Web3 needs use cases, story tellers and more women
As Web3 and GenAI converge, women's input is vital
As we approach International Women's Day 2024, two high-profile Web3 leaders share their thoughts on the convergence of Web3 and GenAI, the factors holding back greater adoption and why Web3 needs women if it’s going to fulfil its potential
Web3, the group of decentralised technologies built on blockchain, cryptography and decentralised protocols, could already have created a more equitable iteration of the internet. But one question looms large: If Web3 offers an alternative to just handing over every detail of our lives to further enrich a handful of Big Tech billionaires, why have consumers, so far, been so unenthused?
In addition to the impenetrable jargon of Web3 (particularly in cryptocurrency,) regulatory uncertainty hasn't helped, and neither did the high-speed car crash that was FTX. However, the biggest obstacle is that Web3 presents as a complex solution to a problem that consumers don't think they have.
"It's a very complex technology so many people still do not see the point if they're not in that space," says Alizee Carli, Director of Strategy & Ecosystem Development at The Casper Association, founder of the Casper blockchain.
"It was the same for GenAI until Chat-GPT and we need that easy, user friendly solution or application. For blockchain to be useful, you need to stay in control of your data. You cannot just expect to put in an email address and off you go. The essence of the technology makes it less user friendly than the current model."
"GenAI had its iPhone moment with Open AI and Chat GPT. Blockchain hasn't yet had that moment, but the technology is maturing, there's so much building going on and I'm hopeful that there will be a clear iPhone moment that will change everything for blockchain."
If Web3 is to go mainstream, it needs to be more accessible, it needs use cases and it needs storytellers.
Perhaps coincidentally, it also needs women. There appear to be fewer women involved in Web3 development than other areas of tech. A study published last year found that only 13% of Web3 projects involve women in their founding teams. Another report by Deloitte indicates that only 7% of blockchain workers are female.
As we approach International Womens Day it seems an opportune moment to ask why Web3 has attracted so few women, consider the implications and discuss how we can make the next iteration of the internet more inclusive and more equitable than that which preceded it.
One of the implications of female exclusion will be in the size of markets for goods and services developed, as Carli points out:
"Women don't just make up half of the population, they typically control household economies in many geographies. If you don't have their needs in mind when you're developing products and offerings then you're cutting yourself off from a very big pool of users."
The permissionless nature of blockchain could have an enormously beneficial impact on women, along with any populations that have been cut off from more traditional finance opportunities. Web3 presents an enticing opportunity to reshape the patriarchal infrastructure, tools and language of global finance. Carli explains further:
"Blockchain means you don't need permission from a bank or a credit score to engage in financial activity. If you want to borrow money in the real world, you need a credit score or some sort of deposit. In DeFi (Decentralised Finance) you don't need that. It's much more anonymous and open to anybody. That's also why it's riskier.
"You have a technology that makes finance more accessible and more affordable. You're creating new markets that are reaching populations that didn't have access before. It benefits women because although women often have household economic power, they may not be as financially educated as men, and I think DeFi and Web3 has a role to play there."
Web3 and GenAI are converging
Sandy Carter, COO, Unstoppable Domains and founder of Unstoppable Women of Web3 & AI (of which more later) shares Carli's enthusiasm for the potential of blockchain and other Web3 technologies. Indeed, she left her role as a Vice-President at AWS to pursue them further. Carter makes a persuasive case that the convergence of Web3 and AI technologies will power the adoption and development of both, and shares some real-world applications.
"I've just delivered a keynote at an AI conference for 300 CEOs," she says.
"The number one concern that the CEOs had were AI generated deepfakes. Blockchain can provide trust verification, with digital identities to validate that a quote or a video or an image is real. If someone is quoted in an article you could have a checkmark that verifies that the quote is genuine and that the image accompanying it is a genuine image of the person quoted.
"If you're looking for more business-oriented use cases I know of a company where blockchain tracks the journey of farm-to-table food and AI analyses the data to improve supply chain decision making. I saw a healthcare start-up recently which was focused on telemedicine. They had AI-driven bots to assist patients and the sensitive medical data exchanges were all on blockchain."
Carli and Carter are in lockstep on the power inherent in the convergence of GenAI and blockchain. They also agree on the governance and authentication use cases.
"For me, the key use cases are in governance," Carli says. "Blockchain is really great at authentication. You can authenticate data ownership and how it was used to train models so you can acknowledge the people that own the data.
"There's also versioning. The traceability that is enabled by blockchain, you can use this with GenAI. These models can be prone to hallucinate after some time, especially if they have been trained on smaller datasets. With blockchain you can trace and authenticate all the different versions of your data models so you can do roll backs."
Casper Labs and IBM recently announced a partnership for just this sort of use case.
Why are there so few women in Web3?
According to Carter, there are three big issues.
"The first is that women don't understand what Web3 and blockchain are. And frankly, right now, what AI is. If they don't understand it, they won't take jobs with it. So the first thing we need to do is educate. If you go to our site, you'll see classes on what Web3 is in multiple languages suitable for all ages. You'll see what digital identity is, what is blockchain and so on."
The educational efforts of Unstoppable WoW3 also aims to counter the tendency of women to rule themselves out of applying for jobs with lots of technical skills listed, as Carter explains:
"The way companies recruit for a new technology is to ask for some understanding of that technology, so my aim is to educate women to that level."
The second issue Carter raises is the circular one of women being put off careers in Web3 because there aren't enough women there already.
"We started doing these lists of inspirational women in Web3, because I wanted conferences to see these women and ask them to come and speak as experts in their field. I wanted to showcase these women and their work to inspire others. Last year, we started inspirational girls of Web3 so you'll see 50 girls up there too.
"Unstoppable WoW3 also provides support networks. We do in person events and online events so women can get to know each other, support each other and form those little tribes as well."
This Friday, on IWD, Unstoppable WoW3 is distributing free online courses and running a Twitter space with some women of Web3, along with other activities. The event will feature a collaboration with 15 companies and groups supporting women.
This celebration highlights the extraordinary number of organisations which have arisen to support women in Web3. Carli explains how Casper also supports these groups:
"Organisations like Women of Web3 and Crypto Girls Club organise events like hackathons and develop technical female talents. At Casper specifically, we will always try to interview a range of people for every role and we are close to these organisations and we attend and support a lot of these local events.
"We also monitor metrics across ESG and diversity which includes gender. After that is culture. We refrain from ‘bro culture' and make efforts to give the stage to more women, support them, sponsor them, show them opportunities. I sometimes take some of my female colleagues to large events, because it gives them exposure and helps them broaden their network."
Carli also thinks that Web3 start-ups should look to the likes of McKinsey for policies in maternity and paternity leave if they are to retain diverse talent as they scale.