 Live from Nassau in the Bahamas, it's theCUBE, covering Polygon 18, brought to you by Polymath. We are live here with theCUBE's exclusive coverage at Polygon 18, it's a securitized token conference, but really it's about cryptography, cryptocurrency, blockchain, token economics, the whole community's here, investors, entrepreneurs, and startups. We have two great guests here from Crypto Chicks, Natalia Hearn and Natalia Amaline, pioneers in the industry doing something really compelling of the first ever blockchain hackathon coming up in April, it's historic, it's the first. Welcome to theCUBE, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. So I love the t-shirts, Crypto Chicks, I want one, a few, if I'm buying, can I buy them on the website, can I get a maid? I want my daughters to have those immediately, so people in our community know that theCUBE's really been, we love women in tech because there are so many smart women out there, and it's awesome to showcase. But beyond that, it's this real technology being innovated. Talk about what you guys are doing, you have a really important mission, had great success with Crypto Chicks, because this is like a movement inside this community, but it's also happening all around the world. You guys have big plans, take a minute to explain the group, how you guys are operating, how it's going, and talk about this big event. We started this group because we realized that women are underrepresented in the space, and you don't need to go far, look at what's going on at this conference, right? Even though we are pleased with the increase in turnaround of women in events like this, but we still have ways to improve. So we started this group Crypto Chicks with the sole mission to improve gender balance and increase participation of women in the community. And we're doing it in a variety of ways, but largely what we're trying to do is we try to create an environment where it's women feel safe to learn. It's small classes where women come in, they can ask questions, they can feel at ease, and I think it's very important because I guess not everyone feels comfortable getting up in a big crowd and asking questions, and I think what we do really help for a lot of women this way. It's very inspiring, also you guys as co-founders, Natalia, we were talking about you as a professor, and education's a big part of it, but also human nature, right? So talk about the dynamic and how you guys approach that because there's different styles, both men and women, and we got to kind of get it going together. I mean, you just got to get critical mass. Now the good news is people are talking about it and it's happening, and... Absolutely, I think kind of knowledge, people hear stuff. You know, I had a kind of interesting, was talking to a woman who wasn't tech, but her English wasn't great and all this kind of stuff, so she called it big coin, which I love it because it is kind of a big coin. You know, out of all the coins, it's the biggest coin. Right, so stuff like this, right? So if you go to meetups, you would have, out of in a room of 100, maybe one or two women, and then they'll go, well, what's a wallet? Like, what is all this about? Just even the basic baby stepping through the system. And then I think we're focusing on only one part of it. The other part of it is that we're creating a really new level of democracy. And that element, I think we don't, that's why we need the education, right? And education probably, well, women is great, but we got to start a little earlier. The interest should come at least in the high school level where you go, well, what is debt? What is value? How do you define currency? Actually, all the stuff would actually do with the conference here in terms of securities. Is it a security or is it not a security? What, how do you define? So all of that starts early on. I've been having conversations at many levels about this. At Sundance and at Film Festival, we talked about the role of technology. So it used to be, you know, the boys club, that's now changing, which is great, but also there's a trend of multi-disciplinary things. You mentioned economics and all these things. So the world now is becoming integrated. So math, for instance, there's a lot of math geeks out there, male and female. You don't have to be a coder per se, right? You can, there's certainly more coding opportunities for women, but it's not just one thing. You can do anything. This is the 50% of the population is women. If this is going to change the world, which it is, 50% of it is going to be impacted too. So they have to have a role in what's going on in the community. So it's natural this should happen. Absolutely, and actually one of the reasons, the hackathon, the women should, the reason it's the first all women hackathon in blockchain, and we actually have two streams. And one stream is for hackers who are like, you are into the nitty gritty of the sort of coding part and we actually have support for them as well in terms of learning. And then we also have the business track where if you have an idea and you think blockchain would be a really good avenue to take that idea so you could pitch your idea during the hackathon as well. And just to clarify, this is the up and coming hackathon that you guys are doing. All women, what's the date? Share the details, share the details. So it's going to be actually a conference in hackathon. They're going to run in Peramo. Conference will start on the 6th of April and going through the 8th of April and the hackathon will happen at the same time. And where is the conference? So the conference is taking place in Toronto. It's going to be, we're partnering with our venue partner, Mars Discovery District. So it's absolutely amazing venue in Toronto. And also our partner Mars has a history of, you know, promoting the women in technology. So it's a good partnership for us. And it's going to be, the hackathon is going to run about 30 hours and hopefully it's going to be a lot of good connections coming out of it. I think one of the things that we want to accomplish in this hackathon for women is to make it easier for them to get opportunities. So most importantly, we want to connect them with employers. And that's a great venue for that. Because we, you know, when we travel, we have a lot of the times owners of the companies will approach us and say, you know, we're really looking to diversify our team. Can you help us? Because women just don't apply. I think that's another way we're trying to really infuse more women in the community. Open up channels of opportunities, not just how to be like a job interview. Exactly. Working, demonstrating skills, style. Are you guys seeing the formula that works with people, with women? Because we see different conversations around this, you know, take a certain approach, posture this way, be different. Eventually, you know, I interview a lot of women that say, you know, I'm going to be hardcore. And some say, I just want to wear high heels and I want to, I'm a fashion person. That's who I am. And why would I want to change that? Just because I'm a woman. I mean, so there's different views on this. Is there any pattern or formula that you would suggest or observe? You know, I think we live in a really fortunate part of the globe where we can actually do what we want to do. There aren't too many places like that in the world. And I think that we got to be really thankful for that. And then it really is, you know, we are empowered to create opportunities. And you