5 Things You Need to Know About Women in Finance

When it comes to finances, women’s contributions are still under-recognized—especially when it comes to those at the top. This interview with seven women from the Forbes Finance Council shows that women are powerhouses in finance, and sheds light on many issues in the industry, from challenges and opportunities when it comes to gender representation, learning, and unleashing your potential to working in finance to make a difference, forging new paths and being unapologetic in your aspirations and accomplishments.

By Forbes Councils

According to the 2017 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, “Female talent remains one of the most underutilized business resources.” In some industries, like finance, this is especially clear.

In finance, as career level rises, female representation declines. Although 46 percent of financial services employees are women, at the executive level, it’s only 15 percent.

We interviewed seven members of Forbes Finance Council who, as female finance executives, are breaking those barriers. They offered an inside look into their experiences and advice for others who want to make it to the top. Here are their insights — the five things you need to know about women in finance.

Image courtesy Forbes Finance Council members

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Bustle and Visa Kick Off Conversation About Women and Money

Bustle and Visa are harnessing the power of conversation to talk about money and women in a new—and more serious—way. The partnership, “Money is Changing,” is an initiative to promote more depth in financial discussions centered on women, eschewing the well-worn focus on things like household decision making and saving for personal items. That’s because Visa found that despite women’s numerous advances in investing, business and other areas; a stigma can remain when it comes to talking about money when it comes to raises, discussing finances with friends, and more. The initiative aims to change that through deeper conversation—sharing experiences and taking women’s experiences and insights on money seriously.

Visa researched women’s thoughts on a wide variety of financial topics—including women’s relationship to money and discussing it—and both Bustle and Visa feel that honesty and openness among women can help us reach milestones and empower one another.

Click through to read the whole report and learn more about “Money is Changing.” Women’s conversations with one another about money should be just as robust, serious, and beneficial. And starting these conversations in our own circles as well as on a larger scale, as Bustle notes, is “how we're all really going to make change happen.”

By Allison Berry

If the first half of 2018 has proven anything, it's that there's power in conversation. Especially in recent months, women have rallied together in ongoing quests to put an end to things like sexual harassment, outdated beauty standards, and gender inequality in politics, but there's one taboo surrounding women that's still very much intact — so let's talk about it.

A recent survey conducted by Visa found that even though 54 percent of millennial women will discuss their sex lives with one another, a mere 16 percent are willing to tell their friends how much money they make. Not only that, more than one in two women believe that discussing money with each other isn't valuable. While these findings are striking, they're also not totally surprising.

That's because for decades, the media has used tired clichés to approach conversations surrounding women and money. Time and time again, we've been given tips and tricks for scoring that designer bag on sale, or we're being encouraged to spend our hard-earned cash on trendy workout classes that come with a colossal price tag. And while there's a lot of positive to be said around the confidence that comes with looking and feeling your best, doesn't it feel a bit off that the discussion around women's finances has historically been so... skin-deep?

That's exactly why Bustle has joined forces with Visa to help launch the "Money Is Changing" initiative, which is all about encouraging an open and honest conversation surrounding women and money. As a worldwide leader in payments, Visa led the charge to work closely with researchers, designing a study aimed at more clearly understanding women's unfiltered thoughts around money. The overall goal of the study was to explore the topic of money in a way that hasn't been done — diving deeper than often-reported topics of spending power, decision making, and financial education. As a result, Visa has uncovered women's true feelings around the subject of money, and some of their key findings are incredibly telling.

Image credit: Han Burton/Bustle

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Women Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain: Meredith Darden

We're continuing our conversations with women leaders in blockchain and cryptocurrency. Today, we hear from Meredith Darden, a communications specialist at PIVX who is passionate about connecting with others and building communities around cutting-edge tech and finance developments and opportunities. The crypto enthusiast, educator, and mother of two from Baton Rouge, Louisiana wants women to dive in and take advantage of opportunities available with crypto that often were not possible under traditional financial systems. She discusses how she discovered the potential for investing in the crypto ecosystem and blockchain technology, some exciting new projects and collaborations that open up new prospects and possibilities, the inspiring women who are involved in the field, how to encourage more women to join, and more.

