Women in Web3: The Super Female Power of Blockchain

Author: Buidler DAO

In the Fortune 500 list in the United States, female CEOs account for only 6.4%. The business world captured by the spotlight is a uniform photo of board members in suits, a solid alliance of masculinity at the dinner table, and male programmer geeks in plaid shirts in Hollywood movies. Prejudice and stereotypes affect everyone, especially women.

In "Masculine Domination," Bourdieu writes, "Women are a situation." Business technology and culture are rapidly evolving, and situations are changing, but in the broad tech field represented by web3, the manifestation of female power still requires us to carry a magnifying glass and search diligently.

However, the dissatisfaction at hand can also become the first line of poetry. To this end, Buidler DAO has sought out three powerful women in the Web3 world—hoping to make them the subjects of the narrative, showcasing "their" efforts, "their" achievements, and "their" dreams.

From their explorations on the path of Siddhartha, we can infinitely extend our imagination of the present and see the limitless possibilities of our future; following their thoughts and practices, we collectively break the default assumptions of stereotypes about success, seeing and giving life itself concrete answers.

Know Her Name

01/ Cheryl Liu

Co-founder of Deeper Network, fully funded PhD in the US

Twitter: @deeper_network

02/ Maggie Wu

CEO & Co-founder of Krypital Group and Galactic Holdings, 20 years of continuous entrepreneurship

Twitter: @MaggieWu_KG

03/ Lemon Lin

Co-founder & CMO of iZUMi Finance, first president of the Blockchain Club at Zhejiang University

Twitter: @Lemon.bit

Cheryl Liu
Although I am well-versed in the secrets of making money, I cannot break through to a higher level of myself. I truly want to be an entrepreneur, to influence more people's lives and bring fundamental changes to everyone.

The more traditional view holds that women should be more conservative. Women tend to consider more details, and whether it is leadership, cognition, execution, or the ability to connect with people, these are not issues.

The Transformation Journey from a Small-Town Problem Solver to a Course Creator

In 2018, I immigrated to Vancouver from the United States. At that time, fewer people were going abroad; I received a full scholarship to study for a PhD in the US. A full scholarship also means that tuition and living expenses are covered, which counts as a job. I was influenced by several important teachers from a young age, which allowed me to struggle from a small city, earn a full scholarship to go abroad, stay in the US, start a business, and reach where I am today…

Why did I enter the blockchain industry early? It comes from a keen sense of smell, insight, and business awareness developed from a young age.

My family doesn't have a business background, but I started trying things within my means early on. Without affecting my studies, I began saving a little pocket money given by my parents in elementary school, reselling small goods at night markets for profit, and then opening an online store. As a student, my capabilities were limited, but by the time I was in college, I was already financially independent. At that time, there were no smartphones, only flip phones like Motorola and Nokia, and a 300,000-pixel camera was considered a cool feature. When a new generation of phones came out, I would buy one for each of my parents, which felt great as it improved our family's living standards. These seemingly insignificant experiences allowed me to maintain deep thinking and summarizing abilities among my peers, constantly experimenting with low-cost trials, venturing into cutting-edge fields, and trying new opportunities, which were crucial for my early entry into the industry and choosing the right track.

After 2015, I did not continue down the academic research path because I saw the enormous potential and future of the blockchain industry. At that time, I had friends around me starting to mine, and I quickly sensed this opportunity, from buying Bitcoin mining machines and purchasing computing power to participating in Ethereum mining, procuring graphics cards, self-learning to assemble multi-GPU machines, and then establishing mining farms and managing operations… I can say I entered this industry through mining. Moreover, from 2015 to 2018, I began leading a team to create blockchain service companies and legal firms, choosing to be a "water delivery person" in an industry where new projects were springing up like mushrooms after rain.

5 Years, 100 Million Nodes

Building the Bridge from Web2 to Web3

In 2018, at a blockchain industry conference, I met Russell Liu, who is now the technical partner at Deeper Network. He firmly stated that he wanted to build the next generation of a trusted internet, allowing users to have 100% ownership of their data sovereignty, deciding what to see, what not to see, what to do, and what not to do. He demonstrated some functions of the network security operating system he developed, including enterprise-level firewalls and other network security features, which were not only innovative at the time but remain unachievable even four years later.

