It begs the question: Will capital ever be steered by morals? 

Perhaps not. Under capitalism, one is faced daily with conflicting motives: survive or adhere to one’s values. Buy groceries or give to a good cause. Face unemployment or work for a company operating in the moral grey. Not to mention the ongoing exhaustion individuals experience from the everyday shuffle from work, side hustle, kids, errands, eat, clean, sleep, repeat.

Web3 is framed as a way out. The values of democratisation, decentralisation, and transparency were set forth in the earliest white papers as the cornerstone of this movement. We want to own our money so banks can’t control us, charge us fees, or freeze our accounts. We want to own our data, aligning with the sovereign right to one’s activities and freeing one’s interactions on the web. And all of it, every last bit of it, shall be traceable on an immutable ledger where no shade can reach. 

Since its inception, the Web3 community has begged for diversity to help build a truly equitable ecosystem from the ground up. 

Yet, when Trump was reelected, even the most values-driven organisations celebrated. Women in Web3 had to put up with his praises in the workplace, at conferences, and in the chat forums pivotal to our industry. I watched as conferences that boasted about their diversity initiatives, conferences I had a close relationship to, made tone-deaf jokes about bringing Trump in as keynote. I saw post after post on Twitter celebrating Trump for his positive crypto policy (a recent development) without any reference toward his misaligned values; blog after blog featuring industry leaders doing the same. The cognitive dissonance (and general lack of awareness) is loud.

This celebration put me in an awkward position when my coworkers turned a photo of Trump signing an executive order (many of which have violated human rights) into a meme about crypto growth. I stood up for the women and minorities who would see the meme as another dismissal of Web3 values, knowing that doing so might risk my good standing in the company (and income). Thankfully, my team responded positively, and did not move forward with publishing.

My former coworker, Katreena Tecson, had this to say on the topic: 

It’s frustrating watching men in Web3 celebrate Trump just because their portfolios are up, while the rest of us are left dealing with the real consequences. I get the ick every time I see a bullish for Trump tweet while women and minorities in the U.S. fear for what his return could mean. It reminded me of a recent controversial video ad made by a blockchain project. Women spoke up, while a lot of the same men [who are] loud about Trump were loud in their silence. Men and women in Web3 cheering on Trump are also cheering the undoing of protections for equal pay and workplace harassment reporting, reduced healthcare options for women, and unwanted sexual male behaviour.

The dissonance between Web3 values and the reaction to Trump shouldn’t even exist. On the one hand, the Web3 community admonishes the 1%. On the other, the Web3 community is cheering the growth of their own wallets thanks to Trump’s policies, wholly ignoring the very real consequences of his Presidency. Crypto claims to be a community, yet those in the emerging markets that have taken crypto mainstream are silenced by his praises while many watch relatives be deported from the United States. A female founder in crypto and someone I look up to for upholding the core values of Web3, had this to say about her own experience since Trump’s election:

When I think about what is happening right now, I feel a fracturing in my mental frame of reference. I feel like I don’t know anymore what everyone is fighting for. We have been fighting for years in this industry because we believe that crypto has the hope of creating financial empowerment for populations that have been marginalized and excluded in traditional markets — particularly women across those populations. The current U.S. President is opening the log jams that have been holding us back. But at the same time, he is doing so in order to enrich himself and those loyal to him —the Wall Street elites and the financial ruling class. So the floodgates are open but the river is being diverted right before our eyes. I sit and worry if they will suck all of the value from the ecosystem for their own benefit and destroy the good that could have come from what so many of us have been building. I also sit and try to reconcile how some people can put the good of the whole above their own benefit and others seek only to benefit themselves. While I am thrilled about the shift in attitude towards crypto, I am sickened by the cost that it might have to those who could have benefited from it most.