How did you first become involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency?

Like many people I know, my introduction to cryptocurrency and blockchain was somewhat happenstance. As a single mom of two young children, one day I had the realization that it was up to me to make sure I diversified financially to set us up for the best possible future. I reached out to a friend who was privy to markets and investing, and he told me about Ethereum. He was so enthusiastic and on fire about it, I almost thought he was about to pitch me a MLM scam. Instead, he encouraged me to do my own research. From there, I was absolutely hooked, and I think my friends and family thought I was going crazy for a while. Initially I viewed cryptocurrency as an investment opportunity, but my focus quickly shifted as I realized the real implications of blockchain technology.

What is your background, and what do you and your company do now in the crypto world?

Surprising as it may be, my background has not been in finance or tech. The majority of my career has been spent in real estate, property management, and multifamily housing. Prior to that, I worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters in volunteer recruitment and training. Though I’ve always been interested and informed when it comes to technology, I never imagined I would leave my career to migrate in to tech. Since doing so, I have aligned myself with a couple projects that I believe provide meaningful, real-world solutions.

Currently, I am the communications specialist for PIVX, a privacy coin with a very community-centric focus. I’m very passionate about privacy and it’s important to me to make sure people understand the value in protecting information and data. PIVX makes instant, private transactions possible and as such, I was a fan of the project long before I joined the team. You can catch me on the website, YouTube channel, and other mediums sharing information about what we have going on.

I was recently brought on as the digital marketing lead at Digipharm. I cannot share many details just yet, but Digipharm is utilizing private and public blockchain solutions to create an ecosystem that will accelerate the restructure healthcare to a value based approach. I’m very grateful to be involved, and I am bursting at the seams to share with everyone what we have in the works!

What do you think are some of the most interesting developments in blockchain, and what do you think are some opportunities for development or things to watch today?

I am a cryptocurrency enthusiast, so I’ve always got my eyes on a whitepaper. There are quite a few projects out there that are making major move, but I won’t get too wild here.

One of my all-time favorite projects is Kyber Network, a decentralized exchange that will support cross-chain transactions. They’ve made many noteworthy partnerships over the last few months, and they offer numerous solutions outside of the cryptocurrency exchange that will benefit crypto as a whole. Another one of my favorites is Bloom, a company that aims to create a secure and fair global credit scoring model. They’ve partnered with district0x to create the Bloom Lending District, as well as several other cryptocurrency lenders with the goal of helping those who are unbanked have more access to fair lending.

My list could go on and on, but Kyber and Bloom are constantly backing up their words with action, so that’s an A-plus in my book.

The number women in cryptocurrency is still quite small, and it lies at the intersection of finance and technology—two areas in which women are still underrepresented. Is there an opportunity for women to get into this industry in ways that they haven’t in the past in these areas? Is there still work to be done to get more women involved, and if so, what?

Right now, one of the most beautiful things about the cryptocurrency space for me is the intelligent, inspired, driven women I’ve encountered. Many of us come from various backgrounds and work on projects that differ vastly, but it’s incredible to witness and experience the synergy despite the differences. Its seems like everywhere I turn, I am being supported and uplifted by ladies who have the same goals I do. I moderate Crypto Coin Trader Women’s Group, and we are nearly 4,000 women strong! I think that is a powerful indicator that women are feeling less afraid to not only invest in cryptocurrency, but to become more involved and have a voice. While there is not a huge presence of women, it’s growing every day. The best way to get more women involved is to make sure they feel welcomed and included. A few kind words can go a long way.

Is it an equal playing field? Do women have access to the same opportunities and information, and how can they best make their mark in this industry?

Through my own experience and conversations with other women, I don’t believe the playing field is equal. It’s no secret that women have many obstacles and uncomfortable situations to face in fields that are dominated by highly successful males. I have had several disconcerting experiences as a woman in crypto, but ultimately, they fuel me. It often feels like I have nothing and everything to prove all at the same time. I recently read an amazing piece on Kavita Gupta that encouraged women to “push back,” or to essentially draw a line in the sand and stick to it. That really resonated with me.

