An open invitation for women to join the Web3 movement

There’s no denying the current narrative about Web3: 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 entire promise and growth of Web3.

Web3 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.

My introduction to crypto came early: It was 2013, and I’d been invited to a small get-together at SXSW in Austin to debate tech and trends — specifically, Bitcoin (BTC). I was the only woman in that group. Many of us knew nothing about Bitcoin, but over the course of the evening, we were invited to get educated. At the time, Bitcoin was trading for $35. Some of us invested that night, others a few weeks later. I waited until the end of the year and bought into the movement at $841 a coin. That decision to jump in has shaped my life considerably. Today, Bitcoin is trading at around $40,000 a coin.

I’ve thought back many times of being in that room in Austin, grateful I was part of those early conversations. But, I’m also a true believer that the conversation is only just beginning. It’s not too late to consider investing in this burgeoning industry.

“Web3 becomes more welcoming when speculation takes a backseat to participation,” Julian Weisser, a core member of ConstitutionDAO, recently told me. He added:

“When people feel like owners instead of speculators or flippers, they will have a deeper connection to a project. We need more Web3 initiatives that will appeal to humanity’s infinitely-wide range of interests.”

Web3 can (and should) upend years of economic inequality

It’s important to understand some of the reasons why crypto has received the “boys club” reputation so we can smash it. At its core, I believe that because crypto was billed as a risky investment at the start. Women, who are naturally more risk averse, shielded away from the initial wave.

Today, the gap between men and women in crypto aligns with the legacy of traditional investment verticals skewing toward men. While 40% of men own individual stocks, just 24% of women do, based on a survey conducted by CNBC and Acorns. Likewise, three-quarters of crypto holders are men, which means many women are missing out on a total market that has an estimated value of $2 trillion, according to a 2021 State of U.S. Crypto report by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

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. While it may be increasingly difficult to combat inequality in generational wealth that was accumulated through traditional investment means, Web3 is a blank slate. Why fall into the old patterns when looking at a new frontier? The great promise of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) was their ability to flip the script on Wall Street. Let’s use it to flip the script for women’s financial future, too.

Making Web3 an everyone club

So, how do we move the needle today to make Web3 an everyone club?

Well, part of the hurdle is the barrier to entry. The way people learn about Web3 is generally pretty insular — a friend tells a friend about a Discord channel to follow to learn more or they tag a pal on Twitter in an interesting thread. Since most of the early adopters of the movement were men, it followed that they recruited their male friends to get involved, too. Simply reaching deeper into your network is the most effective way to get more women involved.

I was lucky enough to have an advocate, Gary Vaynerchuck, invite…