Women in Web3: How to Become a Cryptoasset Analyst

Eshita Nandini first heard about Bitcoin around 2018, but didn’t really spend much time learning about it until the beginning of 2020 when she, like the rest of the world, suddenly found herself with a lot of time at home at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What first caught her attention was NBA Top Shots, an NFT marketplace that allows fans to buy and sell basketball highlights, something that she had not previously realized was possible. After doing more research into the space, learning about decentralized finance and building creator-first communities, she knew that Web3 was where she wanted to grow her career.

“Web3 sets builders and creators up in a way where they are able to get more upside from their work,” Nandini told The Org. “We’re building systems and applications that reward people much better than Web2 can.”

A day in the life

After completing her fellowship at Bloomberg’s early-stage venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta, she joined Messari, a cryptocurrency analytics company on a mission to bring transparency to the crypto-economy.

On a day-to-day basis, Nandini spends a lot of time investigating projects that she is interested in writing about.

She spends her time going through white papers, Discord and Telegram groups and then synthesizing the information into comprehensive reports.

“I’m also connecting with teams and having calls with them to really understand what they think about community building,” Nandini said. “I honestly love it because I’ve been learning a lot.”

Moving into Web3

For people who are interested in moving into the space, Nandini thinks the most important thing is understanding the ethos behind Web3 and learning about decentralization.

To put it simply, Web3 is the third generation of the internet. Unlike Web2, where centralized platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that monetize through individual data have flourished and made a handful of billionaires, Web3 is designed so that the internet will be jointly owned by the creators and its users.

“DAOs [decentralized autonomous organizations] are just so different to how a traditional company works, people should learn about those things and see if it resonates with them,” Nandini said.

Unlike a traditional company, DAOs are member-owned companies that do not have centralized leadership, all activity is fully transparent and can be easily accessed by the public. Some popular DAOs that currently exist include MakerDAO a decentralized finance platform that has gained publicity through its ability to lend and borrow virtual currencies without a middleman and Decentraland, a fully decentralized virtual world, where users are able to determine the policy and behaviors accepted online.

Another piece of advice she has for people eager to learn about Web3 is to spend more time on Twitter.

“A lot of people like spending time on Twitter,” she said. “A lot of projects when they launch, or when people write pieces about anything Web3 are posted on Twitter, it is the channel for distribution.”

Knowing that the space may be difficult to tap into, she recommends following a few influential people and groups in the space, joining Discord channels and then slowly learning through conversing and acquainting with people who may have more knowledge of the space.

Breaking stereotypes

As it currently stands, the Web3 space is still heavily dominated by men. A LongHash study published in 2018 shows that women account for 14.5% of employees out of a survey among 100 blockchain startups, and there was not a single female leader in 78 out of the 100 startups.

“I think we’ve made crypto this very bro-y culture because men started in this space and it has created a barrier that could scare some people away,” Nandini said. “I’ve definitely been in spaces where it’s mostly men and get a little intimidated by a roomful of men that have been in the crypto space for a much longer time.”

Despite this, Nandini notes that there are many women forward groups that are budding in Web3.

“There are a lot of communities that are centered around women and people of color in the space,” she said. “I am also more mindful of the people I reach out to, I make an effort to build my own community with women.”

Looking forward, Nandini hopes that in the future there are more onboarding opportunities for people who are interested in Web3.

“Most people don’t know how to set up a wallet and do the very basic things, I think we need programs that educate people on this so that it makes it less intimidating to get into the space,” she said.