I find that the best way to make a mark in the industry is to be unwaveringly, joyfully, you. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are saying or doing isn’t important, or that you are less than because you’re a woman. Take time to foster connections with other women, and seek them first for professional advice and assistance. We are stronger together!

Women Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain: Yasmeen Drummond

By Kimberly Hosey

In this new series, we're talking to leading women in the expanding industry of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Today we hear from Yasmeen Drummond: a passionate investor, blockchain advocate and educator, public health expert, and scientist from California who hopes to see both women and the blockchain industry benefit from women gaining the confidence, knowledge, and opportunities to become involved in this burgeoning field. She's been to The North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in just the past few weeks, in addition to working to bring together inspiring and amazing women from around the world to help one another succeed in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

How did you first become involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency?

Back in 2012 a friend told me about how he was mining bitcoin and asked if I wanted some bitcoin instead of cash for his portion of the rent. Then I pretty much forgot about crypto for a while until 2014 when I heard about Ethereum. In the beginning of 2017 I finally bought some!

What is your background, and what do you do now in the crypto world?

I’ve always been a social butterfly and a nerd and this combination seems to be super killer in blockchain. I tend to gravitate towards smart, passionate people. We have enjoyable intellectual conversations, usually centered about crypto, and then we find ways to help elevate each other.

I studied global public health and immunology at UC Berkeley, where I focused on surveillance epidemiology. I taught human sexuality and introduction to public health. I worked in government healthcare research for a while, then big pharma. We did anti bioterrorism research, manufactured a rare anti-toxin for infants, and conducted clinical trials. I got into tech in 2014 to assess healthcare solutions by looking at companies using machine learning or computer vision. I decided to become a VR content creator and looked at companies working on pain management and stress reduction through VR. Most of these were still very early and so I pivoted to blockchain because there was major stuff happening there and it was really exciting. I went back to get my MBA, finished in 2017 and founded Halo VC, a syndicate on AngelList that looks at startups including healthcare, blockchain and ICOs, and frontier technology.

Now I invest in quality ICOs and I create partnerships with ICOs to empower women. We do this by trying to secure allocations for women accredited investors through a women-led syndicate I started at the beginning of 2018. We do our own due diligence and are proofs of the community we have built so far of powerful, smart, and resourceful women. So far we have some amazing partnerships! Certain men in the space have been incredibly supportive in terms of cooperating on ways to bring more women into the space.

What do you think are some of the most interesting developments in blockchain, and what do you think are some opportunities for development or things to watch today?

Ethereum has been a major player in the space. Some of the coolest projects have been built upon it and so many ICOs are using an ERC20 token to launch their business ideas. The ability to write and execute smart contracts has been one of the coolest developments I know of—it’s what makes Ethereum so much more interesting than Bitcoin. Decentralized exchanges are also awesome. 0x is a great project that is building that out.

In terms of what to watch for, I think we are all waiting for a great stable coin. That will be a game changer.

There are also some ICOs in particular who have expressed a commitment to value gender inclusion and the desire to empower women; including Pryze, Refereum, Monero, and Bloom.

The number women in cryptocurrency is still quite small, and it lies at the intersection of finance and technology—two areas in which women are still underrepresented. Is there an opportunity for women to get into this industry in ways that they haven’t in the past in these areas? Is there still work to be done to get more women involved, and if so, what?

I love this question! I recently attended the Bitcoin Miami Conference and the sea of men is quite overwhelming. I keep telling people, next year I want it to be a sea of women! If any woman wants to contact me directly I would be happy to add her to Women in Blockchain and Team Block Society; organizations I have founded to bring women together to network, learn, and most importantly to co-invest. The main way women can get into this industry in ways they haven’t before is by becoming accredited investors and then getting into high quality ICOs early. This whole industry is a boys’ club—but the positive thing is that it’s a boys’ club very open and enthusiastic about smart women joining, so it’s important to network and meet the kind people who are of the abundance mindset. They will help you and be happy about it. Also, learn to practice this yourself. If there are women in your network, try not to see them as competition and instead figure out how your niches are different enough to help each other! There is room for every hardworking woman in the space.

