Tongtong Gong, COO of crypto analytics firm Amberdata, shared what it feels like to be a woman in tech and why she chose to become a programmer.

“I moved to the U.S. and when I moved I didn’t really speak English that well so when I was in college you needed to pick a degree,” she said. “I was so intimidated by English that I asked my advisor which major should I choose so I didn’t have to write papers and he said computer science.”

Gong became a technologist and, during the growth of crypto, she turned down BCC’s Bobby Lee when he asked her to help him run the exchange. She said she didn’t join the crypto ecosystem until she found out about ethereum and now her company is expanding into multiple currencies.

What’s the key thing she believes that a blockchain developer needs? “Intellectual curiosity,” she said. “First of all, I don’t believe you can be a good developer without the intellectual curiosity and in the blockchain space that’s especially important.”

In this interview with Christine Kim, Gong shares her experience as a woman in crypto and what it takes to build an inclusive and supportive ecosystem.