COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work. Home offices resound with the digital din of online video conferencing apps and Slack notifications as people learn how to set boundaries around their working days.

While many firms working on decentralized tech and financial products were already riding the work-from-home bandwagon, ordinances have put the pin in conferences, cut traveling and are straining internet connections. Plus, there’s no office banter.

“It’s in these times that you recognize that human links are very important,” said Hugo Renaudin, CEO of crypto exchange LGO. It would seem counter-intuitive that in an age of bottomless inboxes and non-stop Zoom conferences, what people miss most is interpersonal communication. But, duh.

CoinDesk spoke to a number of technologists and executives, based from Guadelajara, Mexico, to the land of Oz, to get a sense of how people are adapting to the new normal.