Many of the successful founders in blockchain and crypto that I know started coding in their tweens. It would be great if all teenage girls had access to computers, internet, and a network of supportive people.

Another thing that would help young women to succeed in the space is to educate them on already existing blockchain and crypto platforms they can use to become financially independent. Augur, for example is a blockchain company that is creating a predictions platform. People will be able to log in, create markets, and make bets. Right now it’s in beta and users can go in and test it out with practice tokens. If we can get a bunch of young women learning how to use this system, they can be making real money on it within a couple of years. Learning how to make money online can give young women financial independence so they have more choices in life and can start their own companies if they choose to. At these conferences, I only meet about one female blockchain entrepreneur per every few hundred male blockchain founders.

Is it an equal playing field? Do women have access to the same opportunities and information, and how can they best make their mark in this industry?

I think if women help each other, read a bunch, and stay diligent; we can have the same opportunities as men. But we can’t wait for someone to put it in our lap and we have to be brave and face situations that might be uncomfortable. The best way for women to make our mark in this industry is by capitalizing on our skills. If you’re a badass marketing woman, find a powerful woman CTO (chief technology officer) and work together. We bring ourselves up by bringing ourselves together.

Contact Yasmeen Drummond at cryptoprincess@outlook.com, or find her on LinkedIn.

All the reasons women can be the future of cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency and blockchain—an industry at the intersection of finance and technology—has seen relatively few women get involved, despite growing interest in recent years. Unfortunately, even when women are involved, they can often face more challenges than their male colleagues. However, there are promising opportunities, and a lot of potential. Click through to read about women forming groups around bitcoin and cryptocurrency; the potential for blockchain technology to help solve problems and provide financial opportunities for women; and how, despite the low numbers of women currently in blockchain and crypto, the field could be "a way to circumvent that old boy’s club" of raising capital.

The future (of cryptocurrency) is female.

After Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 in value last week, much of the discourse revolved around whether there was a bubble around the most famous form of cryptocurrency. And little wonder: someone who held one bitcoin on December 31, 2016 would have seen their asset’s value climb nearly 11 times as of late Friday.

The majority of the (admittedly volatile) gains realized by bitcoin and crypto cousins like Ethereum this year however, have gone straight into the pockets of men. Estimates of the number of women investors and users of cryptocurrency vary, but most peg female participation at between 1% to 5%. “It’s tied to the larger issue of there being few women in tech and finance generally. Given that cryptocurrency sits at the intersection, this is exacerbated,” Angela Walch, a law professor and Research Fellow at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London, tells Moneyish.

Cryptocurrency is a digital alternative medium of exchange created, secured and transmitted via blockchain technology, which links and records transactions via cryptography. It is created, or “mined,” by computers. Bitcoin, its most famous iteration, has decidedly masculine roots. It was created by anonymously using a male Japanese moniker and its earliest cheerleaders were male P.C. gamers and libertarian members of the cyberpunk communities who liked that it isn’t controlled by a governmental central bank.

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Women In Cryptocurrency and How to Engage Them More

Ivy Riane at Medium.com examines the lack of women—in cryptocurrency and in finance in general—and makes the case that the newness of the crypto space presents an opportunity for women to become established as equal players in the industry.

Click through to learn about how assumptions about women's abilities keep the from entering tech and finances spaces, women's difficulties getting into industries and spaces not traditionally "meant" for them, how the future of the crypto world will benefit from the involvement of more women, and how cryptocurrency is another example of benefiting the global economy as they empower themselves. The article also provides tips for women to participate and become more involved in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

By Ivy Riane

I am part of quite a few cryptocurrency and business groups on Facebook and a common topic that I see being discussed lately is the apparent lack of women in the cryptocurrency space.

According to the recent numbers:

· Facebook engagement in groups about cryptocurrency is about 9% female

· Twitter engagement of women about cryptocurrency is about 4%

These are not my numbers but I was shocked when I saw them!

