Blockchain Revolution

Women Leaders in Blockchain
As many have observed, the blockchain movement is overpopulated with men. In
technology and engineering, males still outnumber females by a wide margin.
However, high-profile women are founding and managing companies in the space:
Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings; Cindy McAdam, president of Xapo;
Melanie Shapiro, CEO of Case Wallet; Joyce Kim, executive director of Stellar
Development Foundation; Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and founder of BitPesa; and
Pamela Morgan, CEO of Third Key Solutions. Many of them have suggested the
industry is very welcoming to all voices, male and female alike. Venture capital in
blockchain is also gaining in diversity. Arianna Simpson, former head of business
development at BitGo, is now an investor in the sector. Jalak Jobanputra is an investor
whose VC fund focuses on decentralized technology.
When it comes to governance and stewardship of this global resource, women
have taken the lead.
Primavera De Filippi, faculty associate at the Berkman Center at Harvard and a
permanent researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris, is a
tireless advocate of blockchain technology and has emerged as one of academia’s
clearest and most eloquent voices on governance. She is organizer, instigator, and
promoter of dialogue within the ecosystem. With lawyer-turned-entrepreneur
Constance Choi, another vocal proponent in the industry, De Filippi has led a series of
blockchain workshops at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, as well as in London, Hong
Kong, and Sydney. They have brought together diverse stakeholders from the industry
and beyond to debate big issues. Nothing is off limits, and the events often mash up
people of different backgrounds, persuasions, and beliefs.
Elizabeth Stark is another emerging star in governance. The Yale Law School
professor has taken up the mantle of convener-in-chief for the industry. Like another
prominent woman—Dawn Song, MacArthur fellow and computer science professor at
Berkeley, and an expert in cybersecurity—Stark comes from a distinctly academic
background but has other ambitions. She organized Scaling Bitcoin, convening
developers, industry players, thought leaders, government officials, and other
stakeholders in Montreal. A “constitutional moment” for the sector, Scaling Bitcoin
was credited with clearing logjams in the block-size debate. Today she is also leading

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as an entrepreneur, collaborating on the development of the Bitcoin Lightning
Network to solve the blockchain’s scalability issue.
Perianne Boring, a former journalist and TV reporter, is the founder of the
Chamber for Digital Commerce, a trade-based association in Washington, D.C.
Within a year, CDC has attracted a high-profile board (e.g., Blythe Masters, James
Newsome, George Gilder). The movement needed “boots on the ground in
Washington to open a dialogue with government,” she said. With her background in
journalism, Boring focused on messaging, positioning, and polish. Her organization is
“open to anyone who is committed to growing this community,” she said, and is now
a leading voice in policy, advocacy, and knowledge in the burgeoning blockchain
governance ecosystem.
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This growing chorus of leaders lobbying for governance is as prescient as it is
urgent. When we talk about governing blockchain technology, we are not talking
about regulation, at least not exclusively. For one, there are serious limitations to
using regulations for managing an important global resource. As Joichi Ito said, “You
can regulate networks, you can regulate operations, but you can’t regulate
software.”
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So regulations will be one of several important components. Blockchain
is not like the Internet because money is different from information. Blythe Masters,
consummate Wall-Street-insider-turned-blockchain-pioneer, expressed her concern:
“Newcomers are simply able to do things that regulated institutions are not able to do,
but one needs to think very carefully about why those regulations exist, and what
purpose they serve, before one can conclude that exposing consumers to unregulated
financial activities is a good thing.”
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Ultimately, the debate is not about the kind of
society we want but about the opportunities for leaders to steward an important global
resource.