Developing an operating system is a large project. Russell's team is small but has created a relatively complete visual network security operating system that can provide users with real seven-layer enterprise-level network security services, demonstrating his exceptional research and development capabilities, foresight, and leadership—rare qualities of top technical geniuses and creators in Silicon Valley. I have seen many projects in the industry, but the common feeling is that they lack strong practical attributes. Can truly user-friendly blockchain technology be realized? Can it be popularized to every household? Is it a high-frequency, essential application scenario for everyone?—these all raise questions. I have always placed great importance on business logic and business models. What impressed me about Deeper Network was its powerful killer application. Regardless of whether ordinary internet users understand Web3 or what blockchain is, they need a product or service that will naturally make them users of blockchain or Web3.

Before 2018, I spent ten years learning to create economic value using existing knowledge and mature business models, but people often find themselves in this situation: they know the key to making money but cannot break through to become more creative individuals. So at that time, I felt it was necessary to break through myself, using truly transformative and hardcore technology that can make human life more convenient and comfortable to influence the world; to truly be an entrepreneur and build a strong ecosystem unicorn company.

Speculation Cannot Change the World

Committed to Creating Killer Applications

When it comes to infrastructure, the concepts that instinctively come to people's minds are—large investments, low returns, long cycles, and thankless efforts. Deeper is building a Web3 infrastructure ecosystem, needing to first distribute hardware products to every household, establish backbone networks, and provide users with enterprise-level firewalls, privacy protection, ad-blocking, and other killer features, thereby creating the largest decentralized edge computing platform. All other ecological services are based on our backbone network, forming a certain network effect that truly integrates networking, storage, and computing—so it is quite challenging. Even so, the Deeper Connect product, which is our hardware node device on the network, has consistently ranked among the top ten products on mainstream platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, even being the only Web3 product on these mainstream crowdfunding platforms, repeatedly breaking records.

If all participants in Web3 are purely speculative, then Web3 will never have mainstream applications that can change the world. I approach this with a mindset of running a business, planning to do this long-term with a ten-year cycle. We are currently in a rapid development phase, moving from 80,000 effective nodes to the next milestone—1 million nodes—to truly form our network effect and create the largest decentralized edge computing platform globally.

For any technology product or technology, before it becomes widely accepted and applied by the mainstream, there must be a sufficient number of people genuinely participating to complete the leap from niche, speculative adventurers to mainstream applications. Based on the global population, there are currently 6 billion people, so all Web3 applications face a market of around 1 billion users. We need to produce killer applications that are hard for these 1 billion users to refuse.

We all know that launching a rocket is a challenging task that small companies cannot undertake. But someone has to do it because it is meaningful to humanity and society, so there will always be people willing to take on this challenge. I hope Deeper Network can solve the real problems faced by every Web2 internet user, provide killer applications, and unknowingly lead users into the world of Web3, achieving a true leap from Web2 to Web3.

Old Customs Believe Women Should Be Conservative

But Women Entrepreneurs Actually Have More Attention to Detail

In the current entrepreneurial environment, there are more men. Over the years, the entrepreneurial crowd I have been part of has mainly consisted of men. As a female entrepreneur, I believe that women are not inherently worse at generating ideas or executing than men. There are some traditional views in society that women should be more conservative. However, women tend to consider more details when starting a business, and through their experiences and accumulated knowledge, their leadership, cognitive abilities, execution skills, and ability to connect with people are not issues.

However, bear markets are precisely the time for deep thinking and solid work; Churchill once said, "Never waste a crisis." There is an old saying in China: "Seek benevolence and you will find benevolence." In the West, it is called the law of attraction. As long as you believe in yourself and start from small things to accumulate, there will surely come a day when you will reap the rewards you deserve.
Image source: Cheryl Liu's WeChat Moments

Maggie Wu
I like fresh things and enjoy participating in things that no one has been involved in; I also like challenges and often want to be the first to try something new. Now, I not only want to be the first but also want to be the best.

In my work, I never consider gender as an issue. I never agree with the notion that "because you are a woman, you should act a certain way." To me, everyone is the same, regardless of gender or race; everyone is equal…

Leap of Faith

From Traditional Internet Financial Investment to Founding a Web3 VC

I studied English Language and Literature at Xiamen University. In 2005, I went to the United States, and I have been an entrepreneur since 2002, totaling 20 years. During the 2008 economic crisis, I began to delve more into investments, previously focusing mainly on traditional industries. In 2016, I started paying attention to Bitcoin and seriously studied the white paper, which sparked my strong interest in the new form of financial internet. I bought my first Bitcoin on Coinbase when I was still a novice.