One Woman Looking to Change Things

I recently started following Laura Shin on Twitter and I am quite impressed by how she is working to change the perception of cryptocurrency and of women in the space. She is a Senior Editor at Forbes and hosts the Unchained Podcast.

According to an article that I read, she has been in the space for three years and got her start working full time for Forbes when they started their Forbes FinTech 50 initiative in 2015.

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Women and Cryptocurrency: How Steemit Can Attract Women to the Crypto World

The social media platform Steemit reflects on how the company can bring more women to the growing industry of blockchain and cryptocurrency. A conversation prompted by a post by a Steemit blogger highlighting the under-representation of women in cryptocurrency led to a discussion encompassing the influences of assumption and social pressure on who joins the crypto world, financial hurdles that disproportionately affect women, and some leading female voices and communities in the field.

Read below and click through to learn more about the advantages women can bring to the industry, the role of blogging and social media, and how socially focused companies and initiatives like Steemit are positioned to help promote women in this dynamic industry.

A few day ago, @gavvet shared a post about some interesting demographic data about Steemit that showed how male presence is still highly dominant on Steemit. I wasn't surprised. When I first started my journey on Steemit and learning more about the crypto world I knew I was getting into a male territory since, similarly to other tech-powered communities, anything related to cryptocurrency is still predominantly male.

The reason to that can be attributed to the social mindset that lean some fields to the male or female side. Men get interested in the crypto world because other men are starting to invest on it. Women don't because it's not an area they feel women should step their feet into. In addition, the lack of women in the crypto world is due to the fact that in many places, like Brazil and India, a big part of women are still not financially independent and still rely on the males of their family for money-related decision making.

The Female Representation on the Cryptocurrency World

Although women, in general, haven't been attracted to cryptocurrency subjects, there are some important names representing the gender, such as Michele Seven. Known as Bitcoin Belle, she participates in discussions and podcasts about the future of Bitcoin and together with Pua Pyland, the author of the blog The Bitcoin Wife hosts a chat where 130 women from all around the world discuss cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

The forum led to the creation of the London Women in Bitcoin meetups, organized by Rhian Lewis - a digital journalist at thetimes.co.uk, co-developer of CountMyCrypto, a cryptocurrency calculator, and altcoin monitor - and Magdalena, also known as Bitcoin Mama.

The advantage of these meetups comparing to any other similar to them are that women feel more comfortable to participate and learn since general crypto meetups are regularly perceived as directed towards men. Where women perhaps would never have courage or the desire to participate in discussions with men whom they would perceive as being intimidatingly knowledgeable to address beginner questions. So it's important to remark that the question of the inclusion of women in the crypto community is directly related to how its promoters address the wider community.

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Women in Blockchain: Shroog Al Saquabi @ IBM

Digital Currency Group sits down with Shroog Al Saquabi, a senior digital consultant and blockchain champion at IBM, to discuss the wide-ranging and sometimes complicated world of blockchain. She talks about learning about blockchain from the ground up, the power and transformative potential of blockchain technology, and how the complexity behind the industry and technology poses some of the biggest challenges in terms of education—but also presents some amazing opportunities. Click through to read all of her insights.

By Meltem Demirors

Shroog Al Saqaubi is a Senior Digital Consultant and Blockchain Champion at IBM. She’s spent the last 5 years in IT industry, and has been focused on blockchain technology for nearly a year.

How did you first get introduced to the idea of blockchain technology?

I got introduced to Blockchain late 2015, I had heard the hype about this mysterious technology and I didn’t understand exactly what all the hype was about.

Early in 2016, I had a discussion with one of our IBM Middle East and Africa blockchain experts about what blockchain technology is and how it works. The first thing I understood was “it’s like a linked list data structure built on top of distributed database” and he gave me an example about how we can use it to track the provenance of luxury goods.

Then in Aug 2016, there were business and technical training courses held by IBM in Dubai, which were the first of its kind in the region as it was going very deep into the technology and included a day focused just on the writing of smart contracts. I was lucky enough to get a chance to attend them. These courses made things much clearer and understandable, but for some reason, I wasn’t convinced enough that we don’t have yet a technology that can provide the same solution and I started comparing it with some existing technologies. Since then, I’ve dedicated a lot of time learning about this technology and I’ve worked hard to understand it more and more and to differentiate it from existing technologies. Blockchain encompasses a broad category of technologies, every day I find myself discovering something new that makes me believe more that it has a critical role to play in the future of the business world. However, I have to remind myself we are still in its early stages.

