Will Papper is an American technology entrepreneur and product executive whose work has focused on software development, artificial intelligence, blockchain infrastructure, and financial technology. He has held product leadership roles at technology companies and co-founded several startups focused on developer tools, enterprise software, and Web3 infrastructure. ^[5]

Education

Papper graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Philosophy in 2019. ^[1]

Career

Papper began his career as a research intern at the MIT Media Lab in 2013, where he contributed to research on peer-to-peer communication networks and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, including the development of a news-sharing application. While attending university, he co-founded MediMeld and Bear Studios LLC in 2014. At MediMeld, he worked on healthcare software designed to reduce hospital readmissions and collaborated with healthcare providers on product development and regulatory compliance. Through Bear Studios, he helped establish a startup incubator at Washington University and managed software development projects for startups, nonprofits, and other organizations.

In 2015 and 2016, Papper completed software engineering and product management internships at RetailMeNot, where he worked on machine learning, personalization systems, and product development. In 2017, he completed a product management internship at Yelp focused on messaging products and user experience. During this period, he also co-founded Librarian AI, serving as chief executive officer from 2017 to 2019, where the company developed artificial intelligence and natural language processing tools for knowledge discovery. In 2018, he participated as a fellow at IDEO CoLab, contributing to product prototypes involving artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, and computer vision.

Papper was selected as a Kleiner Perkins Product Fellow in 2019 and subsequently joined Proxy as a product manager, where he worked on research and development projects involving Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) networks, physical security systems, and cybersecurity software. In 2021, he co-founded Syndicate Protocol, where he developed blockchain infrastructure and developer tools supporting Ethereum-compatible networks and decentralized applications. His work included blockchain deployment tools and infrastructure for organizations building applications in payments, gaming, and consumer technology.

In 2026, Papper joined Cloudflare as Director of Product. His work has focused on agent payment systems using stablecoins and the x402 payment protocol, reflecting his continued involvement in blockchain infrastructure, developer platforms, and digital payments. ^[6]

Interviews

Syndicate Appchains

In a live demo of Syndicate Appchains with Christian Angelopoulos of Eco Inc. in May 2025, Papper discussed Syndicate’s approach to customizable blockchain infrastructure and demonstrated potential applications of programmable transaction processing. He explained that Syndicate was founded in 2021 to help communities move on-chain, initially focusing on investment DAOs before expanding into NFT communities and application-specific blockchains. During the demonstration, Papper showed how custom transaction rules could be implemented through smart contracts, using examples such as filtering transactions based on conditions like moon phases to illustrate the flexibility of on-chain logic. He also discussed decentralized sequencing models for rollups, including permissionless sequencing, auctions, and contestable control mechanisms, as alternatives to centralized systems. The presentation explored possible applications of customizable chains, including AI agent networks, event ticketing systems, and transaction-level integration of oracle data and randomness. Papper concluded by emphasizing the importance of balancing customization with decentralization and security as blockchain infrastructure continues to evolve. ^[7]

Presenations

Programmable Construction

At EthCC[9] in April 2026, Papper presented on the evolution of blockchain infrastructure and the growing importance of customizable block construction on Layer 2 networks. He discussed how blockchain user experiences evolved from requiring users to operate their own nodes, which created technical barriers, toward infrastructure models supported by professional RPC providers and wallet applications that improved accessibility. Papper explained how Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake changed transaction processing by making validator selection more predictable and enabling specialized block builders focused on transaction ordering, profitability, and MEV extraction. He examined the rise of private transaction flows, builder networks, and MEV-driven supply chains, noting that Layer 2 networks often operate without public mempools and increasingly rely on specialized transaction ordering systems. Papper concluded by discussing the future of Layer 2 design, arguing that successful networks will likely differentiate through greater architectural customization for specific use cases or through security-focused approaches such as native zero-knowledge rollups, rather than relying solely on generalized EVM compatibility. ^[4]