The cryptocurrency trading market attracted me because it operates 24 hours a day. Initially, I only engaged in simple buying and selling on Coinbase, but later I began to try more complex derivatives on major exchanges, gradually becoming a professional trader. After taking that first step, my research became increasingly in-depth, and I was among the first to take blockchain courses at MIT Sloan.

When the ICO craze hit at the end of 2017, my partners and I decided to formally establish a venture capital fund specifically targeting the blockchain field—Krypital Group. Initially, we used our own funds, and with a burst of enthusiasm, we invested in many projects. However, by the end of 2018, the industry quickly entered a bear market, which was our first experience of a bear market in the blockchain industry, and it taught us a profound lesson. As the saying goes, "A blessing in disguise"—the waves of change will make the industry more mature.

From the moment we decided to raise a fund, the entire team maintained confidence in the future, thinking about how to persist in this industry. From 2019 to 2021, we invested in many DeFi, GameFi, and NFT-related projects, such as Injective, Animoca Brands, Solv, Highstreet, deBridge, and Blocto. Many of these projects have been listed on Binance and performed well in the market, with some successfully completing several rounds of financing at higher valuations. Overall, our investment portfolios have performed quite well.

In addition to primary market investments, I also engage in secondary market trading. Since mid-last year, the entire market has shown a downward trend, and we began to gradually exit around May. The industry has now entered a bear market, which is expected to last for some time. Although we are still continuously looking at projects, our project selection will be much stricter than in a bull market. But this is a good thing! Generally speaking, project teams tend to be more grounded in their work, and valuations are more reasonable, while in a bull market, most projects have inflated valuations. As investors, we need to manage risk well and also provide post-investment management, patiently accompanying and helping our portfolios grow comprehensively.

Witnessing the Paradigm Shift Currently Experienced by the Internet

Web2 and Web3 have been hot topics in recent years. The future world will be one where Web2 (centralized) coexists with Web3 (decentralized).

The traditional internet is undergoing a paradigm shift, with blockchain and cryptocurrencies driving progress across the industry. Why should we explore this process? First, it can solve the pain points encountered by the traditional internet; second, it holds enormous development potential. Currently, the total market value of the entire Web2 internet is about 400 billion, while Web3 is only over 20 billion, clearly indicating growth potential.

It is well-known that Facebook changed its name to Meta last October and plans to invest 10 billion in VR, signifying the importance of the Metaverse in the future world. Research shows that people are spending more and more time in virtual worlds, and the future virtual world will occupy various aspects of human life and work, undoubtedly filled with immense imagination and becoming a key investment direction for us.

Fortunately, we are still in the early stages of the entire industry’s development, and we will continue to explore the world of Web3 in the future.

Turning the Impossible into Possible

Ascending the Loft of Female Practitioners in Web3

I have always been a curious person, fond of new things, and I have always loved challenges. I enjoy participating in things that no one has been involved in, often wanting to be the first to try something new. Starting from curiosity, my ambition has gradually grown. Now, I not only want to be the first but also want to be the best.

Of course, everything I do must be driven by passion; this drives me to continuously learn and never stop. I feel that humanity is too small, and I am also very ignorant, so I am filled with curiosity and a desire for knowledge about this world, constantly increasing my understanding of it while enjoying the process.

I have been an entrepreneur in the US for many years, and I know that there are some biases against Chinese or female entrepreneurs in society. But I am a very competitive person. As a Chinese woman in the US, I do not want to be labeled with biases due to race or gender. In any situation, I am unwilling to let people say, "Because you are a woman, you should…" or use gender to sensationalize. In my work, I never consider gender as an issue; to me, everyone is the same, regardless of gender or race; everyone is equal…

However, it is somewhat contradictory; deep down, I hope women have a place in this industry. I once saw a list of "Top 25 Executives in the Cryptocurrency Industry in 2022," and unfortunately, there was not a single woman on it. I hope to have the opportunity as a Chinese female entrepreneur to strive to reach the heights of leading companies in the industry. At the same time, I encourage more women to participate in our industry and not to set limits on themselves. You can become anyone you want to be; just go for it and do your best!

Due to work, I often travel to Mexico, where there is a significant feminist movement every year. A few months ago, I witnessed a march with many women participating, and occasionally I could hear the sound of firebombs. I was puzzled as to why the feminist movement in Mexico is so extreme. Later, I learned that in the first quarter of 2020 alone, nearly a thousand women died from various forms of murder in Mexico, most of whom were young women in their teens and twenties.