At the beginning of 2017, I was appointed as IBM’s Blockchain Champion for Saudi Arabia, and have started teaching the local team about blockchain as well as engaging with IBM clients to help them understand how blockchain can transform their businesses.

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Women in Bitcoin and Blockchain Tech — An Opportunity

Digital Currency Group's Meltem Demirors discusses women's role in the budding industry of blockchain. She notes that women make up a minority of participants in blockchain and cryptocurrency—but many see room for growth. Opportunities abound for mentorship, education, and other ways to encourage and support more women in the growing and rich field, providing what Demirors calls "a tremendous opportunity."

Click through to read more about women's prospects in bitcoin and blockchain, current statistics and the environment and demographic makeup in cryptocurrency today, some of the women who are already standing out in the field, and more.

By Meltem Demirors

When I first started my journey down the bitcoin rabbit hole, I never expected to be surrounded by so many women. People always seem surprised that there are a lot of women who work on various problems — whether technical, academic, commercial, regulatory, or PR — in both bitcoin and blockchain technology.

It’s been fantastic to be surrounded by such a supportive group of powerful, highly intelligent women who are tackling some of the most challenging problems the budding bitcoin and blockchain technology community will face over the coming decades. One of the things that I’ve been excited about working on is more efforts to get diversity into the spotlight — it’s still very much a man’s world, and the stats reveal some exciting opportunities for our community.

Important caveat: This post is not intended to be critical, but constructive so I hope it comes across that way. Feel free to leave critiques in the comments or send me a note at meltem at dcg dot co if you want to provide feedback or talk offline.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Just looking at the DCG portfolio of companies we’ve invested in over the last 3 years, here’s what I found (full disclosure — using mostly publicly available information from company websites, CrunchBase, LinkedIn, etc. so numbers are intended to be directional, not absolute)

• Our 67 portfolio companies collectively employ 944 people (amazing!). Of those, 163 are women. That’s 17% which is on the low end for tech, but it is much higher than I anticipated. The geometric average (mean) per company was 12%.
• 23 of our 67 companies, or over one third, employ no women at all. None of these companies have over 10 employees. This suggests women are typically not involved in the early stages of company building, which may be because:
• The most common role for women is (in order) Executive Assistant, Office Manager, PR / Marketing / Communications, Regulatory / Compliance, Finance
• There were only 4 female engineers in my sample set. Overall, there are probably about a dozen female engineers in the entire space.
• The company with the highest ratio of women employed 50% women, and it was one of only a handful of companies that employed non-white females. The second highest employed 46%. The next was below 30%.

What I see from looking at these numbers is a tremendous opportunity. We can build the community we want if we all work together to address issues at all stages of the funnel. I would love to bring together all of the leaders in the bitcoin community and identify how we can all become more aware, more proactive, and more pragmatic in building a rich, diverse community of stakeholders.

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Women in Blockchain: Carolyn Reckhow at ConsenSys

We've been following the series from Digital Currency Group highlighting women in Blockchain, and were inspired by this interview with Carolyn Reckhow, director of operations at ConsenSys. Reckhow discusses what interests and compels her about cryptocurrency, the applications and potential of Blockchain, her role at ConsenSys and what it means to be part of a burgeoning industry, her company's focus on consumer applications in the Blockchain industry, and more. Read an excerpt below, and click through to read more.

Connect with Reckhow on LinkedIn.

By Meltem Demirors

When did you get into bitcoin?

