The Women Of The Metaverse

If it feels like everyone you know has been talking about NFTs over the past few months, you’re not alone. With so much to learn about the wild world of web3, from metamask to minting, ethereum to #HODL, it can feel overwhelming.

So who exactly is jumping avatar-first into the metaverse? According to Fast Company, 45% of adults have never heard of NFTs. But those who do, “Well, they’re mostly male crypto-adept collectors. One in five online male adults in the U.S. indicated they already own at least one NFT versus just 7% of U.S. online female adults.”

That’s where companies like Curious Addys, Meta Angels, Women in Blockchain and The Hunt come in. Their founders are among the many women on a mission to build inclusiveness into the space, making entry points more accessible and less daunting for the crypto-curious.

Mai Akiyoshi is the founder of Curious Addys, an education-based interactive experience that allows people who are new to the space to learn about it through a series of games. An adorable Octopus named Addy walks users through the process of setting up a crypto wallet, minting an NFT and more. 

“I wanted to start an NFT project,” Akiyoshi says. “Crypto is male dominated and has a very masculine look. I thought bringing in well-designed concepts would bring more women into crypto. Once I really started to explore, I began to realize the power of the communities that NFTs could create. For example, WomanRise attracts people who are focused on women’s rights. Noticing that power, we started Curious Addys, which is the first NFT education project.”

“Web3 really feels like the start of the internet based on the speed of growth, the attraction, the trajectory of the market and the technology that’s evolving every day,” says Akiyoshi, who has been working in crypto since 2018. “If that’s true, and if women don’t get into it (they are currently only investing at half the rate as men,) then the wealth balance won’t change in the next 10-20 years.”

Allyson Downey’s point of entry into the world of NFT’s was through her coworker Max Siegman, who she refers to as “our NFT encyclopedia.” Downey spent a weekend researching, reading and educating herself on the space and once she was in, she was all in. She reached out to her friend Alexandra Cavoulacos, co-founder of The Muse, to see if she wanted to start an NFT project together. Only a few weeks later, the two friends teamed up with Siegman to create Meta Angels. 

”I was thinking about all the doors that have been opened to me, sure, because of hard work,” Downey says, “But also because of my access to certain networks. I think of my Techstars network, Alex’s Y Combinator network, my Columbia Business School alumni network, The Li.st. Those doors aren’t open for 99% of people. What if there’s a way to use the membership components of NFTs to blow the doors off these gated communities. Maybe we have the opportunity to offer access regardless of socioeconomic status.” 

That community piece typically takes place within gated Discord channels. For the uninitiated, Discord looks a lot like Slack, and has been historically used in gaming communities. Alternatively, Slack has been referred to as “Discord for boomers.” 

Once someone purchases an NFT as part of a larger collection, it serves as a membership key to Discord channels, enabling that buyer to connect with others who have purchased from the same collection. 

Downey continues, “We wanted to build out something that brought everybody to the table, regardless of their life experience to date, as long as they share the same core values of generosity of spirit, transparency and a belief in getting other people into the room.”

They cite (Meta Angels advisor) Randi Zuckerberg’s three reasons to buy an NFT – investment, identity and community.  

Another appeal of this space is the transparency and the ownership. All terms of an NFT purchase are agreed upon via smart contracts. 

“The smart contracts are software programs,” Cavoulacos explains, “It’s very clear that a program will run once a predetermined condition has been met. All participants can be certain of the outcome. Lots of the early adopters are in the space because of that philosophical component. The knowledge that, ‘If I do this, it’s guaranteed that the other side will deliver.’”  

The Hunt founders Natalia Diaz and Sagan Albert agree that a huge draw for them was the transparency piece. Diaz says, “It has opened the doors on how we are starting to operate contracts not just in the art world but in other industries such as music, film, hospitality, spirits and more. Transparency and authentication have become an integral part of our daily lives and have made it easier for anyone to track and also receive the royalties they deserve. I believe that Blockchain, NFTs, Augmented Reality and web3 will be the framework of how the world will operate in the future.” 

Melissa Romero is the head of Gamechangers, the first women-led DAO focusing on financing women-led startups. She points out that, “This is being built as we speak. In other words, there is no glass ceiling, there is no seat at the table you have to be invited for; come and help shape together what this future looks like.”

Her co-founder, Tamara Obradov agrees that there’s a huge opportunity right now. “Our mission is to break the old establishments that still today allow women entrepreneurs to only receive 3% of VC funding and women artists to claim 2% of auction sales. We do this in a perfectly circular fashion: a collection made by women artists, featuring women gamechangers, where proceeds will go to fund women-led funds who fund women ventures, helping them become successful role models themselves…and the cycle starts anew.”

Lavinia Osborne hosts the podcast Women in Blockchain Talks with the mission of bringing inclusivity to blockchain. Now she’s creating the first-ever women-led Blockchain Conference, open to all genders, but with all women and non-binary speakers. The conference is scheduled to be held in Cyprus in September 2022. “We have put an emphasis on amplifying the experiences and achievements of marginalized and underrepresented groups in order to show that blockchain’s life-changing and world-shaping potential is available to all – regardless of gender, age, background or nationality,” Osborne says. Her goal is to attract 50,000 women to invest in Blockchain by 2023. 

Meta Angels officially mints today with a collection of 10,000 NFTs. They worked with Māori-Australian artist Sarana Haeata and the collection has full representation across the spectrums of race and gender. Holders of the NFT also get access to their Discord, which is currently fully public but will become partially gated once the NFTs have been purchased. How does that work with their mission of making these communities more accessible, specifically to those who can’t afford to buy in? 

“We are also innovating in the space with the first-of-its-kind lending functionality,” Cavoulacos explains. “Holders of multiple Meta Angels NFTs can loan their token to someone else (a friend, a mentee, a non profit director, someone they connected with on Twitter) for a temporary period to share all the benefits of membership with them, while retaining the underlying token.” 

Even the art world is coming around to the value of NFTs. “From an art historical perspective, owning an early era NFT will be important, but perhaps even more important will be owning one that was created by the type of artist who has never gotten their due in the traditional art market,” says former Sotheby’s executive and art industry expert Laura Miranda-Browne. “Meta Angels is exactly that kind of project. An artist/muralist with several young children living in remote Australia is probably not going to get a gallery show in Manhattan or Brooklyn, but by issuing these Angels, the world is seeing her art and she is going to be able to capitalize on her talents in a way that would never have been open to her before.” 

Downey calls Meta Angels the gateway NFT. “We’re looking to bridge the metaverse with real life,” she says. “Bridge the impact with people’s real lives.”

Cavoulacos adds, “Newbies welcome.”