Photo credit: CryptoComes Women in Blockchain: Crystal Rose

Hello, world.

SHA-256(„hello world“) = c0535e4be2b79ffd93291305436bf889314e4a3faec05ecffcbb7df31ad9e51a

It's a new frontier. The 'hello world' of my past is being replaced with a hash.

This is my introduction to the Steemit community. I'm embarrassed it took so long to commit it to the blockchain. Mea culpa.

My name is Crystal Rose and I'm a technologist and entrepreneur. I have circuits running next to my veins, I'm made of hardware and software. Ok, maybe I haven't become a cyborg quite yet, but I do have a power button. (Ask me sometime, I'll show you.)

I grew up with a computer next to my crib. The sounds of the dial up modem were my soothing white noise as a pre-teen. I started learning to code through an anonymous chat room when I was 11, and started my first company (and college) by 16. I built and sold websites, and entire turnkey Internet businesses, which evolved into a full service digital agency.

It was during this venture where I stumbled across Bitcoin, in early 2010, while one of my developers was using up all of our bandwidth and running his computers overnight. I thought he was downloading pirated software or sharing music libraries. Instead, he was mining Bitcoin. This was back when it was far easier to mine a whole Bitcoin (or many) and it was difficult to understand how much they were worth (or who would want them). Cryptography was about to be even more popular than The Da Vinci Code.

Bit by Bit

Fast forward to 2015, I entered a large hackathon in San Francisco with my now-cofounder and two friends; talented developers from top startups in Silicon Valley, to compete building a Bitcoin enabled app.

We built a file sharing app to allow content owners to protect the transfer of their assets and monetize them before free use on the web. We leveraged the blockchain to ensure files were only transmitted one time on an immutable ledger, and Bitcoin to allow instant peer-to-peer micro-transactions.

It was quickly used to obscure suggestive photos* so curious people would unlock them for Bitcoin. We won the hackathon for our category and were happy to have newly filled Bitcoin wallets as a prize.

*mostly of cats

True Values

When I discovered the technology underlying Bitcoin – the blockchain – I realized what the Internet was intended to be but was missing or broken:

anonymity
transparency
security
privacy
decentralization
immutable, tamper-proof public ledgers
true peer to peer interactions (no intermediaries)

Today, most of what we do online is reliant on 3rd parties transmitting and storing our data. We use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to share all of our valuable life experiences. We use messengers like WhatsApp and WeChat to connect with each other. The price we pay to use these free networks is the agreement that all of our movements will be tracked and our data will be sold or exploited for profit - in someone else’s pocket. The Internet is now powered mostly by advertising, the purchasing power of user data in order to gain users' attention. This was the compromise we made when we decided the entire Internet should be provided for "free". Now, all of our contacts, connections and content are locked up in centralized services. One of my favorite TED talks describes it best:

We cannot have a society in which, if two people wish to communicate, the only way that can happen is if it's financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them. –Jaron Lanier (TED Talk)

The Internet has gone through at least two notable iterations. We are now moving into Web 3.0 and I'm incredibly excited to be building tools to support the remaking of the Internet. The blockchain provides a better way. It’s common sense.

I have found my life's purpose at the intersection of what I love to do, what I'm good at and what benefits society. It is my mission to help connect all the humans together to freely communicate and transact. I am the CEO and Co-Founder of ⚡SENSE, building decentralized messaging on the blockchain to realize the vision of a truly connected free world.

Immutably yours,
–@crystalrose

🦄Until the decentralized Internet evolves, you can still find me on Twitter.

👾Show some love, send a DM to my Ether wallet: https://ether.dm/0xdc36f82fc3c6331975fb20c74d01b378f1d0eb78