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I could feel myself starting to sweat and
a pit forming at the base of my stomach share signs, I was nervous.
Kind of like right now, I was 22 years old and
I had was sitting in my first ever apartment all by myself,
staring at my computer screen in the dark.
I was about to send my entire life savings to something called Vanguard.
I had just graduated from college with an economics degree and
I knew investing was important.
But I had no idea how to start.
I must have spent hours doing scrolling on Vanguards website,
trying to learn all of this new vocabulary.
There were ETFs and mutual funds and indices.
I had so many questions.
What do I invest in?
How exactly does investing work?
And why does it matter?
I must have called Vanguards Customer Success line like ten
different times with my long list of questions.
And the men who answered the phone did their best to answer my questions about
the what and the how?
But I still didn't know why I felt like I was
sending my entire life savings into the ether.
I didn't understand the investing language.
I felt unconfident in my knowledge and
mostly I felt like I didn't belong.
It took calling my 90 year old grandma before I had the nerve to open my account.
And my grandma grew up with the great depression with very little in her
life and started investing later on.
And I asked her all of the same questions I asked the men at Vanguard and
just picturing her answering the phone in her kitchen started
to release that knot in my stomach.
She explained to me why investing mattered.
She met me patiently and seeing her confidence made me feel confident too.
She said Julianne, if you save and
invest as much as you can now, you can live a life of freedom.
Just start small and take the first step.
So I did, I opened an account in a Vanguard mutual funds and
as I started to feel more comfortable I started to participate more.
I invested in individual company stocks I even voted at shareholder meetings and
over time, I built my investing confidence.
I was reminded of my grandma's advice three years ago when a few of my guy
friends told me to start investing in cryptocurrency.
And I felt like crypto was important, but
I could feel that familiar not forming at the bottom of my stomach.
I had so many questions.
How does crypto work?
What is it exactly and why does it matter?
I asked my guy friends to explain it to me but
their answers felt like alphabet soup of NF T's and doubts and BTCs.
I joined a few online forums to try to get my questions answered there and
I was met with either silence or outright contempt from the male dominated groups.
Everything felt unfamiliar and everyone was either anonymous or a guy.
In one instance, I was blocked from a community after spending 30 minutes
trying to figure out the right person to ask a question to.
I must have asked it to the wrong person.
And if it felt like I was sending my life savings into the ether with Vanguard.
In crypto, I was trying to buy something called Ethereum,
despite having ten years of experience in finance.
I didn't understand the crypto language.
I felt unconfident in my knowledge.
And mostly I really felt like I didn't belong.
This time I couldn't call my grandma for support, but luckily,
my friend Brooke explained to me why crypto mattered.
And seeing Brooke confident made me feel confident too.
Brooke said, Julianne cryptocurrency gives equal access
to financial services to anyone across the world.
And crypto is just like any other currency we use in our day to day life except
crypto uses a network of computers called the blockchain and
not banks to verify, track and manage transactions.
So just like my grandma's advice,
I started small I opened a crypto account, I purchased a few currencies and
as I started to feel more comfortable, I started to participate more.
I invested in currencies where I could vote on future projects and
over time, I built my crypto confidence.
I've now worked in crypto for nearly three years.
And in that time I've spoken to hundreds of women from all over the world.
Who want to participate in the crypto economy, and
we share a similar story Daniela from Colombia says my husband works
in crypto and he tried to explain it to me.
But I couldn't catch up with all the new words he was saying.
I wanted to how to guide for how to get started.
And Mira from New York says, I tried to join online communities but
everyone just assumes you're a guy.
I would join and people would say hey bro.
Let me just say if you are a woman and you have tried to get started in crypto and
maybe you felt like you didn't belong.
It's not you it's crypto today just 15% of investors
in Bitcoin the most popular global cryptocurrency are women.
And many crypto companies report 90% or more of their users are men.
The language we hear the products we use,
the communities we see, reflect current users.
Today, mostly men and women want to participate in the crypto economy.
In fact, a recent study suggests globally, more women are interested
in buying cryptocurrency than they are public company stocks.
And in the US more women have expressed interest in cryptocurrency than men.
It turns out, the world of crypto could learn a thing or two from my grandma.
Because the thing that myself and Daniella and Mira all had in common a trusted
friend who helped us take the first step who explained to us why crypto mattered.
Whom and seeing their confidence made us feel confident to.
Now, I can't be your grandma, but I can't be your trusted friends.
To design a crypto economy for women, we need to do three things.
First, women need to see her we need to explain why crypto matters.
Let's talk more about equal access to financial services and use fewer acronyms.
The unintended consequence of using acronyms we leave people behind.
If you're explaining crypto to a friend,
take the extra moment to spell out what you're saying.
Second, we need to design products and communities with women in mind.
If you're building in crypto, make sure women test your products.
And if you're designing online communities and forums,
consider reducing anonymity in order to increase safety, for
all of your users including and especially women.
And third, and this is mostly for my crypto curious women in the room.
Take the first step.
When women take the first step today when we open a crypto account when we
buy a crypto currency, when we use a crypto product,
we get a say in future products and services.
Companies will need to start building for us.
And when crypto gets easier for women, it gets easier for all of us.
The crypto economy will become more accessible, and
it will be because of the women in this room and the women around the world.
And some pretty incredible men and people everywhere who say,
we want our future economy to look and feel more like all of us.
Because we need all of our voices heard in this new economy.
It will take a diverse set of people representative of our global
community to build a more equitable economy.
Tomorrow we will all use crypto to access our global economy today.
Today all we need to do is take my grandma's advice.
And take the first step.
>> [APPLAUSE]
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