Female Blockchain Influencers
There are a lot of talented women in the blockchain sphere. Lumi Wallet knows this firsthand, as our team is more than happy to be represented by a female CEO — Diana Furman (and by the way, here are her Twitter and Medium). However, the number of women in the industry is still significantly low. According to Coin.dance gender statistics, currently, only 8.78% of the actively engaged bitcoin community is female.
There are also quite a few pieces of research which show that the number of men involved in crypto (for example, wallet holders or certain coin supporters) is overwhelmingly higher. Is it the volatile and risky nature of crypto that doesn’t seem appealing to the majority of women? Or it simply about the fact that the tech industry is generally saturated with men? Sadly, blockchain has been quite often associated with ‘bro culture’.
Whatever the reason behind this tremendous difference in numbers, there is still some good news. Each year, more and more women are joining the ‘blockchain movement’, contributing to the industry and designing competitive products.
As we approach International Women’s Day, we’ve decided to pay our respect to female blockchain influencers and tell you a few words about these outstanding women.
Laura Shin @laurashin
Laura Shin is an insightful journalist who covers blockchain and crypto topics. She is a Senior Forbes Editor and also a host on the Unconfirmed and Unchained podcasts. Her guests are leading blockchain and crypto entrepreneurs and developers who discuss recent news and share their views on the past, present, and future of the industry. By the way, Unchained will be featuring Vitalik Buterin on March 20th, so you still have a chance to get your tickets and submit your questions.
Kathleen Breitman @breitwoman
Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder of Tezos, a platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications with on-chain governance. Together with her husband, they launched Tezos as a start-up that managed to raise $232 million in the ICO. Recently Kathleen started expressing a bigger interest in online video games, considering them to be one of the most promising applications for the smart contract service.
Dovey Wan @DoveyWan
Dovey Wan is a founding partner of Primitive Ventures. She is famous for her sharp tweets and strong opinions, dedicated to all things crypto. Apart from that, Dovey Wan is a voting member for token listings at Huobi Global. If you want to get to know Dovey’s ideology better, have a look at her analytical piece for Coindesk, a review of the crypto space for 2018 and a forecast for 2019.
Meltem Demirors @Melt_Dem
Meltem Demirors is the CEO of CoinShares, a pioneer in professional crypto investment vehicles. She is also a cryptocurrency investor, advisor, and advocate, experienced in both legacy and cryptocurrencies. If you want to learn more about female presence in the crypto space, we recommend having a look at Ms. Demirors’ Medium account where she not only writes about tokens, politics, and investing, but also introduces other blockchain driven women in her ‘Leaders’ series.
Galia Benartzi @galiabenartzi
In 2017 Galia Benartzi cofounded Bancor, a “decentralized liquidity network” that “redesigns the way people create and share value by ensuring continuous on-chain liquidity between blockchain-based assets.” According to the 2018 Forbes rating, she is one of Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech. She has an MA in International Economics and has also served as an EIR at Trinity Ventures and a venture partner at Founders Fund. Her Medium and Twitter posts are mostly about Bancor’s whereabouts but they are definitely worth checking out.
Preethi Kasireedy @iam_preethi
Preethi Kasireedy is a blockchain engineer who used to work for Coinbase, Goldman Sachs, and Andreessen Horowitz. Her Medium is all about programming and motivation, including some powerful insights and inspirational wisdom for both beginners and pros. Preethi shares her passion for blockchain and crypto with simple honesty. It’s a real pleasure to follow her exciting journey that started when she quit Anderssen Horowitz to explore the world of software engineering.
Arianna Simpson @AriannaSimpson
Arianna Simpson is a founder and managing director at Autonomous Partners, an investment fund focused on cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Arianna was among the early adopters and focused on investing strategies, claiming she was “into crypto before it was cool”. Before becoming an early-stage investor, she worked for Facebook and BitGo. Occasionally, she writes about cryptocurrency investment issues on her Medium and she is also a contributor to Business Insider, Women2.0, and CoinDesk.
Elizabeth Stark @starkness
Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder Of Llightning labs, an open protocol layer that leverages the power of blockchains and smart contracts to execute improved transactions; a protocol to solve the scaling issue. Remember the recent Lightning game on Twitter? Elizabeth was the one who received the Lightning Torch from Jack Dorsey, and that inspired a lot of pro-bitcoin talks. The two, later on, took part in a podcast together. Elizabeth used to teach at Stanford and Yale, sharing her deep knowledge of peer-to-peer technologies.
Amber Baldet @AmberBaldet
Amber Baldet, a co-founder of Clovyr, “an ecosystem of applications and services that empowers teams of all sizes to experiment, iterate, and grow products to production much faster than before”. She is “a leading voice on the practical application of blockchain technology within the financial industry and beyond.” Among her notable credentials — an appearance on Fortune’s 40 Under 40, and CoinDesk’s 10 Most Influential in Blockchain. She is often invited as a speaker to numerous blockchain conferences.
The Bottom Line
Although female presence in the blockchain sphere is not exactly what it could be, it can hardly be underestimated. Those are just a few of many motivated, driven, and enthusiastic women we have mentioned today, and the number of them continues to grow.
At the end of the day, blockchain is all about freedom and it’s surely a discrimination-free zone. We believe that eventually when the general public learns a little more about crypto, a lot more female professionals will become involved.
Did We Miss Anyone?
Please, let us know if you know some other inspiring women in the blockchain sphere that we should mention. Lumi Wallet is determined to motivate everyone, regardless of their backgrounds, to learn more about the crypto industry. Let’s chat on Telegram, we would love to hear your thoughts! Or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, where we share the latest news and updates.