Artist Elina Chauvet once held an exhibition called "Red Shoes" (Zapatos Rojos) in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Every pair of red shoes on the street represents the real stories of women who have been persecuted, serving as stand-ins for hundreds of missing women in Ciudad Juárez. In Mexico, the status of women is extremely low; they are subjected to sexual abuse, beaten, and left dead in the wilderness, with the red shoes symbolizing the blood that has been shed.

These real events happening around me have deeply moved me. I must admit that opportunities in this society and industry are still much fewer for women. Although some actions in the feminist movement may be overly radical, they still hold a certain positive social significance in helping women fight for more rights in specific contexts. In the future, I hope for equality, where women need a fairer environment.

Lemon Lin
Many girls, especially young ones, may doubt themselves in the process or question whether what they are doing is meaningful.

I founded the Blockchain Club at Zhejiang University before graduating, officially stepping into the blockchain industry as the first president and founder. The startup team I collaborated with back then has now developed significant influence globally. This gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I am determined to pursue long-termism in the industry.

An Unconventional Life from Curator to Blockchain Association President

I studied Japanese in college, pursued a master's in historical curation, and minored in the management enhancement program at Zhejiang University's Zhuke Zhen College. My studies were quite diverse, with a background in the humanities.

I am a somewhat contradictory person. With a Capricorn rising and a Cancer sun sign, I seek stability while also pursuing career ambitions. I find a sense of self-consistency in change, seeking stability in fluidity.

In 2017, before I graduated, I founded the Blockchain Club at Zhejiang University, officially stepping into the blockchain industry as its first president and founder. The main reason for entering this industry was the influence of many outstanding seniors from Zhejiang University, who led me into the blockchain track.

At that time, the market was quite favorable; our first recruitment and first event attracted a large number of people. We also attracted well-known consortium blockchain partners founded by Zhejiang University alumni, such as Yunsiang, QuChain, and MiYuan, which are now excellent companies in the compliant consortium blockchain field. I collaborated with them from the beginning at school, watching them grow from zero to unicorn companies.

Some of our notable clients included Bybit, BitMart, JiaNengYunZhi, BiXin, Nervos, etc. Many of them were still startup teams when we first collaborated, and now they have significant global influence. This gives me a great sense of accomplishment.

In addition, I organized many activities at school, maintaining a core team of 30-40 developers each year, regularly organizing technical sharing sessions for our members and students every Thursday. I also organized blockchain events and hackathons, which I still do today.

In 2018, due to the success of the club's activities, I organized the BTCU (China University Blockchain Technology Alliance). I was one of the core founders, and through this organization, I met my current project partners. At that time, he was the founder and first president of the Tsinghua Blockchain Association. This national organization allowed me to connect with many excellent developers from Tsinghua, Peking University, Shanghai University of Science and Technology… Shanghai University of Science and Technology is a surprisingly impressive school; while it may not be as famous as the others, the quality of its developers is very high, all with backgrounds in information engineering. BTCU also includes developers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Central University of Finance and Economics, and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

The Maturity of Application Ecosystems and the Growth of Developers Complement Each Other

After graduating, I started a hackathon brand called Bitrun. I have experienced both bull and bear markets, and the public chain projects from 2018 are still ongoing. In fact, when we started this, the environment for blockchain was not very good; everyone was focused on speculating on public chain concepts. I aimed to create a hackathon to encourage students or developers to develop DApps based on public chains. However, public chains in 2018 were not user-friendly—hackathons were more about helping them debug rather than developing a usable ecosystem, which is much easier now.

At that time, it was very challenging to pursue this, so I did not persist, which is something I regret. Although the application ecosystem did not mature, developers continued to grow with the industry. If I had persisted, I could have reaped some of the industry's eventual benefits. However, the work I did in 2018 allowed me to gain some rewards when the industry matured. For example, most of the projects I invest in now and my current project partners come from that group of developers and entrepreneurs I met in 2018.

Today's results are the result of yesterday's causes. This is some of my insight from entrepreneurship.

