With its promises of decentralization, risk reduction and transparency, blockchain’s encrypted record-keeping technology is disrupting a range of industries and aims to revolutionize modern business. The worldwide blockchain in insurance market is forecast to reach $1,393.8 million by 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 85 percent.

With the help of organizations such as CryptoChicks, a blockchain community focused on empowering women working on blockchain projects, the emerging blockchain tech is also giving historically underrepresented groups the opportunity to capitalize on a rapidly growing market.

“We started [CryptoChicks] because at meetups there would be one or two women out of hundreds of men, afraid to ask stupid questions,” said Nataliya Hearn (pictured), co-founder of CryptoChicks. “There’s no stupid questions. Come and join us, and we’ll show you what blockchain is all about.”

Hearn sat down with John Furrier and Dave Vellante, cohosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto last week. Through CryptoChicks, Hearn is not only educating women in the blockchain business, but helping to bridge the gaps between the crypto community and society at large.

This week, theCUBE spotlights Nataliya Hearn in its Women in Tech feature.

Optimizing blockchain tech

Since exploding onto the scene in 2014, blockchain has faced a number of roadblocks to wide adoption. Often characterized as overly complex and unstable, its implementation has long been met with skepticism in the enterprise and in the mainstream tech discourse. While these concerns are not entirely unfounded, they are also a strong argument for crypto’s continued exploration.

“Blockchain represents something unique,” Hearn said. “It’s an opportunity not just to make money or develop new technology — it’s a technology that can liberate. But how do we get that message across?”

The answer to bridging these knowledge gaps and further optimizing blockchain tech lies in the undeveloped talent of young learners, according to Hearn. The CryptoChicks education program aims to capitalize on kids’ time currently spent on the internet and social media and leverage it toward online learning that can earn students rewards through blockchain. The program is creating accessibility in crypto education and giving real use cases of the borderless economy that blockchain enables by encouraging participation through compensation.

“Children earn to learn,” Hearn said. “Coins, money, swag — we’re creating the marketplace that rewards children for learning.”

In an industry still plagued by many questions, Hearn is hoping to break down barriers to understanding and enable the discovery of new solutions for this generation and beyond through the CryptoChicks education platform.

“We’ve got to open their minds and show them that blockchain is a tool just like calculus,” she said. “They can create something that hasn’t been there before.”

Inclusion through blockchain

The CryptoChicks education program is also attempting to democratize access to blockchain technology. For all its revolutionary tech, crypto’s demographics still suffer a disappointing lack of gender representation, with a 92-to-8 men-to-women ratio.

As a woman who has worked in crypto since before the launch of Ethereum, a decentralized platform that powers applications based on the Ether cryptocurrency, Hearn has experienced the pressures of the industry firsthand and is working to encourage women who might otherwise not have the opportunity pursue work in the field.

“It’s about inclusion,” she said. “We are giving a platform for women not to be afraid.”

The CryptoChicks mission doesn’t end with blockchain gender parity. By bringing crypto education to the masses, Hearn wants to enable marginalized groups across the globe to get in on the ground floor of this still-developing technology to build the market themselves. Through hackathons around the world and educational programs that can be accessed remotely, Hearn is leveraging blockchain’s disruptive potential to disrupt tech’s lack of diversity.

“The borderless system that blockchain potentially can provide is a global advantage,” she said. “As long as you have a cellphone and you can [work from anywhere].”

Building a platform for the next generation

By enabling global blockchain engagement through CryptoChicks, Hearn is fostering a greater sense of community throughout the crypto business. Through hackathons, conferences and meetups, the organization encourages knowledge transfers and creates a sense of empowerment and enthusiasm across its student base.

“We had a 40-hour hackathon; these guys didn’t go to sleep,” she said. “There was this amazing technology transfer that happened.”

The organization has been embraced by tech communities worldwide, partnering with the Israel-based developer group She Codes and establishing chapters in Canada, the U.S., Bulgaria, Russia, Pakistan and the Bahamas.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Blockchain Futurist Conference:

Photo: SiliconANGLE