Satoshi Nakamoto might have been a woman, Carolyn Malone

He could well have been a she, Malone declared. She added that the sector is notoriously male-dominated, stressing this meant many achievements by women were being diluted. Greek MEP Eva Kaili, meanwhile, announced that the progress of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology could be dramatically hampered by a lack of female representation.  “Women have a better understanding and different priorities with this technology,” she said. “We believe, with these tools, you can have a strong influence on the future.”

Among the attendees were Blocktrade.com, a crypto exchange platform made up of experts from the likes Deloitte and Deutsche Bank, which promotes proper regulation within digital currency. It will be the first trading facility regulated under the MiFID II framework. And the company is also pushing to promote the role women play in tech, introducing an equality policy to prevent gender biases from affecting hiring procedures and candidate selection.

CMO Lea Lipovsek said that cryptocurrency has the potential to create career opportunities for millions of women and will shed its ‘blockchain bros’ reputation. A gender divide of around one in 20 won’t be sustainable in the long run, she argued. “Companies need to address that imbalance when taking on staff and focus primarily on knowledge instead of gender,” she stated. “I have faith in the ability of the industry to beat it. This is still relatively new tech with huge potential. That will bring so much innovation, and jobs as a result. With so many new companies starting up, it makes sense that blockchain and cryptocurrency will provide the chances women need to make their way in digital. The sector can’t, and won’t, ignore the lack of diversity.”

Lipovsek has been working in the digital sector for nearly a decade and believes this technology has the ability to completely rebuild our financial systems, almost starting from scratch again. “There has been bad press around the ‘blockchain bros’ reputation, but one positive we can take is the extreme reaction to it,” she said. “People and businesses are starting to sit up and take notice, creating initiatives for women to get involved and shape the future. There are many women already doing great things in the blockchain world like JP Morgan’s Amber Baldet, Jinglan Wang at NASDAQ and Carol Van Cleef. We need to shout about their achievements and inspire a new generation.”