TL;DR From the Kolo Podcast with Ivan Paskar

In a recent conversation on the Kolo Podcast, Altius Labs CMO & Growth Lead Ivan Paskar reflected on his five-year journey running regional marketing at Binance, the shifting realities of crypto markets, and why he left one of the most powerful companies in Web3 to help build the next phase of blockchain infrastructure. For Paskar, the key lesson wasn’t about growth at all costs - it was about evolving from “running a machine” to building the machine that powers the next wave of crypto adoption.

From Regional Leader at Binance to Early Builder at Altius

At Binance, Paskar managed 30+ markets across Europe, CIS, and emerging regions - scaling user adoption, launching education initiatives, and building brand trust during both bull and bear cycles.
His work helped move key regional markets from Top 35 to Top 7 globally, proving that crypto adoption could scale organically with the right strategy, partnerships, and narrative.

Yet, by 2024, he felt the limits of working within a mature ecosystem: “I realized I was running a machine, not building one.”

That realization - combined with market changes, new infrastructure needs, and a desire to test his skills outside Binance’s gravity - pushed him toward Altius Labs.

Building Infrastructure Instead of Another Chain

Paskar joined Altius because he saw the same pattern repeating:
Too many new chains. Too few fundamentals solved.

Instead of shipping another L1, rollup, or appchain, Altius is building the execution engine that makes every chain faster, cheaper, and more scalable - without forcing developers to migrate, fork, or rewrite applications.

The core idea:

Don’t replace the car. Replace the engine.
Plug-and-play, modular, performance-first.

This approach unlocks:

• lower latency and higher throughput
• reduced infrastructure costs
• improved developer experience
• performance scalability without fragmentation

All while keeping the existing technology stack intact.

Why Execution Matters Now

Today’s biggest challenges aren’t only consensus or blockspace - they’re execution bottlenecks, state bloat, and developer complexity.

Even high-performance chains struggle with:

• sequential execution
• expensive storage
• monolithic design
• scaling infrastructure costs

Altius tackles these constraints by making execution:

• parallel at the instruction level
• memory-first
• sharded and horizontally scalable
• VM-agnostic

Instead of launching yet another chain, Altius upgrades the performance of existing ones - EVM chains first, and additional VMs next.

Marketing Crypto: Lessons From the Wild West

The conversation also explored the reality of crypto marketing today: a mix of fundamentals, incentives, and cultural behavior.

Paskar argues the space has shifted from: “research + product utility” → “attention + narrative velocity.”

Memecoins and culture dominate flow, because markets reward:

• strong branding
• social ownership
• emotional resonance
• entertainment value

But long-term winners still require:

• real technology
• real users
• real demand

Paskar’s view: “Good marketing is not selling hype. It’s helping users choose something meaningful - and stay.”

Why Altius Matters for the Next Cycle

As chains, apps, and rollups continue to multiply, fragmentation increases.

But Altius flips the model:
make each block of blockspace more performant, instead of creating more blocks.

That unlocks a positive-sum architecture where:

• developers build without bottlenecks
• infrastructure operators save costs
• users experience Web2-grade performance
• ecosystems scale without redesigning architecture

This is a foundation for the next stage of Web3 - one driven by performance, not proliferation.

From Running Markets to Architecting Growth

Paskar describes Altius as a mission that requires:

• long-term vision
• execution discipline
• technical credibility
• product-driven growth

Not hype.

“We don’t do marketing.
We do growth - by helping partners succeed.”

And with a lean team of experts from global infrastructure, HFT, and Web3, he sees Altius as one of the few companies positioned to ship a performance breakthrough with real adoption, not speculation.

Watch the Full Conversation

Hear the full discussion on market cycles, memecoins, infrastructure innovation, and founder psychology in the full Kolo Podcast episode on Altius Labs YouTube channel.

If you're building blockchain infrastructure, scaling an appchain, or running RPC/validator operations, Altius publishes technical deep dives, engineering AMAs, and product updates monthly.

Want to Stay Ahead?

Subscribe to the Altius Labs newsletter to get:

• benchmark results
• technical breakdowns
• partnership announcements
• early access to developer tools

Futureproof your blockchain. Without rebuilding it.

‍