Creating a Truly Next-Generation High-Efficiency DEX

iZUMi Finance is a venture I started in June 2021. After such a long time in the industry, I do not want to waste time on short-term projects, as they do not hold much significance. I want to do something long-term. On-chain liquidity is a continuous demand, unlike some short-term projects that need to chase dynamic changes in trends.

iZUMi Finance is a multi-chain DeFi platform providing one-stop liquidity management services. Based on transaction fees, we add project tokens and iZUMi tokens as liquidity incentives, combined with various tools and strategies we provide to help projects attract liquidity. One typical case is Bybit, which is our major client and also our largest investor. We helped Bybit migrate the liquidity of the BIT token from UniV2 to UniV3, providing higher efficiency subsidies, allowing BIT to achieve a higher TVL at a lower cost.

iZiSwap is the first decentralized exchange based on the Discretized-Liquidity-AMM model, aiming to maximize capital efficiency. In simple terms, on iZiswap, liquidity providers can offer liquidity within a specific price range, similar to UniV3, which is currently the optimal way to provide liquidity under blockchain performance constraints. Traders can set limit orders, which can help users better seize trading opportunities compared to swap forms.

We believe that the on-chain liquidity track will continue to improve. The transition from centralized exchanges to decentralized exchanges has already begun. The on-chain liquidity of decentralized exchanges, including on-chain applications and GameFi, will increasingly dominate decentralized trading scenarios. I would not want to withdraw my game tokens to a centralized exchange for sale every time; it is particularly cumbersome. On-chain trading scenarios are always a rigid and fundamental demand that will not change with market fluctuations. This is a long-term growth track worth exploring.

My personal goal is to strive to make iZUMi Finance a better brand with more users. In the long run, DEX is a foundational infrastructure for platforms. If there is a platform with more traffic, it can become a crucial part of all projects for issuing or trading on-chain, which is what we aim to do long-term. I am also currently leading the establishment of an ecological fund from 0-1 to launch higher-quality assets, invest early, and engage with some projects, with plans to expand later. We will also seek external funding to engage in more value investments or ecological investments.

Defying the Stereotypes of CMO

Women Should Confidently Showcase Their Strengths

The term CMO has been stigmatized, so in many situations, I deliberately do not refer to myself as a CMO. However, I am actually a Co-founder and CMO, as CMO is just a position.

Women have certain advantages on social media. If you are versatile or have some specialties, or if you are smart and have unique insights into the industry, these are all advantages. There is no need to feel particularly taboo or embarrassed to showcase yourself, or to think that using your strengths to attract followers is shameful. Confident individuals should not worry or be anxious.

Smart people should showcase their strengths and let them become a way to monetize, while also being careful not to let themselves be guided by stereotypes. Let everyone focus on and hear more about your actual achievements or ideas, changing their impressions of you. This is a smart approach, and there is no need to shy away from using attention-grabbing methods because you don't want people to think of you in a certain way. There is no need for that.

Some very outstanding women I know have done a lot in this industry. Song Ting is a great representative of female strength around me. She has done many activities in New York, and we have always looked out for each other while there. She is very determined, steadfast in her commitment to this industry, and very clear about her growth goals.

Many girls, especially young ones, may doubt themselves or question whether what they are doing is meaningful. Song Ting is a very determined person; she influences and inspires others, persistently spreading the message in the industry or her own track. In addition to connecting with people in Web3, she also engages with many traditional collectors, artists, traditional entrepreneurs, and individuals in technology fields, such as quantum computing, to spread the spirit of Web3 and influence a broader world. This truly exemplifies female strength—particularly self-reliant and independent!

The "2020 Global Gender Gap Report" indicates that humanity is still 99.5 years away from true gender equality, and it is estimated that it will take 257 years to achieve income equality between men and women. Cyberspace is a public construction project that evolves through our collective actions. Collective action relies on sincere and precious interactions and win-win cooperation between people, genders, minds, and souls.

Buidler DAO is committed to creating a community free from the influence of gender privilege or bias, helping everyone enter the new world of Web3 without discrimination. Web3 is a technological revolution and thought experiment that requires the presence of both women and men. This requires women to break self-discipline and also necessitates more diverse and inclusive structural changes.

Web3 is gender-neutral; on the path to being yourself, there is no need to question whether you are male or female. We hope to bravely push open the rough stones and sincerely hope that one day the world will no longer need to emphasize identity and recognition, and gender will no longer be the focus. Each individual, in seeking and reaching their own path, is inherently justified.

The future is hidden in the sparks of today; great stories are unfolding…

Written by
Jayde Zhang | WeChat: zxy09gm | Buidler DAO Researcher
Windy34 | WeChat: felix_lepus | Buidler DAO Researcher

Typesetting
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Special thanks to Rui and Coucou for their assistance with this article.