Women make up only 27% of the crypto community. Community and collectivization, two core tenants of Web3, are critical to being seen, heard, and respected when in a minority group. As they say, there is strength in numbers. In the face of the election and the celebration of policies that would equal a positive crypto ecosystem while the same hand wrote policies against minorities, I turned to my Web3 community on Telegram. There I found I wasn’t alone feeling the growing dissonance. Though most women who replied did not want to be quoted, the need for speaking out was underscored. The bravery of one such woman speaks volumes:

As a woman, it took me more than a year to build up the courage to move freely within network events, especially in the blockchain space, since coming from another industry. I accepted the situation through seeing the bigger picture, the importance of the tech industry for societies globally, and by building bonds with many wonderful and inspiring individuals. But it is difficult to not see the newly found blunt and partly aggressive masculinity in the forefront, which completely ignores all the actors that make this industry possible and whom are not white, not cis, not male. Their rights have to be protected and their voices obviously also heard. Not just because it is [good] PR, but because it is honest to the industry, and is how we can move on in technological development.

Another woman, who asked to be only referred to as Alex, also volunteered to speak up. 

I'm not surprised to discover so many white supremacists—both latent and overt—in this industry, but still it’s been repulsive to watch their masks drop all the way off. What has surprised me is how many of them expect to evade pushback. You have to completely misunderstand the ethos and value proposition of crypto to think it’s compatible with fascism.

That is the danger that we now face: a world leader who is crypto-positive while acting the antithesis of Web3 values. Can we celebrate one while admonishing the other? Yes. But that requires a level of engagement most crypto leaders are not equipped to undertake. As I underscored in my “It’s Not Us It’s You” essay, the majority of men in Web3 claim to want diversity and female involvement — yet do little more than put docs on a website and call it ‘equity.’ 

What Trump represents will take more effort than open access. It will take a concerted movement from every member of Web3 to uphold the values set forth by its earliest founders while taking advantage of a crypto-positive window of time. Take advantage of Trump’s sudden change of heart. Don’t celebrate him.

That nuance matters to every participant in Web3 who isn’t white, who isn’t male. It matters to your hiring processes, to your user onboarding, and to your legacy. I leave off with this comment from a Woman Crypto Consultant when asked for her opinion on the matter:

I’ve consulted in crypto on and off for about five years, while my main volunteering effort is for an organization that fights to stop voter suppression. Most of the latter organization is populated by women. That gender juxtaposition came into even sharper relief when I realized that most of the men in the crypto circles that I run in were delighted by the reelection [of Trump], while the women in both crypto and activism were horrified and shocked. Even grief stricken. There seems to be an ease at which men give up the freedom of the women in their lives in exchange for more money in their pockets. It was devastating to watch the elation on men’s faces and the fear and anger on the women’s.

Lessons in Leadership

DeFi decision makers who want to uphold Web3 values and are ready to take action can start by:

  • Joining Web3 community groups centered around diversity — You don’t know what you don’t know. By joining groups like SheFi, Eve Wealth, and Crypto Girls Club, you’ll learn about initiatives you can support and how to better engage with all parts of the Web3 community. Get comfortable with discomfort; it’s what women in Web3 bear whenever joining male-dominated groups and events.
  • Reading outside your comfort zone — Books like “White Fragility,” “Tech Agnostic,” and my own “Stories of Elders” that challenge your worldview will improve the quality of your leadership and innovation. Think of challenging ideas as the oxygen your growth thrives on. Yes, staying in an echo chamber can be comfortable, but it will snuff out your growth and influence across the sector.
  • Putting your money where your mouth is — If you truly believe in the values of Web3, consider how your actions and words align (or don’t). Communities act in flow; where one actor speaks out, others will follow (for better or worse). Never assume something goes without saying. The world moves so fast, the important things bear repeating.
  • Reaching out — I welcome continuing the conversation and can be found at @vmkirin on all major platforms.

Veronica Zora Kirin is an award-winning anthropreneur and author. She is the founder of Asterisk Womxn’s Health and cofounder of Anodyne Magazine. She is also an anthropologist studying paradigm shifts and the author of the award-winning book “Stories of Elders.”. She has been named a Forbes NEXT 1,000 Entrepreneur, GO Magazine “100 Women We Love,” and BEQ 40 LGBTQ Leader Under 40. She has spoken at two TEDx events. Her short stories, poetry, and essays have been published in Zero Readers, Adelaide, See You Next Tuesday, Scars, and elsewhere. She is currently working on her debut memoir in Berlin. Read more at https://veronicakirin.com/books.