Crypto’s woman problem
Why your “women in web3” program is likely problematic
Note: This article was born at ETH Denver and has seen multiple iterations. I wasn’t sure if I would ever publish it. Some combination of yesterday being International Women’s Day and the launch of Binance’s Crypto perfume convinced me I need to put this out there.
If we’ve talked about this topic together at all, you know I feel a certain kind of way about “women in web3” initiatives. Some folks are doing it well and a whole lot of others just…aren’t. At the same time, a whole lot of funding gets sucked out of the ecosystem to fund vague “empowerment” programs that don’t yield real, impactful results beyond making people feel like they did “something.” Women around the world can no longer afford to wait for us to figure out how we might help. The fact of the matter is, that women are in danger. I can only comment on this from my American viewpoint, but that doesn’t make the things I’m about to say any less relevant to women around the world.
Sound the alert
Women are in danger today in the United States. I’m known to say women require two things for empowerment and self-actualization: financial sovereignty and bodily autonomy. A woman must have ownership and control of her own money, as well as the power to decide if and when she will have children. We know reproductive freedom is under direct attack but many don’t realize that our economy is nearly just as damaging. Right now, somewhere out there, is a young woman who is capable of big ideas and brilliant things. Yet, she’s working three jobs to try to keep a roof over her head and the lights on. She’s too busy trying to scrape together enough money for a week’s groceries to even think about coding, digital finance, blockchain, or anything else not required for her immediate survival. I know she’s out there because I was her. At that stage in my life, things happened one week, sometimes one day, at a time, and I didn’t have room for anything that wasn’t directly linked to my survival.
A basic level of financial security is essential before anyone can make space in their mind and life to learn about our world and how we might help improve their lives and, in return, their communities. Women need the freedom to own and control their own money without supervision or subjugation. Recently, I shared a spontaneous early morning thought with the Twitter void, and I was stunned by the reach and response it garnered:
When I say this post took on a life of its own, I truly mean it. The most profound aspect for me was the sheer number of women who responded to share their stories. Women from multiple generations added their own stories to this tapestry and painted a vivid picture of gender inequality, and the battle to overcome it, in this country.
Without delving into my entire life story, I’ve also faced challenging choices due to moments when I’ve had to give up or lost my financial independence. Like many women, I made it through because there was no other option. Now, I am free and able to support myself and my family. This means it’s time to reach a hand back to other women going through the kinds of things I did and pull them up here, too. Perhaps most importantly, I feel compelled to look out for the young women in this space. They are brilliant, self-aware, and outspoken. They are the future and I will do what I can to keep the world from breaking them down, stealing their joy, or exploiting their energy.
Acknowledging the problem does not mean women hate men, or that we think they hate us. What I see from most of my male peers is a true desire to level the playing field for women in crypto mixed with uncertainty around how they can best make true, impactful change. Sadly, I also see individuals and entities who hesitate to support or fund “women empowerment projects” because they’ve been there, done that, got little return for their investment, saw minimal change within their community, or even got straight up grifted. If this is you, Anon, please keep reading.
Operation Mayday
This is the part where I lay down some ideas, a challenge, and an invitation.
I’m about to drop some alpha: women do not need any more specialized web3 or blockchain educational materials. They can leverage the amazing materials our colleagues in the ecosystem have been developing and perfecting for years. Not once has my gender interfered with my ability to learn finance, crypto, blockchain, or software development. Can we please agree to leave this trend behind and talk about things that will actually improve the lives of women (and just people in general) in real ways right now? What are these things? I’m so glad you asked because it’s time to lay out the vision.
Financial sovereignty tools to
- Facilitate sovereign ownership of your own money
- Allow for the management of digital assets without unwanted detection or surveillance:
- — It is extremely difficult for women in unsafe situations to accumulate and manage enough money to leave their situation without tipping off their abuser, unfriendly government, disapproving family, etc.
- Facilitate direct investment in women-owned and led businesses and projects
- Facilitate retroactive funding for the work already happening in service of communities and public/community goods
Social collaboration tools to
- Facilitate the organization of aligned people right where they live today
- Facilitate private communication and planning between members of a group without unwanted detection or surveillance
- — This is especially important right now in the reproductive freedom battle right as those who want to help women exercise their right to bodily autonomy have to worry about legal and financial punishment
- Facilitate attestation to establish social reputation and trust among members of a group
- — This might take the shape of a group of women vouching for each other as safe to exchange childcare time with to facilitate study time or attendance at meetups and events
- Remove friction from getting a grassroots organization off the ground
- Low code and GUI-based, composable, creators to remove the barrier to entry for creating community pages, event management applications, governance
- Facilitate the formation of collective bargaining and labor union structures to improve working conditions for at-risk and historically undervalued workers
- — The “caring professions”: teachers, social workers, nurses, full-time parents, family caregivers
- — In the web3 space: content creators, community builders, open-source builders, indie hackers
Data storage and management tools to
- Facilitate the collecting, curation, storage, and sharing of information
- — Information leads to knowledge which gives birth to ideas that shape revolutions
- Preserve the oral histories and traditions of Indigenous peoples
- — We have so much to learn from how these societies treat each other and live together. Our opportunity to capture this knowledge is fading fast as these populations often live in poverty and isolation.
Zero knowledge-based tools to
- Facilitate the establishment and verification of identity while preserving privacy
- — This would allow women in unsafe situations/locations to enter the crypto workforce under a credentialed identity while protecting the privacy of their IRL identity
- Increase options for on and off-ramps to more readily utilize tokens for IRL financial transactions
- — It doesn’t matter how well we solve for getting crypto into the hands of women if they can’t use it to secure things like food and shelter
The challenge
It feels like a pretty heady list but, I have a team of well-aligned, talented builders who are passionate about building and shipping tools exactly like these. Bringing even a few of these into existence will do more to empower and support women — and ultimately everyone — than hundreds of boot camps, courses, and panels ever could. They can’t do it alone, though. I am beyond honored to support the builders and projects of Build DAO. The greatest way I can honor the vision we’re working toward is to attract, onboard, support, and retain the very best of aligned builders willing to roll up their sleeves and make the list above a reality.
I feel very strongly that it’s more important that these tools exist than it is who hangs their name or brand on them. I am also a “best tool for the job” kind of builder. If this call to action speaks to you, and you would like to lend support to Operation Mayday, please reach out to me. If you’re feeling aligned and able, I’d love to have a conversation.
The invitation
I’ll say it again: I’m looking for builders. If the list of ideas shared here resonates with you, please reach out to me directly or come visit us at Build DAO where you can connect with builders directly via our social feed. I’m definitely looking for devs but, if you feel aligned and have another skillset to help move this vision forward, I want to talk. Let’s work together to build better communities for women, and all people, everywhere.