I never got into Bitcoin, though I followed it a bit on Reddit in 2011. What really captured my interest was the advent of Ethereum, in particular the way that it was presented to me from peers in law and social science academia — as a paradigm shifting technology with incredible social, economic, and political implications. I was getting a graduate degree in Boston in winter 2014/15 when I was introduced to some folks that quickly became friends. They were a melange of people working/studying at Harvard Law and the MIT Media Lab and had all been brought together by their interest in smart contracts and Ethereum. We formed an informal working group we called a “salon” where we gathered weekly and nerded out about DAOs, smart contracts, the sharing economy, and a variety of blockchain use cases. Primavera de Filippi (one of the salon members) invited me to attend the first COALA blockchain workshop in March 2015. I flew out to Palo Alto where I joined a hackathon team with two members of ConsenSys. We won the hackathon with Fabriq, a identity and reputation management app for communities built on Ethereum. Not long after working with the Fabriq team to launch a prototype in May 2015, I officially joined the ConsenSys team.

What did you do before you got into this?

I was in academia, specifically social sciences. Long before this I worked as a therapist/social worker….and I still definitely practice as a “therapist” everyday running Ops for ConsenSys.

What’s been the most interesting experience you’ve had in your role so far?

Just being a part of the “blockchain 2.0”/Ethereum industry as it has grown from a research project into helping Fortune 500 companies build production blockchain applications. That’s been exciting beyond belief.

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Treasury Picks Tubman for $20 Bill, Hamilton to Stay on $10

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Wednesday that Harriet Tubman, a former slave who escorted hundreds of other slaves to freedom, will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. It's an encouraging step in a movement that gained traction with Women on 20s, a nonprofit advocating for redesigning U.S. currency to include women on the $20 bill. You can read their reaction to the Treasury's announcement on their site. 

Symbols matter, and we're thrilled to see Tubman--a fierce champion of racial and gender equality--on the $20 bill, as well as the movement for women's suffrage in the United States on the $10 bill.

bloomberg.com - Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will appear on front of the $20 bill, replacing former President Andrew Jackson and becoming the first woman featured on U.S. paper currency in modern times, a Treasury official said, in a design overhaul that will leave Alexander Hamilton on the $10 note.

The decision is the latest chapter in a 10-month-old controversy that erupted after Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew tried to address gender imbalance on U.S. currency notes. He opened up the selection process to the public just as the current face on the $10 bill was enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and outrage ensued.

The move Lew is announcing Wednesday is intended as a way to thread the needle between women’s groups who have been advocating for gender diversity on U.S. currency and fans of Hamilton, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, the playwright and star of the hit Broadway musical about the nation’s first Treasury secretary. Miranda lobbied Lew to keep Hamilton on the $10 when he visited Washington last month.

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What Millennials Know About Money and Work

We certainly don't want to replace one set of stereotypes with another, but there's no denying that people from different generations tend to see the world and plan their lives differently. Far from the entitled slackers they're sometimes made out to be, many millennials make smart decisions about their lives and finances--choices that many others could learn from. Read an excerpt below, and click through to learn more about lessons millennial men and women have to offer.

aarp.org - As stereotypes go, slacker millennials living with their parents—depleting the fridge and glomming off others—just may have to be rethought. Truth is, when it comes to managing their financial lives, those in the generation born between 1982 and 2000, now some 83 million strong, are making smart, somewhat surprising choices. Older generations can pick up several pointers from today’s 20- and young 30-somethings

Save more money.

Some 40 percent of millennials bumped up their 401(k) contributions in the past year, nearly twice the percentage as that of boomers, according to research from T. Rowe Price. More millennials, the study showed, stick to a budget, too

The Takeaway: Folks over 50 can use both 401(k) and IRA catch-up contributions to do likewise.

Debit trumps credit.

Nearly two-thirds of 18- to 29-year-olds don’t have a single credit card, Bankrate research found. That compares with just one-third of those 30 or older. The reason is twofold, says millennial Jason Dorsey, chief strategy officer at the Center for Generational Kinetics. Millennials entered the credit space when the market was really tight and debit was all that was available to them. But, he adds, they also “realize credit is a really fast way to get in trouble.”

The Takeaway: If you feel as if you overuse your credit cards—if your balance is going up every month or if you’re using one card to pay off another—make like a millennial, and take them out of your wallet. Don’t cancel them altogether, however; that’ll ding your credit score.

Read the rest here.