Permissionless Voice: Women Carving Web3 Opportunities with La Donna | Women Powering Web3 - Ep. 06

Transcript

be okay with the vulnerability of not knowing certain things and asking questions. The entire ecosystem, everybody that I have encountered has been so open to sharing their experience, their knowledge. Um, create partnerships, mentorships. Yeah, open those doors for yourself. There are opportunities. You just have to be permissionless with your voice. >> Message to women entering web 3. Be fearless. Ethereum is for everyone. And happy women's day. Welcome to ECH Institute podcast. In this special series, women powering web 3, we are speaking with women in the space who are contributing and supporting Ethereum ecosystem. Today we

are joined by Ladana Higgins and we are hoping to learn more about her way to the space and contributions. Ladonna works for Ethereum Foundation and I know her personally. She is very passionate about women in this space. Welcome Leadana. >> Thank you. Thanks for having me today. >> I truly appreciate you taking out time. I know you for quite some time and since day one I have seen you advocating for women and supporting in all possible ways and I look forward to learn more from you about your work and your general thoughts and perception about women in the space.

>> For sure. All right, let's kick off this conversation with a short introduction. Could you let our audience know about yourself and how you find your way to the Ethereum ecosystem? >> Yes. Hi, I'm Ladonna Higgins and I work on the protocol coordination team at the Ethereum Foundation. I am entering my fifth year at the Ethereum Foundation which I have just grown to love and uh realized that I found a lot of passionate work that um is needed um in the entire ecosystem. I started off as an executive assistant to Danny Ryan and kind of gradually moved to managing protocol coordination for the protocol cluster at the Ethereum Foundation.

Within that time, I co-founded WIP, Women in Ethereum Protocol, along with Puja and Shiae Wang, who is now co-executive director at the Ethereum Foundation. What brought me to blockchain really was the opportunity that I saw and found for growth and knowledge. Um, I wasn't really knowledgeable about blockchain. The most I had ever heard was Bitcoin. And so, this was a space that I knew that I could enter and have longevity. and self-personal growth as far as building my knowledge and something that I'm very passionate about and making sure that there is a pathway and space for women.

Lada, you have closely worked with the leadership both men and women. I'm curious to understand what are your views on the challenges which are being faced by women in Ethereum. Do you facing different kind of challenges than any men developer? Yeah, I think I have a very unique perspective on the challenges or not the challenges per se um for women in the space. I have been honored to work with two very very successful women in the space with one being Shaw Wang who is now the executive director at the Ethereum Foundation and when I started working with Shiae she was a researcher within the protocol

cluster also I am I have worked with her and so being exposed to women who are in a very powerful position as women leading in a space that is heavily maledriven. Um, I think my perspective is a little bit different. I see that both of these women have shown me that there is the potential, there is the opportunity in the blockchain space to kind of carve out your path. And so with that, I think I'm able to speak to women to say like, yeah, open those doors for yourself. There are opportunities. You just have to be permissionless with your voice and ask for the things that you need and seek partnership with those people who have the ability to get you

to those places that you want to be. >> That is awesome. In the previous conversation we have mentioned this quite a few time that Ethereum is a great example of women in leadership like we have two leadership position held by women which is great to have and that kind of also positively affect the environment where we are working. We hope that uh the Ethereum is made a safer space for women in general. >> Yes definitely. Well, from your experience, Ladonna, like we are working together for women in Ethereum protocol, right? And we see that sometime women are hesitant to get into this space. Are there possible challenges or myth? Would you want to share about that? Like what

stops them getting into the space? Yeah, I think ultimately what stops women from entering a space over the last couple of years of like gathering research, I think it's the same challenges that we face outside of the uh ecosystem of blockchain web 3 is that we still haven't found the power in our voice. We still kind of shrink in environments where we feel vulnerable and that I think is not exclusive to the ecosystem that we're currently in but overall. And so I think when women again are permissionless with their voice, whether in the space or outside of the space, they will find that there are men counterparts that are opening up doors

that are willing to give you the tools and resources that you need to either build your skills or you know continue to develop your skills to enter spaces that you may feel like you don't have a seat at the table. But from my experience, I am seeing more and more that there are actually spaces for women to feel safe and to grow. But we just have to be permissionless with our voice and be okay with the vulnerability of not knowing certain things and asking questions and being aggressive with building partnerships and mentorships. I think that will carry um women a long way in the space.