know, in this space, it's a really young space. I mean, it's really fundamental. Some people say, well, it's been in it for 10 years. Really, most of the people have been in it for, you know, a couple of years. So don't think, women shouldn't think that, well, there's all these guys and they know what they're doing. They also don't know what they're doing. They're also, everything is changing. I mean, every wallet and every structure that is being created today is going to be a little different tomorrow. It's a process. So you jump. I was trying to go to the side about that. If you say you're an expert at something here, then you're really a pretender because everyone's always learning. And the real pros are humble about that. So that's one observation. But the other one is, and I got to get your reaction to this because I go to a lot of events, especially in tech, where a lot of mail dominated, you know, enterprise here and there. This community is very mission oriented and I don't see any signs of lack of inclusion. So I think the door is open, at least my perspective. And certainly we've been covering the blog and space and Bitcoin since 2010 and crypto and everything else. But being here, I see open doors. I can say the other verticals, not so much. Here, it seems open. Do you guys agree with that? What's good about that? If you do agree, how do people walk through those doors? If it's not, what needs to happen? What's your observation? I think it depends on the personalities a lot. I find that some personalities, the door is open. I'll just walk in. Some personalities are, you know, okay, I want someone to bring me, introduce me. And I think it's like this everywhere. I think in this space, I mostly see that it's friendly space, I'm pretty happy with it. But I also think there could be some improvements because, you know, quite frankly, sometimes the culture is not necessarily that welcoming. For example, you know, you go to the chat rooms on Facebook as an example. Somebody, a woman makes a comment and after that you'll see lines of guys responding. And what are you doing here? And why did you say that? Yeah, it's very common. It's IRC kind of culture, really. So it's, you know, some women are perfectly fine about that, right? And for me, it's like, okay, you know, everybody's entitled to opinion, right? But some are just next time will not comment, right? And I don't know, maybe guys have a little bit thicker skin and they take some ridicule better. I don't know. But I think there's still ways to make the culture a little bit more open and more, I guess, comfortable. Nathalia, do you agree with that? What's your take on that? I think it really starts with upbringing again and how we raise our children. I have three sons. So, you know, I raise them in a way that the way I'd want to be treated in an environment. I'm an engineer, so I've worked with men all my life and this is not unusual for me. It's I've gone to conference all my life, thousands of people, 20 women. Like, Alyssa, that's really- Yeah, you guys have thick skin. You guys have thick skin. You've seen it. And you know, in a way, yeah. And it takes guts, like you said before, to wear high heels and a skirt and really stand out already when you're already standing out. So you got to put your head up. You know what? And you walk into that room. Be yourself, right? But don't be afraid. I guess what you're saying is you can have whatever posture you want to have. Just be proud, keep your chin up, as they say. All right, so let's talk about, you mentioned you guys are moms. So like, I have four kids, two daughters. David Volante also has four as well, same. They're growing, these kids that are born now are growing with digital natives. Some are kind of pre-post Facebook, pre-Instagram, Snapchat, they're ranged in the spectrum. Certainly gaming has been a big part of the culture with the youth. So people who are digital natives and who have come on with the connected social world it is, they are doing things differently. So I want to get your thoughts as a parent. I get asked a bunch of a lot, should I let them game, should I let them code? What should I do? What's good, what's bad? There's no data other than kind of anecdotal or vision. I personally believe in gaming is a good future of work scenario as long as you don't OD on it and it overdoes on too much gaming. I think coding's the same. And so I think this is going to be the tooling of the future. What do you guys think as parents about the exposure of technology? How do you do it? Is there a diet? Is there a recipe? I mean, what do you guys think? I think personally it's great. I think the younger kids get exposed to technology. The more comfortable they feel about it and the more likely they are to become next, you know, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, et cetera. And I think it's our society whether some people like it or not. It's moving in a direction where we're becoming more and more technology addicted and dependent on it. We, technology is everywhere. We don't even realize that it's there. And, you know, you wake up in the morning and you look at the internet. You may like it or not, but that's the lifestyle these days, right? So I think for me, with kids, we need to give them freedom and we need to observe. Because I think kids are intuitive. They know what they're interested in. And we need to help them nurture their interests so that they grow up and they don't need to go to the job that they hate. Instead, they do what they love and that's how we become a more productive society. And the learning online too is an opportunity to go nonlinear, learn things at scale, you don't have to wait for class or semester. Your thoughts on this, Natalia? Absolutely, I think every child has a gift and I think it's parents' responsibility to discover that gift instead of shoving your ideas into or your things that you didn't achieve in life into your children's. That's called a snow cloud parent or helicopter parenting. Yeah. So absolutely and we are technology-driven society and I've introduced an engineer, so I'm techie, so I've introduced my sons to a lot of things, but you know what? They've introduced me and actually they kept me in this sector. I think the observational thing is really important. Freedom with observation. That's not monitoring and surveillance or helicoptering. It's really like let them play, let them explore, let them have good time, understand it, but be mindful of what you're observing and that's key. And yeah, too much of anything is not good. You know what I mean? You have to balance your sleep patterns and all this kind of stuff. All of that has to come into a child's life. Yeah, maybe intervention is required at some point. You know, when you see that your kid is shaking. I always say to women in tech, we're moms, like man, you have it so easy now because you know how hard it is to raise children. Being a parent is super hard and a lot of people look at that, need to understand how hard it is. It's really a wonderful thing. So thanks for sharing. Looking forward to following CryptoChicks and covering the hackathon. So let us know how it goes. Is there going to be any live feeds or Twitter handles or hashtag? What's going on? They will be and we'll let you know. Thank you for that. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for sharing CryptoChicks here on theCUBE. I'm John Furrier, live coverage continuing day two of SiliconANGLE Media's CUBE exclusive coverage of Polygon 18. We'll be right back.