Blockchicks at SXSW

No more apologies. What a relief.

That was my key takeaway after attending the Women in Blockchain Global networking session at the 2018 SXSW Interactive Conference. You’ve heard of blockchain. It’s an emerging technology “formerly known” as hyperledger technologies, or the new decentralized internet. Or, for the uninitiated, you might know it as the digital backbone behind cryptocurrency.

Even the description has evolved 90 degrees since I learned about its revolutionary nature in September 2017. Hearing it was the second (or third) coming of the internet buoyed by a broad array of usage applications piqued my interest. Now, what I did not know in 2017 is that there is room at the table for a variety of voices; not just programmers or developers.

Thanks to Tessy Mehrain, Founder of Women in Blockchain Global, an upstart global education and networking organization, I no longer start every blockchain conversation immediately clarifying I am not a technologist. I heard the blockchain girl gang loud and clear as they assured us that while blockchain will touch and impact lots of jobs, very few of us in the space would be required to build one.

And another thing. As an avid futurist researcher and think tank emulator (I seem really busy), I know the ins and outs of blockchain, how it works and the range of transactional problems it can solve. Yet I didn’t realize how much I knew about blockchain until I began having “I-know-just-enough-to-be-dangerous” conversations with experts, aficionados and novices. Attending sessions with bright folks from around the world allowed me to throw caution to the Austin wind with no danger in sight. Unapologetically.