Shanghai Blockchain Events: Blockchain, a testosterone only space?

EVENT TWO - China Business Events (CBE), Women in Blockchain - March 8, 2018

Hosts: This second event was hosted by China Business Events, a Meetup community group, and SOHO 3Q a co-working space where the event took place.

Panelists: QJ Wang (Queschain), Momo Zhang (DREP Foundation), Ting Peng (Shivom Project), Andrea Liu (Genaro Network) and Eva Hoo (Technode) who was the moderator.

(From Left to Right: QJ Wang, Momo Zhang, Andrea Liu, Ting Peng and Eva Hoo)

International Women’s Day & Blockchain (BC)

Women and the BC Scene, My Take: If you just google “women in blockchain” you’ll find several articles asking where are the women in this space? In one aspect of BC, cryptocurrency, there are approximately 5% of women in the bitcoin community (1). What does this mean? I’m not sure.

Is this because of how male and female brains are wired? Why is it Mr. Robot and Elliot and not Ms. Robot and Layla? Are men better at math than women and are therefore more likely to be a nerdy hacker writing code and connected to tech? Are women more intuitive and are therefore better at the social sciences than the natural sciences?

Yes and No is the answer. Its complicated, and a response needs to be contextualized. If you do a simple search on male and female thinking you’ll find tons of articles, many of which the actual science behind it is oversimplified for people who are not in the medical field and to get attention from mainstream media to that particular research. (On that point check out this great video from John Oliver about scientific studies, favorite part . . . “and guess how many were killed by baboons” 15:40 onward, you will enjoy :) )

Back to BC and women. Why are women a minority in the BC industry? First of all, BC is a fairly new industry so it is fairer to look at the tech industry in general. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, male-dominated industries are one’s in which women comprise less than 25% of the workforce. If we go on those numbers in the U.S. (24%) and the U.K. (21%) tech is a male-dominated industry (2). However, if we look at China, India and the Middle East it’s a different story.

In India, 42.1% of bachelor of science students are women. (3)
In the Middle East surveying seven universities in countries like Palestine and the U.A.E an NYU professor found that 30-70% of the enrollees in computer science programs are women. (% depends on which program) and between 25-40% of Tech start-ups are lead by women. (3)
In China about 80 percent of the tech companies in one study reported having at least one or more women in high level positions. (4) Women also make up anywhere between 20-55% of internet start-ups. (4,5)

The numbers of women in tech in Europe are also beating those of the U.S. and U.K (3). According to one author from the U.S. “it is pretty clear, holding up a mirror to the rest of the world, that the lack of women in tech is not a universal problem -- it's homegrown, out of American culture” (3). Even with these numbers showing a positive outlook about women in tech worldwide, there are still plenty of issues with discrimination in the tech industry (or many industries for that matter) against women. Patriarchy is a dominant system in the world and it has been that way for some time. Saying that, it is important to remember that men have their own pressures to succeed as well. While the work game is not a level playing arena on many levels gender being one, its important to always put it into context and give background to the issues. I tell my students context means the time, place and experience of the issues we are discussing.

It is not easy to be a working woman and a mom. It is also not easy to be a stay at home dad or a single parent or fill in the blank. The list of challenges can go on. What is important is having the choice and the opportunity to work or stay at home and to be able to get ahead in whatever field one chooses to be in.

So, how do we move forward from here? There are many governmental and non-governmental organizations that are working to encourage women into the tech space. If you are a women in tech and have had enough of the “blockchain bros” (6) take the step to create spaces and opportunities for women to join the field. This job is not just for women it is also for men in the field. There is plenty of research about why it is important to have a more gender balanced workforce in different industries including tech (7,8).

If I step back from the bigger picture and speak about myself, it was important for me to find that there are women in the tech space and specifically in the blockchain space. That is why this event was particularly interesting to me. The women on the panel were very encouraging and open to supporting other women in the field. The event took place on international women’s day. Below is a brief summary of the Q&A that took place.
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1. Tell us about yourselves and the companies you are representing?

Ting Peng: Works with the Shivom project. “This project aims to store peoples genome on the blockchain”. According to Peng, this will help individuals get better healthcare connecting with doctors around the world. This will also help give individuals ownership over their medical information, to sell their information if they choose to. They are focusing on China and India because of their large gene pool.

I am not clear at all why we need our genomes on a blockchain. The idea worries me. But, at the same time I have not DYOR about it. Check it out if it interests you or freaks you out.

Andrea Liu: Works with the Genaro network. It uses BC for storage purposes, which is becoming a more important issue in the tech world. They will be creating their own BC platform, unlike many other companies that build their platform on others like bitcoin or ethereum. (This is an issue that was discussed at the MakerDAO event I went to, see later post, whether it is better to build on an already established blockchain or create an application specific one.)

MoMo Chang: DREP is a decentralized reputation system. DREP wants to quantify and monetize users reputation points with up votes and down votes. People asked how can spam/bots be prevented? She said that users will be “de-incentivized to commit fraud”. They have already started working with the Chengdu government in China and are cooperating with Twitter.

While it is important for e-commerce systems to have rating systems, a social credit system is something that concerns me. (Black Mirror’s Nosedive and Community’s App Development and Condiments are just previews into this and are entertaining to watch as well). If you are interested in this kind of work DYOR.

QJ Wang: Runs a crypto-focused VC, she is also working on a film on BC and bitcoin. One of the companies she is investing and supporting is the MakerDAO stable coin system. She started four BC companies since 2014 when she first got more involved in the space. She was talking about how after graduating university with a degree in english literature and a final paper on Harry Potter she “believed in magic but the owl never came”. She was referring to how while its important to dream and maintain an imagination to be creative its important to base one-self in reality. Specifically, if you want to make money, learn what money is. From there she got involved in the BC community. She worked closely with Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, and speaks about how he is a very productive worker, is very humble and lives modestly. It was nice to hear personal stories about interactions with well known figures in the BC space.

Back then she talks about how there were even less women in the space and how many that were in the space were “BC babes” there for show. She says to make sure to DYOR; “What kinds of wallets are there for cryptocurrency? Do you have a wallet? Just because a coin makes it to the top 50 list on coinmarketcap doesn't mean those projects are good projects”. She argues that many “don’t make sense, they are just a token, and much of the token is held by the team that created it”. Given that, she believes, along with the other speakers on the panel, in the key values behind BC; decentralization, immutable code that allows for "trustlessness", transparency and a route to financial freedom.

Eva Hoo: Was the moderator of the event. Click here for a more detailed summary about the panel in tech node.

2. Other comments about BC?

-Not all BC projects are decentralized it is important to remember that.

-Make sure to read the project white paper and check to see if the project has an exit plan.

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