Lane Rettig

Lane Rettig

Putting the “agent” back in “user agent.”

About

Software ate the world, AI is now eating software, and we're at a critical juncture where the design and governance decisions we make today will have repercussions for generations. I believe builders have a responsibility to build systems that reflect their values. In my case, that means building systems that are participatory, resilient, and truly accountable to the people who use them, not just the people who own and operate them. I've spent my career chasing that idea through healthcare technology, a decade at the center of blockchain and crypto governance, and now AI: each one a different answer to the same question of who software should ultimately serve.

Now

I run The Clawford Company (Clawford Labs), where my main focus is Barely Possible, an AI-native media venture exploring what's possible when AI takes on real creative and editorial work, starting with an AI-produced podcast. Alongside that, Clawford also does AI integration consulting for small and medium-sized businesses.

Writing

I've written about humanistic software for years across three blogs. A few favorites:

Autonocrats & Anthropocrats On the tension between automated, rules-based governance and governance that leaves room for human judgment. A New Human Chain On Spacemesh's approach to building a blockchain around ordinary people and hardware, not specialized miners. Faster Horses, Better Software On why better blockchain software means designing for how people actually behave, not for an idealized rational user. The Software Renaissance On how AI is restoring user control over data and software, after years of rigid, one-size-fits-all apps.

applescotch.com · etherean.org · rettig.substack.com

Career

  1. AI Founder & CEO Clawford Labs 2026–present

    Every previous chapter was about giving people more agency over systems built by someone else. This one is about giving them tools that act on their behalf.

    AI-native media venture, anchored by Barely Possible, an AI-produced podcast. Also does AI integration consulting for small and medium businesses, and builds in-house tools for knowledge management, memory and retrieval, multi-agent orchestration, and agent-assisted document editing.

  2. AI Crypto VP for Research NEAR Foundation 2024–2026

    If blockchains taught me how to design governance for people who don't trust each other, AI is teaching me how to design governance for people who don't trust the system itself.

    Led a 15-person research and product team designing decentralized governance for the NEAR blockchain, including the House of Stake voting platform and an AI-assisted proposal system. Directed early research into AI-assisted and autonomous (“swarm”) governance models combining human and machine agency. My writings about NEAR →

  3. Crypto CTO & VP for R&D Spacemesh 2019–2024

    Five exhilirating but ultimately quixotic years spent reimagining the blockchain stack to make the technology accessible to anyone with a laptop and a hard drive.

    Led an 18-person research and engineering team building a novel, open-source blockchain protocol from the ground up — protocol design, consensus mechanism, core software, economic policy, and developer relations. I traveled intensively and spoke about Spacemesh, and about the idea of a humanistic blockchain more generally, at around a hundred events in dozens of countries. My writings about Spacemesh →

  4. Crypto Founder Crypto NYC 2017–2025

    Before any of this is a technology problem, it's a people problem. Crypto NYC was my first real attempt to build the room, not just the protocol.

    Founded and ran a non-profit community and co-working space in New York City dedicated to making blockchain and Web3 technology accessible to everyone. The organization is now defunct.

  5. Crypto Core Developer & Governance Coordinator Ethereum Foundation 2017–2019

    Ethereum was a real game-changer, for me and for the world. It was a fantastic education: my introduction to blockchain, to distributed systems, to cryptography, to open source software, and to a passionate global ecosystem of builders and dreamers.

    Contributed to the Ethereum virtual machine and smart contract engine as part of the Ewasm project (later deprecated), led global core protocol governance calls, and spoke about Ethereum research and governance at conferences across roughly 20 countries.

  6. Health Co-founder & CTO Seratis 2013–2016

    My first attempt at putting better software directly in the hands of the people who needed it most: doctors trying to keep up with their patients.

    Co-founded a healthcare technology startup that used smartphones to let doctors and care teams coordinate, track, and analyze patient care. Responsible for product, technology, financials, and operations. Acquired in 2016.

  7. Finance Software Developer, Convertible Arbitrage D. E. Shaw & Co. 2006–2012

    I started my career at a well-run, wildly successful traditional finance firm — and it turned out to be the best possible training for everything that came after. You can't credibly try to reinvent finance until you've seen, up close, how the incumbent does it right.

    Built risk and hedging systems for a multi-billion dollar global portfolio of convertible bonds. Based in New York and, later, Hong Kong.

Also consulted on open-source governance for Binance and the Stacks (Blockstack) Foundation, among others.

Open Source & Engineering

I've been contributing to open source since joining Ethereum full time in 2017. Here's a selection of the codebases I've built or led. The full history is on GitHub.

Education

MBA, The Wharton School, and MA in International Studies, The Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania, 2014. BA in Computer Science and East Asian Languages & Cultures, UC Berkeley. Graduated top of my class in 2006. Studied abroad four times, in the UK, China (2x), and Japan. I speak, read, and write fluent Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Japanese.

Featured Talks & Appearances

Spoken on stages and podcasts across six continents about blockchain governance, protocol design, and humanistic, AI-enabled software.

Full list of talks, podcasts, and press →

Get in touch

Email · X · GitHub · LinkedIn