Gnosis Portraits #3: Friederike Ernst, COO
In the past year, the Gnosis team has grown to over 50 employees! While our team is spread out all over the world, we have a development hub in Berlin where about 20 of our 52 full-time employees are based. In a series of monthly posts, we’d like to introduce you to all the old and new (and pretty 💁️) faces of our growing team, and discuss what brought them to work in the blockchain space, what excites them most about Gnosis, and how we can all make Gnosis successful together.
On today: Friederike Ernst, COO at Gnosis!
Friederike, you have a very strong background in Science. Where did it all start and when did blockchain trigger your interest?
I studied Biology and honestly can’t really tell you why I chose that major. Looking back, and considering my talents and interests, I clearly should’ve started studying Physics from the beginning. As I concluded my undergraduate degree in biology, I decided to write my thesis on computational neuroscience. I considered how visual information is processed, both within the brain and the eye itself. I found this more theoretical line of thinking to be super interesting, and so I transitioned from Biology to Physics and never looked back. One thing led to another, I got my PhD in Physics and later ended up at Columbia and Stanford University for a postdoctoral program.
The first time I heard about Bitcoin was in 2013. Back then, it was the only cryptocurrency that was covered by the media. When I first read about Bitcoin, I thought that it was rather nonsensical and I failed to see its disruptive potential. At this point in my journey, I’d never really thought about where money actually comes from, or how money derives its ‘value.’
Nevertheless, my curious disposition compelled me to investigate Bitcoin and find out how it worked. So began my deep dive into blockchain technology. And the more I understood it, the more I realized it represented a paradigm shift in our technological capabilities. Needless to say, I was hooked!
What made you decide to leave your academic career behind and join Gnosis?
Working in the natural sciences, my focus was always to find out how things worked. This is what really fascinated me about natural sciences, aside from the highly empirical aspect of it — working in science meant working with extreme meticulousness on fundamental questions. However, what bothered me tremendously in academics was its incentive system. The longer I spent in academia, the more I realized that it often doesn’t really matter what you’ve achieved, but only that you hit your metrics.
Being close to both our CEO Martin and CTO Stefan, I was there from the very beginning. We even shared a desk — they worked on Gnosis and I worked on my own stuff, but inevitably our conversation would turn to blockchain.
As I became increasingly frustrated with the academic system I asked myself questions like: What else would I like to do? What really brings me joy? Is it founding my own startup? Or working in public affairs? Whatever it was, there was one thing I was confident of: I was definitely ready to get out of academics. Then came the epiphany: I could actually imagine being part of Gnosis! Martin and Stefan asked me to take on what was most needed back in January 2017: someone to run the company’s operations. So, without hesitation, I signed on with Gnosis as the Chief Operating Officer.
What is most rewarding for you in your work?
The most rewarding thing to me is that the products and protocols we’re building today are going to shape the way we see and interact with the world profoundly.
Pushing for a decentralized future through building high-quality technical products with an amazing group of interesting and talented people is where my ❤️ is at.
Working on our new co-working space Full Node has also been hugely rewarding — to see the space evolving as a center for this young, flourishing community is just wonderful.
Any advice for other makers and aspiring entrepreneurs in the blockchain space?
What I would really like to change is the self-perception of women who don’t believe that they can be a founder. Unfortunately, women are rarely told that they’re capable of having an impact or making a change in business. I feel like women oftentimes need some kind of external credential to confirm their status or achievements. Men care much less about those external factors, such as a degree, an internship at company X, or a title.
There are so many women out there that are much more qualified than men to run a company, but they keep defining themselves by external seals of approval. This is something I would like to change. Women out there, in the blockchain space and beyond — you can do it!
What are your main priorities this year at Gnosis?
I’m excited to bring the products that we currently have in the pipeline to market. The next natural step will be to actually get users!
One of my focuses for this year will also be to help mitigate the uncertainty surrounding regulation in the blockchain space. I’m heavily involved in the Blockchain Bundesverband, a working group of German blockchain startups and experts of the field. The group strives for a wider acceptance of blockchain in law and society by connecting both private and public institutions with the technology. We are looking to promote a forward-thinking regulatory framework. We’ve already published several position papers about the potential of applying blockchain technology in different domains. I’m happy to see that blockchain has been included prominently as a topic in the coalition agreement of the German government formed by the parties SPD and CDU, and that the government will soon be launching their own pilot projects!
