In an enterprise market driven by decentralization and agility, the incorporation of blockchain technology is a natural next step. The recent cryptocurrency boom put a spotlight on blockchain in the mainstream market, but the tool itself still puzzles many businesses looking to leverage its value.

Blockchain’s impenetrability is, in part, by design. The digital ledger was created to resist modifications to recorded data in an often unreliable peer-to-peer network. But as the tool’s use has scaled, the gatekeeping that underpins its utility has permeated blockchain culture — making it difficult for both consumers and technologists outside its bubble to engage with the technology.

Tongtong Gong (pictured), co-founder and chief operating officer of Amberdata Inc., is working to remove those barriers to entry for those sidelined by blockchain’s inaccessibility. “When I started learning blockchain, I realized blockchain data is stored, it’s immutable, but it’s really hard to access, analyze, [and] process without all the tools that we know and are comfortable with,” said Gong, who was recently named one of the Top Women Entrepreneurs in Cloud by CloudNOW for her work with Amberdata.

Gong spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the CloudNOW “Top Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards event in Menlo Park, California.

This week, theCUBE spotlights Tongtong Gong in our Women in Tech feature.

Extracting ‘flies from amber’

Gong comes from a background in data analytics and computing, and was leading the software startup Unified Enterprise Corp. as its vice president of engineering when she developed an interest in burgeoning blockchain technology. “I was just very intrigued with blockchain and the potential of how [it] can change our life and take our identity, assets, have full control, remove intermediaries,” she said.

Blockchain enterprise integration has so far been focused around ensuring the security protocol and scale that will enable its widespread business utility, but Gong found its support tools lacking the monitoring and analysis capabilities necessary for real value extraction. After uncovering this roadblock, the engineer dove headfirst into developing a solution for improved blockchain accessibility.

“I didn’t have enough time in the day to learn about this new technology, [so] what’s a better way to do it than [to] start my own company?” she asked.

Amberdata offers blockchain’s first monitoring and analysis dashboard for public and private ledger transactions, a veritable “Google for blockchain.” The tool is the first of its kind and gives developers access to both historical and real-time data to enable the exploration of trends for more informed business strategies. Its full visibility and integrated security provide a much-needed comprehensive blockchain solution for the 8 million smart contracts currently living on the distributed digital ledger, according to Gong.

Gong and her co-founder named the company Amberdata as a nod to the “fly trapped in amber” metaphor often used to describe the elusive, inflexible nature of blockchain. “Upon layers of amber solidified and the bubbles and the fly, you can still see it, but it’s immutable. Without a platform like us, you can’t count all the bubbles in the amber. We help you extract the bubbles [and] the flies from the amber and analyze it,” she said.

Communicating through blockchain roadblocks

Gong is recently graduated from the SAP.iO Foundry in New York, an accelerator program for technology startups run by women. The engineer has more than 15 years of experience developing and implementing distributed enterprise services in the startup market but credits the SAP.iO Foundry with helping her better understand the functional needs and decision-making processes of large companies at scale.

While the incubator gave Gong new enterprise insights, her inherent communication capabilities have also proven essential in launching Amberdata. The engineer’s curiosity with blockchain and interest in making it more accessible manifested as numerous conversations that elucidated enterprise needs around the tool. Those conversations also earned Gong the investor capital necessary to build her business.

“When we started the company, we went to [venture capitalists] and meetups, and we’d talk to anyone about our idea, looking for advice, looking for validation. That’s really what led us to get the funding,” she said.

One of the strengths Gong leverages in Amberdata is her ability to listen to and communicate with investors, collaborators and end-users. Those “soft skills” enabled conversations that informed the development of her widely useful innovation tool.

“In the beginning, you really try to define and refine the idea and the product. Are you solving a problem? What is the problem that you are solving? You really can’t get answers unless you talk to lots of people,” she said.

Accessibility builds better tech

Blockchain’s tech isn’t the only area in which it lacks accessibility. While its innovative potential is considered revolutionary, culturally the crypto space has earned a reputation as a “boy’s club” for its stark gender representation disparity — the industry employment ratio is 92-to-8 men-to-women.

Demographic inequities plague the tech industry at large. Among a number of roles and companies that lack diverse representation, two percent of venture capital funding goes to companies founded by women. Research show that the industry’s current soft skills gap is sidelining communicative competency in business roles. One study found women 86 percent more likely to display emotional self awareness than their male counterparts, an ability necessary to the social interactions that underlie every aspect of work.

No person can be defined by their gender or other demographic factor, and hiring women as a salve for a company’s lack of emotional intelligence only further propagates the tech industry’s inequalities. But recognizing the importance of soft skills in business could help to shift unconscious biases around the image of a leader. Gong’s experience building Amberdata makes the value of those skills, as well as her many other attributes, abundantly clear.

“I always consider being female an attribute, [but] my gender doesn’t define me. I’m also an engineer. I’m also incredibly curious all the time. I’m also bubbly. I’m also a wife. I’m also a daughter,” she said.

In addition to its ethical issues, gatekeeping in tech culture can be evidenced in products that are ineffective for end consumers. Gong built Amberdata to demystify blockchain and enable its use for everyone. From accessible blockchain to tech industry inclusivity, equity is a through line in all of Gong’s work.

“Let’s forget about taking a seat. Let’s create a table. Let’s create a seat for other people,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the CloudNOW “Top Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE