Women in Blockchain | Changing the Status Quo – Morne Olivier

Jillian Godsil:

#1 Give us a summary of your background and how you got into Blockchain & Digital Currency / Cryptocurrency?

Long version … please edit and cut as required

“For the first time in my working career my age and gender is an advantage. I’m a woman and I’m in my fifties (early).”

Jillian Godsil is co founder of Blockleaders.io and Editor in Chief. She is on the board of EOS Dublin. She has been named one of the top 50 women globally in blockchain as well as a crypto queen and last year she was shortlisted for two Women of the Year awards in Ireland.

She has been featured in Al Jazeera, Russia Today, BBC2 Newsnight, UK Telegraph, RTE, TV3, Huffington Post, New York Times The Irish Times, Vogue Italia and the Irish Independent amongst others.

She is a freelance journalist for the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and many more broadsheets and business publications. She is Editor in Chief of Liberland Press and has been awarded the Order of Merit by the President of Liberland.

She is an advisor for a number companies working in the Blockchain industry. She travels the world speaking and chairing Blockchain conferences and has been to Kiev, Austin, Muscat, Columbo. Dublin, Dubai, Vienna, Malta, Capetown, and others conferences this year.

She hosts two weekly terrestrial radio shows, DubinCityFM and East CoastFM, and was nominated for a national radio award, an IMRO, in 2019.

However, three years ago she was evicted from her rented accommodation with her two adult children. She had no job and no income. She found a tiny cottage for her two girls to rent and went couchsurfing with a friend.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/i-call-it-couchsurfing-but-really-i-m-homeless-1.2746226

What on earth? Let me tell you a story…

In 2008 Jillian had hit divorce and recession. She could not cope with both.

Previously she had travelled the world (London, Sydney and Singapore) for work before relocating to the Irish countryside with her family. She ran a successful PR business. There had a large mortgage on her country house (half the value of the house). With the divorce, her ex husband went back to the UK and went bankrupt, thereby giving the entire mortgage debt to Jillian and her two girls.

In 2008 there was a hard crash happening in property prices. She tried to sell the house and made a video that went viral. She got a cash offer of €500,000 but the bank refused consent to sell as the mortgage was more. They preferred to repossess the home and sell it for €165,000 the following year. (It is now back on the market three years later at €550,000)

In the interim she became politicised. She lost her business and it collapsed, bailiffs called to the door and she lost everything. But she also became aware of the false narrative that began to take shape — “that people were gaming the system and messing with moral hazard”. There were also a rising number of financially inspired suicides. She got angry. She got very angry.

So she started ranting and raving at every opportunity — and she had a lot. This was around 2012 and most people were still ‘shamed’ at failing financially. She went loud and proud and said that while it hurt a lot to lose everything that she had done nothing wrong and was not ashamed.

In the end, she was the first female bankrupt under the new insolvency laws in 2014. She was not allowed to run for public office under archaic Victorian law. She then took the Irish government to the High Court and all the way to the Supreme Court claiming that her constitutional rights were being infringed. She won.

Then she had to run — after all she had won the right.

So, Jillian ran in the European Parliamentary elections in 2014 and while she did not win a seat she earned 11,500 votes.

This is where blockchain came in. She been through the ringer and was hung out to dry. She thought that life could offer me no more. She was at a standstill — or worse a personal recession.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/want-to-feel-invisible-try-hunting-for-a-job-at-50-31195113.html

THEN SHE MET BLOCKCHAIN in September 2017 and she said to herself — “Mama I’ve come home. Now is my time to shine.’

And so it has been. She’s had an amazing year — travelling the world, speaking and chairing at blockchain conferences and she has hope again. Not just for her alone but for humanity. Go blockchain

#2 Tell us about your current position, responsibilities and some day to day activities that you look forward to?

I am co founder and Editor in Chief of Blockeladers.io — and have been awarded the 2019 AI and Blockchain Journalist in London last month. Here I do video and written articles / profiles on all things blockchain related

I do a weekly podcast for EOS Doblin. I work as a consultant and PR adviser to a number of projects in this space.

I chair, moderate and keynote at blockchain events around the world — love this side to my career

I have two terrestrial radio shows here in Ireland that have nothing to do with blockchain — although I do manage to sneak a lot of blockchain data into them lol — DublinCityFm and EastCoast FM. And this year I was nominated for a national radio award from IMRO.

#3 If you had to be critical about yourself, which part of your career would you like to improve on?

Well my kids might say the financial side — it’s taken me 12 years to turn the financial corner but finally, finally it is happening as I start to earn money again. Hurrah!

#4 What advice do you have for children / youth (10–18 years ) today especially young women about the Blockchain world? How do we nurture interest in this new Technology?

It doesn’t matter what you do — blockchain is like the internet — it is going to be pervasive in all our lives but to young people I point to the thinking in blockchain which is exciting in this very broken world of ours. The thinking is disruptive, the thinking is innovative and the thinking is based on making a better world. So it doesn’t matter what a young person or woman wants to do — blockchain will be in their future. My only exhortation is for young people to own this — like they now do with climate change — and make sure the old fools don’t screw it or the world up.

#5 What kind of skill set would you be looking at in job applicants?

Same as any other industry — enthusiasm, intelligence, creativity, problem solving skills — all laced with kindness and a concern to make the world a better place

#6 Blockchain to me is a forward thinking force of snowballing Technology, but where I’m from a lot of people still see Bitcoin as a scam. How do we bridge the gap between the Technology and people that are sceptical about it.

We just keep showing up and talking. That for me is what I am put on this earth to do — talk and communicate endlessly about blockchain. And have fun too — much easier to persuade people to look at new opportunities if the people involved are enjoying the new world.

#7 Can you please provide the details of an educational facility that is in your area or country if anyone reading this article desires to find out more about Blockchain.

Well it’s actually over in the UK but two companies to watch are Cointelligence which runs an Education Academy and CoinBurp that are doing education videos featuring Calum Best (George Best’s son and influencer)

In terms of reading — please visit my website http://blockleaders.io/

Or EOS podcast — https://eosdublin.podbean.com/

Or my new ICO SOFA channel https://www.icosofa.com/channel/jillian-godsil/?view=about

Or my DublinCityFM radio show https://www.dublincityfm.ie/shows/making-a-difference/

#8 What is your current opinion on the Digital Assets, ( Cryptocurrency ) market and share with us your opinion on where you think this Technology will take us?

Tokenise everything! Digital Assets have existed for a long time but now they are moving into blockchain which is very exciting. It’s the future from property, DNA, music etc etc

#9 What new exciting projects are you currently working on or planning?

I am working on a very serious project called Europechain which offers GDPR compliant blockchain — really cool project.

#10 What is your favorite Blockchain project and why?.

CoinBurp — they are great guys but they have recruited Calum Best as an ambassador. I have to admit to having a girl crush on Calum. So that makes CoinBurp my favourite project.

QnA Maria

Maria Grazia Vigliotti, Ph.D:

Q&A

Give us a summary of your background and how you got into Blockchain & Digital Currency / Cryptocurrency?

Thank you for this question. I have studied Computer Science and I have Ph.D. in Computing from one of the most prestigious Computing Departments in the world: Imperial College London. I carried out exciting research at Imperial on both cybersecurity and cryptography, and it was a small step to learn about blockchain in general. In short, I could see how with my set of skills I could positively influence the technology.

Tell us about your current position, responsibilities and some day to day activities that you look forward to?

There not many women in technology, so in 2017 I decided I wanted to make a mark and I set up my own company, Sandblocks Consulting. At the same time, I started to work on an extraordinary start-up Gradbase, that inserts academic qualifications on the blockchain. Both companies have grown enormously, and that has given me the time to write book on Blockchain “The Executive Guide to blockchain”, which will be published by Palgrave in February 2020 -see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Executive-Guide-Blockchain-Contracts-Currencies/dp/3030211061 The goal of the book is to explain blockchain technology to everyone who does not have a technology background, but an interest in understanding the principles and the applications of blockchain.

