The number of enthusiast of cryptocurrency idea is growing year by year. Among them, there is a significant amount of women, who are essential members of this community.

As Kathleen Breitman has said at Crypto Summit 2018 in Zurich, “It’s really easy to be one of the leading women in the cryptocurrency cause there’s about a dozen of us”. But the number of them is growing year by year, what proves that the cryptocurrency industry is open for women and their perspective is much needed for further development.

Their history is varied, but they have one thing in common – all of them saw an opportunity in blockchain, and they weren’t afraid to take it. We present some of these stories, which are only a small part of the overall input which women have in the cryptocurrency industry.

Kathleen Breitman

A co-founder and CEO of Tezos is an excellent example of a woman who stands behind the success of a man. The whole idea of blockchain, which aims to create a community where the voice of every its member matters, came from her husband, Arthur Breitman. But she is the one who is responsible for developing most of the project protocol and overall shape. And to do so, she sacrificed her well-paid job.

Unfortunately for her, Tezos have to face with later lawsuits resulting from ICO issues and the conflic t with the president of Tezos Foundation, responsible for raising money and spending it. Nevertheless, Breitman’s example shows that blockchain industry might be a place for dreamers, who are ready to risk their stable position to achieve fulfillment – even if it is not always a path paved with roses.

Catheryne Nicholson

Catheryne Nicholson is truly a woman of many talents. She is a registered mechanical engineer who started her career in the U.S. Navy. She worked in various institutions, like Siebel Systems or Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Eventually, she co-founded BlockCypher, where she still occupies a position of CEO.

This company provides much-needed blockchain web services, allows its clients to build blockchain applications in their firms easily. In her work, Nicholson uses her experience both as an engineer and entrepreneur to guide properly those processes, which are themselves an essential contribution to global blockchain adoption.

Neha Narula

Former software engineer in Google, Neha Narula is now the director of the Digital Currency Initiative. This project has been launched by MIT Media Lab – an antidisciplinary institution, which aims to conduct research not restricted to “classical” academic disciplines. And yes, blockchain and cryptocurrencies fit this definition very well.

As a coordinator of it, she leads a team of various highly qualified people whose primary goals are to provide proper research in terms of blockchain and digital currencies. This more academic approach to the subject of cryptocurrencies is, without a doubt, valuable input to the overall development of this industry.

Amber Baldet

Her history with cryptocurrencies is especially fascinating, cause it starts far away from this industry – in the bank. And to be more specific, in J.P. Morgan. This company is widely known in the cryptocurrency industry thanks to its newly developed coin (here you can read our article about it), and Amber Baldet is one of the people who stands behind this invention.

In J.P. Morgan she led Blockchain Center of Excellence. Her open-minded approach to the new technology was crucial in creating a blockchain environment in the institution, which was, by definition, highly skeptical about cryptocurrencies. And now, after leaving the bank, she launched her own company, Clovyr, and aims for further blockchain research.

Mai Fujimoto

We are all aware of how important is popularizing the idea of cryptocurrency. People who undertake that not easy task are a crucial part of this industry. Mai Fujimoto is one of them. As the founder and CEO of Gracone Inc, a blockchain consultancy company, she takes efforts to educate society about the idea of this technology and help in its development in Japan.

The beginning of her adventure with Bitcoin is in itself a fascinating story. She planned to create a global donation platform connected with her previous job – but she encountered a problem with the expensiveness of worldwide fiat currencies transfers. Fujimoto realized back then how powerful cryptocurrencies might be – and now she is trying to encourage others to this idea, too.

Joyce Kim

Coming from a Korean-American family, Joyce Kim dreams about facilitating money transfer around the world without any restriction. That idea took her to Stellar, which she co-founded and became its executive director.

She has noticed that even though we’re living in the Internet era, the payment system is still left behind. Most of the transactions (like interbank and international ones) usually take a disproportionate amount of time. It simply doesn’t keep up with our way of life, which is now more global and worldwide than ever. Blockchain technology is an opportunity – and Stellar is going to take it.

Elizabeth Stark

Tony Stark is not the only prominent figure in the tech industry with that last name. Though in this case, we are not talking about a fictional character, but about the CEO of Lightning Labs. She has been an enthusiast of blockchain technology since its very beginning. As an active member of the cryptocurrency community, she was aware of Bitcoin scalability problem. And she decided to do something about it.

The whole idea of Lightning is to improve the scalability and speed of transactions. It allows to make quick and cheap transactions without unnecessary fees and delays. Thanks to the versatility of this solution, it can be applied not only in the case of Bitcoin but also in the transactions involving other blockchain based cryptocurrencies. Lightning still needs further improvement, but the contribution that Elizabeth Stark made to this industry is undeniable.