“When users can actually see what they’re working with, it becomes a lot less abstract. You stop having to talk about the blockchain.”

That’s the bet Jerry Qian is making.

In this episode of the Founder-First Showcase, we sit down with Jerry Qian, founder of OPTN Labs, to unpack why most crypto wallets still feel like the centralized systems they were meant to replace, and what a truly user-controlled wallet actually looks like.

Jerry walks us through:
🔹 Why “decentralized” platforms still rely on master keys, frozen accounts, and siphoned funds
🔹 How OPTN works as a Swiss Army knife for on-chain control: customizable contract inputs and outputs, post-quantum vaults, and real key ownership
🔹 Why he chose Bitcoin Cash as the foundation, and how it stacks up against Ethereum and Solana for programmability
🔹 What it means to put capability directly in the hands of users, instead of the operators between them
🔹 The shift from centralized hubs to facilitators, and what that means for exchanges and platforms