The Bullet No. 7 Who Run the World? Girls!
TL;DR This industry is full of amazing women doing brilliant things.
Lately I’ve been trying to engage more in the crypto community. A first step was taking Pomp’s Crypto Course back in August and I’ve met some great people there, as well as learning a ton. However, it was interesting to note that about 90% of my fellow course mates were men and many of the big voices in the industry also tend to be men. Crypto has been accused of having a “bro culture” before, which can sometimes be a barrier for women to engage. Indeed, many of the people I’ve referenced in these letters before are men, therefore, to address any imbalance and thank them, I’m dedicating this week’s bullets to some amazing women:
Elizabeth Stark @starkness
CEO of Lightening Labs. Lightening is a payment layer built on top of Bitcoin and can handle more transactions a minute than the Visa network. Elizabeth and her team have built Bitcoin’s answer to the accusations that it’s too slow/can’t scale and is a key component to the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador. Lightening network use is growing very fast at 4% per week and helps the Bitcoin network transact more than $5BN per day, with no central authority needed.
Natalie Brunell @natbrunell
Natalie is an Emmy winning journalist and host of the Coin Stories podcast. She’s a regular contributor to American News Networks, having worked at several of them and recently made the decision to focus full time on Bitcoin. Natalie has launched an online course called btcforwomen.com, specifically aimed at getting more women into the industry, which received a surprising backlash from some on Twitter the other week and something that inspired me to write this letter. Many people feel bitcoin education should be free, and it’s true there is a lot of information readily available. However, everyone learns differently and a focussed course, that filters the good information from the bad and aims to do something positive, by encouraging an under-represented demographic, I think should be applauded. If you don’t like it, don’t pay for it, and go do something else, but let’s not fight about it and get at each other on Twitter.
Cathie Wood @CathieDWood
Founder and CEO of Ark Invest, an asset management company that focusses on disruptive innovations. They make a wealth of information about their investment strategies and innovations they are investing in available on their website. If you want to be ahead of the game in tech, Ark is a great company to watch. They have a significant holding in Tesla, and I’m sure Cathie had a big influence on Elon Musk adding Bitcoin to Tesla’s balance sheet earlier this year.
Caitlin Long @CaitlinLong_
Founder and CEO at Avanti Bank, which is a bank Caitlin built specifically to serve the digital asset industry, and one of the first of its kind. I’ve learned so much from Caitlin about the current banking system, how it really works, and the potential risks it faces. She founded a bank to try and address those issues, working closely with lawmakers and regulators to set up a digital asset bank charter in Wyoming, much of which is now being replicated in other American States.
Maria-Teresa Ortiz & Stephanie Simmons
I hope Maria and Stephanie will forgive me for grouping them together. I met them both during Pomp’s Crypto Course and it’s been loads of fun sharing ideas and swapping tips to help us in our quest to work full time in the industry. They’ve helped bring me up whenever confidence has been low, highlighted job openings that I might be a good fit for and are always engaging other course members to help them too. They’ve also recently started a substack of their own, aimed at sharing their experience as women in the industry. Great for getting a different perspective.
Meltdem Demories @Melt_Dem
I discovered Meltdem as a regular podcast guest on shows I listened to, and her knowledge and passion for the industry is infectious. She was very early on Bitcoin in a sea of male voices but makes regular media and conference appearances speaking on the topic. Meltdem is Chief Strategy Officer at Coinshares, who offer products that let you invest in digital assets without you having to hold the asset yourself. Unfortunately, the FCA in the UK have decided plebs like me can’t decide for myself if that’s a good enough investment for my own money and banned use of them last year. They’ll be back, once the UK regulators wake up and realise what they’re missing. For now though, Coinshares will have to make do with a whole host of friendlier nations.
Lyn Alden @LynAldenContact
Lyn has an astonishing grasp of the investment landscape and macro economics. I’ve found her research is always deep, thoughtful, and unbiased, which you can access at lynalden.com. As with others I’ve mentioned, Lyn is a regular contributor to financial news media, podcasts and conferences and stands out for her deep understanding and ability to breakdown complex information and pinpoint the implications.
Mir Liponi @mir_btc, Molly Spiers @CoinCornerMolly and Lina Seiche @LinaSeiche
This trio are founders of satoshe, a new podcast series that is a welcome counterpoint to some of the male led podcast series. I find them great follows for their wit, humour and ability to cut through a thorny issue in a cartoon or short tweet missive. At the same time Mir helps the BNB Network in Italy, Molly is Head of Marketing at CoinCorner (one of the first exchanges where you could buy crypto in the UK and based in the Isle of Man), and Lina is Managing Director of the BTC Times.
Aunty Amy @amytaylorsays
Back in November 2017, Aunty Amy sent an email to all my close relatives, me included, encouraging us to read up on bitcoin and blockchain. Truth be told, it was rather lengthy and right at the height of the market so many of us dismissed it as unbelievable twaddle. However, unbeknownst to Aunty Ames, I’d already been doing my homework, having discovered Bitcoin independently a few months earlier. Despite living on the other side of the world to each other, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing late night and early morning WhatsApp chats over the last 4 years as we venture further down the rabbit hole. It’s awesome to share it all as we go through similar thought processes, stages of understanding, and share our most recent learning.
Mrs Ellison
I’ve already called out Mrs E before for her support to me on the path I’ve chosen. I’m delighted to report she’s still as supportive as ever and my true partner in crime, in this, as well as life in general. She’s not fully orange pilled yet, (a Bitcoin believer), but she’s warming to the idea and also says my chat has improved over the last couple of years, so there’s something.
Obviously, these are just a selection of the many great women I’ve encountered over the last few years and there are many more, I’m just sorry I couldn’t name them all. Bitcoin and crypto are for everyone and if there are women reading this who think it’s not for them, I hope the examples above give evidence of the key role we can all play, regardless of gender and type of contribution. I’ve probably done enough name dropping these last few weeks, so expect a change of focus next week.
Peace, love and Bitcoin.
Rob
Rob, fantastic insights into so many women in this space — I may be biased but it's one of my favorite topics you've touched on so far ;). I'm always learning so much from your letters and this is no exception. We are lucky to have the support and wisdom of thoughtful visionaries like yourself.