Monero Talk Operations Manager Sheds Light on the Crypto Space and Women in Blockchain

[PRIBO247]

Sunita Sunchakar, an engineer and operations manager for the
‘Monero Talk’ YouTube show was recently interviewed by
Monica Mizzi to discuss the blockchain industry and women’s
involvement in it.
Sunchakar shared her positive experiences of working in the
industry and actively encourages women who are interested in
getting involved to “go for it” as this is how you overcome
barriers.

Statistics do show there is a large gap between the number of
men and women participating in the industry. However, is
constantly highlighting statistics like this the best approach or
is it putting too much emphasis on the negative?
Sunchakar’s Experience in the
Blockchain Space
Sunchakar was introduced to Bitcoin in 2015 by a friend and
found it interesting and confusing at the same time.
She realized the amazing potential of the technology as she
began to understand it. She sees the technology as a way of
bringing balance to a society controlled by the few and
powerful.
Sunchakar said:

“Most of us don’t realize that we do not have control
of our daily lives, that many key items are controlled
by other people and that there is no way around it. I
believe this ‘Cryptocurrency Revolution’ came out of
necessity to try and take back power by being
censorship resistant.”

She believes that blockchain technology can be used to avoid
data breaches and reduce banks’ control of everyday
transactions. Sunchakar was involved with Monero in late
2016 and “realized that Monero was not like any of the others
[altcoins] .” She is working with several Monero enthusiasts to
organize Monero meetups.
She was attracted to Monero because:

“it has all the parameters that Bitcoin is trying to
achieve: it is private, untraceable, and fungible. These
are the perfect qualities of a cryptocurrency created to
promote its goal of decentralization and that could
potentially be used as a peer-to-peer digital
currency.”

She also likes the fact Monero’s growth is not largely driven by
aggressive marketing.

Women in Crypto
Sunchakar has not experienced any disadvantages from being
a female in the industry and says that “it has been welcoming
and great so far.” The environment is conducive for anyone to
contribute no matter the gender.

She said
“At the end of the day, it has to do with what skills
and ideas you bring to the table, and if it has a
positive impact on the project, it will get recognized.”

She says that the push to get women involved in crypto tends
to achieve the opposite. The best way to go about it is to have
a collaborative approach from both men and women.
She is not sure why participation from women is relatively
lower but it could be because of a number of reasons. Some
women may be less vocal, others prefer to be anonymous, and
others may not be getting enough attention from the media.
She agrees with women who don’t want to be labeled as
“women in blockchain.” She says that there is a “need to focus
and write about the accomplishments of women rather than
knit-pick on the gender gap.” This is an industry where people
are recognized based on the merits of their contributions.
She believes discussions should not be centered mainly on
gender inequality but finding women who are doing great work
behind the scenes and getting their work exposed to the
public. She says that the Monero community doesn’t
discriminate – it supports feasible ideas.

“Of course, you will be exposed to trolls and sexism (that
happens in every environment), but that has to do with that
individual’s insecure character and shouldn’t be a
generalization of all men,” said Sunchakar as she pointed out
that some issues are the same everywhere.
Her advice to other women who want to get into crypto is
simple and practical:

“Just do it! The information out there can be
extremely overwhelming, but if you take the time, you
will eventually understand it. In this space, you feel
like there is a never ending amount of information that
you will never catch up with, but that is how everyone
feels so don’t ever feel discouraged!”

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