Women in Web 3.0

How women are leading the way in the creator economy

Origins of Crypto and Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web based on blockchain technology. The key component that makes blockchain work is Proof of Work, which is the cryptographic way of consuming energy to do a very hard math problem and end up with a mechanism that verifies the chain’s integrity and all the transactions that came before.

It was mentioned by Satoshi, who proposed it in the Bitcoin white paper, Proof of Work, and its prior use in Hashcash. It was originally intended to make it cost-prohibitive to be an email spammer and ended up becoming the underpinning of crypto blockchain.

But who invented Proof of Work? It was invented way back in 1993 by Cynthia Dwork. It’s all based on research done by Cynthia, a female computer science professor from Harvard in the early ’90s. But the origins do not reflect the current state of Crypto and Web 3.0.

A Boys Club

If we simply look at the data, there’s no denying the current narrative about Web 3.0: it’s a boys club. And, if we keep affirming this narrative, it’s bound to come true. The truth of crypto as a boys club won’t just be detrimental to women — it’ll be detrimental to the real promise and growth of Web 3.0.

Source: Coin Dance

Democratize Wealth

But, it’s not too late to right the ship, and I think if we do, there is a great possibility for women to smash some gender wealth and pay gaps that have sowed their way into the fabric of our society. The nature of crypto as a global and distributed industry must provide more opportunities for all possible diversified groups of people.

However, the key to success in the crypto industry lies in realizing crypto’s promise as a social and financial instrument for freedom. It has the potential to redefine the financial industry both economically and culturally, as it is an avenue for financial freedom that can do away with the ancient power structures of the traditional financial industry. Until more initiatives champion crypto’s underlying philosophy as well as more women and many more communities represented in the field, it is fair to say that it is men who “simply don’t get it.”

While it may be increasingly difficult to combat inequality in generational wealth accumulated through traditional investment means, Web 3.0 is a blank slate. Why fall into the old patterns when looking at a new frontier? The great promise of digital currencies was their ability to flip the script on Wall Street. Let’s use it to flip the script for women’s financial future, too.

Make Web 3.0 an Everyone Club

So, how do we move the needle today to make Web 3.0 an everyone club? Female artists and creators are implementing various forms of activism and social value into NFT collections, using them to combat gender inequality. NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. These are digital assets that buyers and sellers can buy and sell or create on their own and sell online on marketplaces like OpenSea. NFTs can be anything from artwork, music, videos, photos, trading cards, autographs, or other collectibles.

There are many women now joining the movement, inviting others in, as well. It’s starting. In the United Kingdom, a new campaign called Women Rise aims to get 100,000 women into crypto by the end of this year. The nonprofit Women in Blockchain has been working since 2017 to make the world of crypto more welcoming. And October 2020, a physical version of an NFT from Boss Beauties, a collection of 10,000 digital portraits of women, was even displayed at the New York Stock Exchange.

Source: Art Tactic

In February 2022, a 22-year-old day-trader turned crypto investor named Amy Matsushima introduced the NFT collection Women of Crypto to educate other young women about NFTs. The entire collection of nearly 9,000 avatars sold out in ten hours. Amy, who invested $20,000 in crypto when she was 19 years old, saw the gender imbalance in Web 3.0 and recognized this disparity for what it is: An opportunity.

Join the Movement

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly transforming the digitization, and gaming & NFT spaces. As Web 3.0 penetrates more deeply, the market is expected to garner significant traction in the next few years. According to Market Research Future (MRFR), the global Web 3.0 Blockchain market is estimated to reach USD 6,187.3 Mn by 2023 and grow further at 44.6% CAGR during the assessment period (2022–2030).

Web 3.0 is not an exclusive club designed to keep people out. It’s a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats party that gets better every time someone new joins. The more people involved, the better the outcomes for everyone. Men overwhelmingly dominate traditional investing, but Web3 is a blank slate. With more women coming into the fold, we can break the narrative of exclusivity. As the Founder of MakerDAO, Gustav Arentoft, says, “Decentralized Finance is about Creating Equal Opportunity.”

Web 3.0 enables women to become creators, builders, or leaders in the decentralized world of Web 3.0. Web 3.0 is the next internet revolution. Every platform, organization, and digital economy is moving towards decentralization — bringing community and the people at the centers of digital economic decisions, business creation, and finally, making wealth generation inclusive. Women will lead the creator economy.

If you’re a woman led or focused FinTech startup, here’s our open invitation to join the Web3 movement. The leadership team and advisors at StrongHer bring years of experience in entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, technology venture investments, and diversity initiatives. Our strategic investor and partner, Tholons, provides us access to one of the largest global innovation networks. We have the operational experience to scale early-stage companies, and we bring our strong network and investment expertise to catalyze that. The female economy is here, and StrongHer is leading in it.

Check out Arise, the largest capital-backed accelerator program for pre-seed women-led or focused companies, investing across fintech, future of work, healthcare, consumer, and web 3.0, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to stay connected with us.