Going back to my typical day at work, because I run businesses, I do not have a typical day. Every day is different, and I personally love it. Some days I meet customers to understand what they need, or I lead my technical team to ensure deliveries of projects. I also participate in meetings, conferences to deliver thought leadership on blockchain. I run training sessions for executives and technical teams. I always need to make time to plan future activities to keep the companies afloat and understand where the market is going to remain relevant.

If you had to be critical about yourself, which part of your career would you like to improve on?

When I started my career, I wish I had more confidence and I had been more assertive about advancing my career. Women tend to be overcritical about themselves and do not put themselves forward. We are making a disfavour to ourselves and to other women: there are fewer role models and mentors that will help women to advance. Advancing the career does require to ask for promotion rather than waiting to be recognised. One needs to feel confident that promotion is deserved. Women mentors can help other women to increase the confidence and to find ways to ask for promotion.

What advice do you have for children / youth (10–18 years ) today especially young women about the Blockchain world? How do we nurture interest in this new Technology?

My best advice is do not be afraid to try something new, even if it feels alien. Technology will become part of your life one way or antoher, learn to understand it now and you will be in a great position to make it work for you at a later stage.

I also would encourage young people to have a look a free resources where they can learn technology in a way that suits them.

Have a look at some amazing free resources:

https://studio.code.org/courses — this website is full of interesting courses that if I had the time, I would take myself. It has been done with the help of great engineers, and it only requires an internet connection!

https://www.raspberrypi.org — This is fantastic project where young people can learn to build their own computer. It requires to purchase some hardware.

http://appinventor.mit.edu — Another great online resource for young people to learn about coding from MIT.

It does not matter where they start: what it matters that is that they start now.

What kind of skill set would you be looking at in job applicants?

Beyond the specific skills of the job, the most important skills we are interested in are good communication skills and independence. Being able to clearly communicate with others eliminates frictions and makes work more enjoyable. I do not micromanage people, I expect people to be able to sort out problems or to come back and tell me what they need to sort out the problems in their job. That is independence for you. In my view, these skills must be part of every employee to become a successful company.

Blockchain to me is a forward thinking force of snowballing Technology, but where I’m from a lot of people still see Bitcoin as a scam.
How do we bridge the gap between the Technology and people that are sceptical about it.

I think the best way to gain a balance view about the technology is learn moare about it, and deploy it in some ways. Let’s consider a similar problem in a different situation. If you only have used a horse to travel, any modern city could look scary and dangerous. But once one learns how to drive a car, and what are the rules for driving on the road, then the prospective completely changes. Similarly, learning about cryptocurrency and blockchain will help people to understand how the technology can be used, and scepticism will disappear.

Can you please provide the details of an educational facility that is in your area or country if anyone reading this article decides to find out more about Blockchain?

I teach about blockchain at TechUK (https://www.techuk.org) in London, which is an organisation with 850 companies from around the UK. I offer one-day overview about the technology and its deployment. There are several online courses that people can take, and some of them are also free, for example https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate/uc-berkeleyx-blockchain-fundamentals.so a great place to start.

What is your current opinion on the Digital Assets, ( Cryptocurrency ) market and share with us your opinion on where you think this Technology will take us?

The cryptocurrency market is overcrowded at the moment, according to Coinmarket (https://coinmarketcap.com) there are over 4904 cryptocurrencies at the moment. I believe that similarly to the Dot-com bubble, in the next five years, we will see what projects will survive and these will shape the future market.

What new exciting projects are you currently working on or planning?

Currently I am working on ensuring more women take part in to blockchain projects. I am working in creating training for that women would take.

What is your favourite Blockchain project and why?

I have two favourite projects: are Algorand https://www.algorand.com and Elixxir https://elixxir.io. These are two projects that deploy blockchain in a way that is useful to society, and they are very robust from a technical point of view.