>> These are pretty good advice. I really appreciate you sharing this. I hope that women hear out this conversation and be inspired. Well, if you have to like talk about what inspires you to be working in this space, whom you look up to as a women in blockchain web 3 or maybe outside this web 3 space. Yeah, you know, for myself, like every day I wake up and I feel like I'm challenged in a way to continue learning about the web 3 space, but also um I have this kind of like philosophy that I I go by each one teach one. And so always finding something that I can teach another person who may not be as comfortable

with learning something that's very challenging. If I can say, let me think a little bit. There's so many powerful women in the space that I've encountered just in my journey. I'm just trying to pinpoint one person that I would say inspired me. And that's really hard, right? Because I I've gotten the opportunity to work on the research team and I will tell you each researcher that I've ever worked with has been so passionate about the work that they do. Their experience and what they leave in the ecosystem and what they provide has always inspired me to do more, right? to do more with opening doors. Do more with saying it's okay to not know as long as you're willing to learn and be okay with sitting close to people who have already

gone through the journey that you want to travel. It's okay to sit close to those people and listen to those conversations and to just kind of know what you don't know and what it is you want to know. Right? So I don't know if there's one person that I could particularly say inspires me but the entire ecosystem everybody that I have encountered has been so open to sharing their experience their knowledge um create partnerships mentorships and that keeps me inspired with the work that I'm doing now >> and I think the WIP work that I can say for sure is great I mean uh this platform gives opportunity to men and women to make their first contribution to Ethereum ecosystem. It's an exposure to this web 3 world. So that's a

commendable work. I really appreciate you for that. >> Yes. Yes. >> We are working in the direction of increasing diversity not only at client level but also on the developers level. What does a more inclusive in Ethereum ecosystem or web3 ecosystem looks like to you? When can we say safely that we do not have to advocate to onboard any more women? we see that they are naturally progressing into this new ecosystem. >> Yeah, I think a more inclusive environment in the ecosystem for me looks like every aspect of the process, right, includes messaging that Ethereum is for everyone. Ethereum is open that so that the conversations don't always

feel so geared towards inclusiveness exclusiveness like the language the way we approach um whether it's hiring whether it's educational opportunities partnerships the language surrounding that I think once that changes it will feel more inclusive right and just being I guess having compassion for people who don't necessarily fit into the boys club right understanding that there are just kind of things that we do naturally that we don't think exclude people. But from my experience, I entered the space and I was kind of like the only woman of color at the time, but I use my voice and I'm permissionless and it's like, no, I want to be here at the table and I want to

learn what I don't know and I have a certain unique skill set that I can offer, but with that skill set, it brings me closer to the people that do know. And so that has been such a huge benefit for me um in the web 3 space being able to just say hey I don't know you what do you do oh that sounds interesting let me learn more about that and and deciding for myself is that a pathway I want to go towards no but at least I know it exists and I can expose other people to that pathway. Yes, we need people to be connected with each other. So that skill set is definitely going to be helpful for many people who knows what to do but they do not know whom to reach out to in order to like make that contribution they want to. So

that's a very good very good thing to have in place. Very well. That uh brings to the conclusion of all the short answer questions. Maybe we can just go ahead with the rapid fire question round. It's going to be one word, one phrase, sentence, whatever comes to your mind. We just want you to speak your heart there. >> Okay. All right. Online or in-person events? >> In person. >> One myth about women in tech you want to break.

>> Fear. >> One word. Decentralization feels like >> opportunity. >> Hackathon or conference? conference. >> One word that defines women in web 3. >> Uh W, right? Message to women entering web 3. >> Be fearless. >> The future of Ethereum is >> for everyone. >> Awesome. And that concludes all the rapid fire question. Thank you, Lana, for speaking your mind and taking all those questions boldly. I don't have a gift hamper for you. very sorry but we can share the t-shirts that we have from WIP.

Ladana, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today and for sharing your journey, your work and your perspective. It's truly inspiring to see the impact you are creating with WIP and within the Ethereum Foundation. >> Thank you. Thank you so much Puja. Thank you Manashi for having me and ETHCAT herders. I just would like to end and say Ethereum is for everyone and happy women's day. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to the special series women powering web 3 by ECH Institute. If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with more women in the community. And if you are someone looking to take your first step into the ecosystem, I hope these stories

encourage you and you take that step. Thank you so much for joining us. Cheers.