No one can avoid the topic of blockchain and cryptocurrencies now. Reports and podcasts on this industry are increasing daily and startups are sprouting like mushrooms. Investors see a bright future in blockchain, which is why the money is loose.
But undeniably, the percentage of women involved with cryptocurrency is far below that of men. While there are various efforts to attract women to blockchain as well – surveys, research studies, and especially private observations confirm their underrepresentation. In 2020, the percentage of female startup founders was just 16 percent. When it comes to blockchain, the picture is similar: the crypto scene remains a largely male-dominated industry.
We’re changing that now and – long overdue – starting today, we’re introducing a total of five women who no one in the DACH region who deals with the topic of blockchain can get past.
What the women have in common is that they have been interested in the technology for years, have been instrumental in its success, and are working to ensure that blockchain and cryptocurrencies reach the mainstream of society. Not least because blockchain can also be used as a tool for gender equality and inclusion.
Today in conversation: Katharina Gehra
Katharina Gehra is co-founder and CEO of Immutable Insight. It manages the first BaFin-registered crypto hedge fund in Germany, Blockchainfonds I GmbH & Co KG. She was ranked top 40 under 40 three times in a row by the German business magazine Capital. Katharina Gehra’s podcast Block52 is one of the most renowned blockchain podcasts and has more than 85,000 listeners.
How did you get into blockchain and what exactly do you do?
My first exposure was to Bitcoin, but having done currency theory in college, I’m more interested in the technology and its possibilities for global monetary systems in terms of potential than just cryptocurrencies. We have a blockchain analytics house and the results generated we use for asset management, money laundering prevention, ESG and industrial tokenization.
What attracts you to the subject?
Blockchain has a bigger scale than today’s internet. It is our generation’s chance to shape a paradigm shift. Tokens are to contracts what email is to business mail and in a few years we will find tokens as normal as email is today.
“Blockchain has a bigger scale than today’s Internet.”
Why should everyone embrace cryptos and blockchain in the future?
Technology not only makes processes cheaper, safer and more scalable, but it enables new business models with machines as customers and much smaller price levels. In this way, technology is opening up and creating markets that do not exist today. It will play a central role not only in banking, but in all industries.
What part do you play in bringing the topic to the masses?
That’s a lot of leverage and so I’m very committed. In addition to the podcast Block52, many lectures as well as guest contributions in publications and professional articles, we naturally also have direct contact with our potential customers and investors on a daily basis and provide individual advice. And: it must reach the masses. The myths: energy consumption, money laundering and control are already like bad propaganda. In doing so, they gloss over the inadequacies of the current system on the one hand and the fierce international competition, especially from China, on the other. We cannot, as enlightened people, pretend that we do not have to deal with this ourselves.
Which social media tools are particularly important for you and your work or which ones do you use for your expertise as a blockchain expert?
LinkedIn is the most important channel professionally. We also use Twitter and Instagram, but with less expertise. Then for unfiltered content from experts, there’s the Block52 podcast.
Preview: Tomorrow on this spot Christine Kiefer from RIDE Capital
