines with the practical side of the financial world.
Finally, it found itself facing a wall that traditional cross-border payment systems struggled to overcome: settlement. I could see that traditional solutions were cumbersome and usually took days to settle. Not to mention the high commissions that eat up transaction amounts. That's when Cynthia discovered cryptocurrencies and the innovations they offer for the payments industry, particularly with respect to settlement speeds and transaction costs. These prospects attracted her to the rapidly developing cryptocurrency industry, and it was through this curiosity that Cynthia found Binance.
The precipice of a new world
Cynthia was brought to Web3 by a mix of curiosity and passion; Her experiences in the cross-border payments industry led her to believe in blockchain's ability to change the world. Binance's vision of leveraging digital assets to foster global monetary freedom shone like a guiding light. The organization's leading position in the industry and a culture that harmonized with her own beliefs led Cynthia to join the movement.
Join Binance
Taking on her new role with the Binance Payments team in June 2021, Cynthia began to acclimate to her fast-paced environment. Here, building an open and united team spirit is essential, as Cynthia would soon discover. With the support of her teammates, Cynthia was able to seamlessly integrate into workflows. The trust she was able to place in her colleagues helped foster her self-confidence and she quickly found herself bridging the gaps in her knowledge. This driven and collaborative attitude led her to become an integral part of the team soon after joining.
Cynthia recalls that moving to a new country to work at Binance also presented new obstacles: weather, language, and even currency. Upon arrival, he had not yet acquired any of the local fiat currency. Tired, longing for a little comfort to relax from the trip, she bought a cup of coffee with cryptocurrency. Like Laszlo Hanyecz in 2010, as well as many others thereafter, he was experiencing the convenience of cryptocurrencies in the everyday joys of life, be it coffee or pizza. As Cynthia describes: "I don't want to be limited by local currencies when I travel. Exchanging one currency for another can be a troublesome process, and cryptocurrencies make life much more convenient and free."
Curious people like Cynthia tend to overcome new challenges as quickly as cryptocurrency payments settle. Cynthia accepted her new circumstances with an open mind and came to appreciate the allure of her new city's vibrancy and diversity, turning her adjustment into an exciting journey.
At Binance, we have a saying that one year of working here is equal to working three years somewhere else. True to this maxim, after just a few months, Cynthia already felt like she had been working at Binance for a long time. Navigating the twists and turns of the cryptocurrency world with a group of fellow enthusiasts gave Cynthia a sense of contributing to something bigger. Plus, working remotely meant you had the independence to choose your own way of working and living flexibly, while also having the space to really shine and grow in your field.
Stay motivated through challenges
Team trust and connection foster a deeper spirit of collaboration, which is Cynthia's primary motivator. As Cynthia says, "professional knowledge and trust in colleagues is essential for success."
Having this strong support network to fall back on allows Cynthia to thrive in her role. Striking the right balance between autonomy and teamwork, this environment is a testament to the team leadership and bonds that Cynthia and her colleagues have built.
Red Envelope Gift Campaign
Cynthia fondly remembers the launch of the first crypto Red Envelope campaign launched in July 2022. The campaign aimed to teach potential users the features of Binance Pay by providing them with a small amount of cryptocurrency to start their experience. Having helped design, launch and evaluate the campaign, Cynthia had the opportunity to see her team's efforts resonate with users and attract waves of new members. As Cynthia's first growth project, the campaign was a huge milestone for her. With improvements and being optimized since then, the promotion is now a monthly product with over 2,000,000 participants each time.
Beyond the success of the product, it was also a valuable experience in terms of promoting user education. Using an intuitive mechanism, the campaign helps new users get started on Binance Pay by providing them with a small amount of cryptocurrency to get started. This was Cynthia's vision when designing the product: to facilitate the journey into the world of digital assets. Putting himself in the user's shoes, he understood that it may not be easy or comfortable to deposit his own money on the platform that a new user does not yet fully understand. Therefore, the campaign gives them a little boost of confidence to start exploring.
Driven by a broader vision
On weekends, Cynthia likes to get together with friends and play detective and mystery-solving board games. Cynthia's passion for playing these games, where she nimbly changes personas and unravels mysteries, stands as a colorful metaphor for her dynamic role at Binance. Just as her hobby demands adaptability, Cynthia's work requires her to wear multiple hats: user, analyst, designer, and more.
Binance's vibrant culture of user-centricity and collaboration is embodied in the efforts of professionals like Cynthia. At the heart of this rapidly evolving space, it turns challenges into opportunities, working to design seamless payment solutions and greater adoption and utility of cryptocurrencies. As we celebrate another Bitcoin Pizza Day, we recognize the enormous strides made since the first real-world crypto transaction and the enormous contributions to this process by inspiring Web3 professionals like Cynthia. As we move forward together in this remarkable crypto transformation, Binancians like Cynthia strive for a future where money freedom is a tangible reality for everyone.
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