Meltem Demirors
She doesn’t sleep, she waits. She invests. Don’t get it wrong. This is not about an anxious cryptocurrency investor staying awake at night and obsessively refreshing CoinMarketCap.com. We are talking about Meltem Demirors, Founder of Athena Capital. She also creates, teaches and advises on both traditional and blockchain finance.
Demirors holds a Bachelor of Arts certificate in Mathematical Economics from Rice University and a Masters in Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Works Outside Crypto
Demirors has a wealth of experience from both the traditional finance sector as well as the blockchain and cryptocurrency side. On the traditional finance side, she has worked with prestigious businesses. Meltem Demirors has been with Deloitte Consulting as a strategy consultant. She also spent four months at ExxonMobil. Before all these, she was an analyst at Tradax Energy and Dow Chemical.
At MIT Media Lab, research in seemingly unrelated areas is done to come out with disruptive technologies. Demirors currently serves as an advisor for MIT Media Lab on Future commerce. She was also involved with designing the Future of commerce course.
Participation in the Crypto Space
Meltem Demirors’ cryptocurrency related roles include Vice President of development at Digital Currency Group. The Digital Currency Group is a holding company that has invested in several blockchain and cryptocurrency related businesses in over 25 countries. This is the company’s way of contributing to the improvement of the financial system. Genesis trading, Grayscale investments, Coindesk and the Bitcoin Investment trust are all cryptocurrency related businesses owned by Digital Currency Group. Demirors worked for them from 2015 until recently in February 2018.
She is a part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Blockchain. The World Economic Forum is about facilitating collaboration between public and private institutions as a means to make the world better. The Future Council on blockchain basically examines the impact that blockchain technology could have on various areas of life and society. They will also figure out ways in which we can get the best out of the technology while limiting any negative aspects.
Meltem Demirors is also one of the instructors on the University of Oxford’s Blockchain Strategy Programme. In the short course, she shares her knowledge on the subject with executives and professionals who are particularly interested in understanding blockchain technology.
Notably, in 2017, Demirors founded Athena Capital. With Athena Capital, she invests in blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses and funds. Athena Capital also provides advisory services to companies when it comes to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
She Writes Too
Demirors also contributes with her excellent writing. In “Drowning in tokens”, she draws parallels between the rush to get involved with exploration when shale gas was hot and the present day tokenization of everything. The point being made here is that not all tokens are actually in demand or even scarce.
With “Transparency and Ethics in Cryptocurrency Investing”, she attempts to find middle grounds when it comes to transparency and privacy in cryptocurrency dealings. She goes on to explain standards she has set for herself when it comes to being open about investments in the space. In the end, she walks the walk and lists all holdings at the time of writing.
I will end this with a quote from “The future of money”, another article of hers.
“Digital currencies present a chance for money to truly become information, and for the creation of a global financial system that is truly frictionless, open, and uncensored — the vision we once had for the internet.”This shot at creating a better financial system is why Meltem Demirors is participating in the cryptocurrency space.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://cryptocoremedia.com/meltem-demirors/