High demand has remained in place for talent in tech, but reports show that only 20% of those in tech-related fields are female. As emphasis to increase female presence in the blockchain space gathers momentum, strong leaders are emerging to map out and establish frameworks that are both easy to adopt and highly sustainable. Below are a few areas in blockchain where women are directly pushing the industry forward.
Each of the women mentioned will also be speaking next month during New York Blockchain Week, a weeklong gathering of leaders and newcomers in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. New York Blockchain Week is centered around Consensus, an event hosted by CoinDesk that has been taking place in New York since 2015. New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) will partner with CoinDesk for the third time to host New York Blockchain Week. Blockchain Week NYC is expected to draw thousands from the global blockchain industry as New York City continues to grow as a major market for blockchain jobs and innovation.
Legislative Reform
After more than two decades on Wall Street, Caitlin Long co-founded the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition. As the state made efforts to become more innovative, they honed in on ways to implement economic diversification. The result, spearheaded by Long, is sweeping reform, creating legislative parameters that give blockchain the opportunity to flourish. Among the numerous new bills that have been enacted in Wyoming is HB101, providing for the maintenance of corporate records of Wyoming entities via blockchain.
“The developments in Wyoming over the past year have been so positive for both the industry and Wyoming. We are paving the way for how to provide clarity to blockchain developers about what’s legal and what’s not,” said Long, who will speak more about Wyoming’s new legislation at Fluidity Summit.
Educating Future Leaders
Donna Redel has been a driving force for a generation in the evolution of finance’s governance and performance. Following her tenure as the chairman at COMEX, CTO for Prudential Securities, and Managing Director and Board member at the World Economic Forum, her focus is now on educating future leaders. Redel is a professor at Fordham Law, teaching courses on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and is a leading advocate for the financial literacy of women.
“Several industries stand to benefit dramatically from blockchain technology. Ensuring that our youth, particularly our young women, understand the historical context of these industries is the foundation of our future success,” said Redel, who will speak about leadership for the industry at Ethereal Summit.
Codifying Compliance
A critical component to successfully integrate blockchain technology is to ensure that those building financial applications have a strong understanding of the regulation of pertinent markets and how to navigate them. Alice Henshaw is an industry-leading Solidity engineer who creates smart contracts that can be written to automatically satisfy regulatory compliance requirements for digital assets. A computer science graduate of Oxford University, Henshaw has designed and implemented smart contract systems responsible for more than $100M in blockchain-based transaction volume.
“As more assets are tokenized it's important to remember that they are subject to many of the same regulations as their physical counterparts. With blockchain we can encode compliance into the assets themselves, thereby making illegal transactions impossible to carry out,” said Henshaw.
Institutional Adoption
Factora is a recent arrival to the blockchain scene, a team with extensive experience in both structured finance and blockchain technology on a mission to upgrade financial infrastructure. Annelise Osborne is a member of the executive team and a veteran of highly respected financial firms including Moody’s. Her industry experience contributes to the company’s unique perspective to ensure blockchain technology is developed with the end users in mind.
“This technology presents legacy financial structures a unique opportunity to truly evolve—the time is now to create the correct blueprint for this evolution both in the near term and for generations to come,” Osborne told me.
Integration
Translating blockchain’s benefits such that stakeholders at firms can easily visualize how it will improve daily business processes all the way up to helping shape strategy is another central factor in facilitating adoption of the technology. Kim Cope is a founding member of CryptoKitties and Blockchain Product Manager at Dapper Labs, with a mission to bring blockchain its first billion users. She works closely with companies and governments in developing their own blockchain strategies to make on-chain efficiencies accessible to a mainstream audience.
“This technology is so versatile and powerful, but if it’s ever going to be effectively implemented, it needs to be designed for mainstream audiences. For mainstream audiences to embrace this technology, it needs to be presented in terms those audiences understand,” said Cope, who will speak more about this at Strongurl BLunch / Token Summit.
