Last year I was selected for a 18-week mentoring program to empower young female talents for leadership in the blockchain space called DLT Talents. During the program I had the chance to learn more about blockchain technology and to connect with many inspiring women from over the world.

One of our tasks was to interview an inspiring professional in blockchain space and I decided to interview Elena Sinelnikova. She is a Founder and CEO, at CryptoChicks. Elena also co-founded CryptoChicks Hatchery, CryptoChicks Academy, MetisDao and UNIVERS.AI.

How did you get into blockchain?

First time I heard about blockchain was when my best friend’s son started working with bitcoin and later invented his own blockchain. I found it very exciting, therefore started looking into this technology. Blockchain was not easy to learn back then because there were a very few resources at a time. However, after endless hours looking for bits and pieces of information on the internet, I was getting fascinated by it more and more as I understood the potential of this technology, its revolutionary decentralized nature and importance of it for the future. At the same time those who wanted to get into blockchain were up to a huge learning curve. I remember how back then my friend Natalia and I, both software engineers, were struggling with even the most trivial tasks. Setting up a wallet, for example, was a super complicated process. It was clear to us that people that wished getting started with blockchain might need a lot of help.

If someone wants to start their journey in blockchain technology, what would be your recommended first steps?

The very first step that I would recommend you is to start educating yourself and understand which area of blockchain exactly you would like to get into. In our non-profit organization, CryptoChicks, we help women and youth to start their blockchain journey. Men are welcome to join as well. If one would like to build one’s own business, we have a mentorship program CryptoChicks Hatchery with 40 mentors who have already built such businesses, and you would receive your own personal mentor who will guide you through all the steps. We have regular webinars and online courses to support you and provide help with funding for your startup. We also just opened CryptoChicks Academy where you can take courses and get help from our experts in areas of blockchain you struggle the most. We also provide help with making blockchain your career.

What really excites you the most about blockchain space?

Probably the most exciting thing is the people and community. They are the innovators — very excited, easy-going and passionate people that constantly invent new cool projects. It is a fast-changing and volatile industry with endless opportunities. So that is the space that excites me most.

How did You start CryptoChicks? And why did you decide to focus only on women?

It started as a meetup group, I wanted to gather women together and start sharing my knowledge of blockchain with them and see what happens. It was a completely new experience to me, I registered on the meetup platform, opened up a group and on the first night over 50 women signed up. I realized that I cannot do it alone, so I called my friend Natalia and asked if she would like to do it with me. She agreed and we started right away. Over 50 women showed up to our first meetup, the second event had over 100 people so we had to find a partner to rent a bigger space. I remember renting an entire restaurant back then. People were literally hungry to learn about blockchain. We were and still are focused on helping women, but we welcomed men too.

Currently CryptoChicks has members from 56 countries. How does it feel to inspire and educate so many women around the world? Did you have a goal to connect so many countries from the beginning?

From the very beginning we had the goal to make it open to all countries and involve as many women as we could, because blockchain technology is borderless and we had an opportunity to connect women from different countries together. Everywhere where the internet is available, we grab the opportunity to educate new women. The only barrier is a language but we are already working on closing this gap as well because we are a multi-language team that delivers the content.

And it feels great, the more women we help, the better it feels.

What are some of your favorite blockchain startups that participated in the Hatchery? Why?

Our hatchery has existed for two years, but it is too early for our startups to talk about a tremendous success. One of the projects Waryer started working with NASA and UN. They are doing disaster recovery and use blockchain to help tracking the resources for that. Another team that just joined the program, they are developing games where people can do yield farming and earn crypto. I believe that this project is going to emerge and we will hear about it very soon.

Do you have any advice for female entrepreneurs who want to start their own business in blockchain space?

If you are already a woman entrepreneur who already knows the business and the only thing that you need to know is blockchain, start educating yourself. CryptoChicks can help with that. No matter what kind of business you start, blockchain or non-blockchain, you have to understand the problem that you are trying to solve and that has to be a problem that people really need and they are glad to pay you money for you solving it.

What do you think is the future for blockchain technology?

Right now the technology is still ready mostly for the early-adopters, but we are already seeing signs for mass adoption and it is going to be everywhere in a couple of years.

First, we’ll see more of the decentralized financial products, followed by the adoption of decentralized organizations managed and governed by the provable reputation power tracked on blockchain. However, it is hard to say because it has to go hand-in-hand with the technology development and we know for a fact that thousands of developers are working really hard to get this technology public-ready.

Being such a successful entrepreneur and also having a family, how do you manage your work-life balance?

The secret is having a great partner that supports me and allows me to fulfill my purpose in this world. Sometimes my work can get busy or I have to travel a lot, so he helps me with taking care of the kids, cooking lunches and dinners and being a supportive husband. For me, it is priceless.

If someone wants to become a member of CryptoChicks, what is the best way to do it?

You can visit at http://cryptochicks.ca and choose the path that you would like to follow.

Here you can also find information about CryptoChicks Hatchery and CryptoChicks Academy.

Thank You for the interview, Elena.

Thank You for having me and good luck with Your program. I saw that it is a great initiative and I completely support the idea of DLT Talents.