Googler here. Believe it or not, a lot of cutting edge work (even cutting edge crypto) is happening outside of the research organization. We even publish papers! And yes, some of those folks doing crypto work don’t have PhDs.
Hiring is weird. You definitely don’t need an advanced degree to get your resume looked at, but a PhD from a top program will at least get you interviews and so it gets you over one difficult hurdle.
It would be great if you could point to a specific example of a published article where a named author does not have a PhD. I 100% believe you but just to shut down those who believe that a PhD is a necessity to do research.
Hiring is weird. You definitely don’t need an advanced degree to get your resume looked at, but a PhD from a top program will at least get you interviews and so it gets you over one difficult hurdle.