From legislative reform and education to compliance and integration, strong female leaders are surfacing in blockchain, taking the reins in mapping out and establishing frameworks that are both easy to adopt and highly sustainable. Five of those leaders were recently featured in Forbes magazine.
Caitlin Long, Co-founder, Wyoming Blockchain Coalition
Long spent more than twenty years on Wall Street before starting the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition and spearheading sweeping reform, creating legislative parameters that give blockchain the opportunity to flourish. HB101 is a new bill providing for the maintenance of corporate records of Wyoming entities via blockchain.
“The developments in Wyoming over the past year have been so positive for both the industry and Wyoming,” says Long. “We are paving the way for how to provide clarity to blockchain developers about what’s legal and what’s not.”
Donna Redel, Professor, Fordham Law
In addition to educating future leaders, Redel’s also a leading advocate for the financial literacy of women. Formerly chairman at COMEX CTO for Prudential Securities and Managing Director and Board Member at the World Economic Forum, Redel is now teaching courses on blockchain and cryptocurrencies at Fordham Law.
Redel says, “Several industries stand to benefit dramatically from blockchain technology. Ensuring that our youth, particularly our young women, understand the historical context of these industries is the foundation of our future success.”
Alice Henshaw, Solidity Engineer, Fluidity
An industry-leading Solidity engineer, Henshaw creates smart contracts that can be written to automatically satisfy regulatory compliance requirements for digital assets, alleviating the pressure on those building financial applications who may not have a strong understanding of the regulation of pertinent markets and how to navigate them. She has designed and implemented smart contract systems responsible for more than $100M in blockchain-based transaction volume.
“As more assets are tokenized, it’s important to remember that they are subject to many of the same regulations as their physical counterparts. With blockchain we can encode compliance into the assets themselves, thereby making illegal transactions impossible to carry out,” Henshaw says.
Annelise Osborne, Executive, Factora
Factora, with a team of experienced professionals in structured finance and blockchain technology, is on a mission to upgrade financial infrastructure. Osborne’s industry experience contributes to her company’s unique perspective to ensure blockchain technology is developed with end users in mind.
“This technology presents legacy financial structures and a unique opportunity to truly evolve — the time is now to create the correct blueprint for this evolution both in the near term and for generations to come,” says Osborne.
Kim Cope, founding member, CryptoKitties, and Blockchain Product Manager, Axiom Zen
Cope’s mission is to bring blockchain its first billion users, helping to translate the benefits of the technology to stakeholders at firms and enable them to easily visualize how it will improve daily business processes and even shape strategy. She works closely with companies and governments in developing their own blockchain strategies to make on-chain efficiencies accessible to a mainstream audience.
“This technology is so versatile and powerful, but if it’s ever going to be effectively implemented, it needs to be designed for mainstream audiences,” Cope explains. “For mainstream audiences to embrace this technology, it needs to be presented in terms those audiences understand.”
Join the Revolution
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Resources
Wolfson, Rachel. (18 Apr 2019). 5 Women At The Forefront Of Blockchain Technology Speaking at New York Blockchain Week. Forbes.
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