speaker-0: Be okay with the vulnerability of not knowing certain things and asking questions. The entire ecosystem, everybody that I have encountered has been so open to sharing their experience, their knowledge, create partnerships, mentorships. Yeah, open those doors for yourself. There are opportunities. You just have to be permissionless with your voice.

speaker-1: Message to women entering Web3.

speaker-0: Be fearless. Ethereum is for everyone and happy Women's Day.

speaker-1: Welcome to ECH Institute podcast in the special series Women Powering Web3. We are speaking with women in the space who are contributing and supporting Ethereum ecosystem. Today we are joined by Ladana Higgins and we are hoping to learn more about her way to the space and contributions. Ladana works for Ethereum Foundation and I know her personally she is very passionate about women in this space. Welcome Ladana.

speaker-0: Thank you. Thanks for having me today.

speaker-1: I truly appreciate you taking out time. know you for quite some time and since day one, I have seen you advocating for women and supporting in all possible ways. And I look forward to learn more from you about your work and your general thoughts and perception about women in this space. All right, let's kick off this conversation with a short introduction. Could you let our audience know about yourself and how you find your way?

speaker-0: sure.

speaker-1: to the Ethereum ecosystem.

speaker-0: Hi, I'm LaDonna Higgins and I work on the protocol coordination team at the Ethereum Foundation. I am entering my fifth year at the Ethereum Foundation, which I have just grown to love and realized that I found a lot of passionate work that is needed in the entire ecosystem. I started off as an executive assistant to Danny Ryan and kind of gradually moved to managing protocol coordination for the protocol cluster at the Ethereum Foundation. Within that time, I co-founded UIP, Women in Ethereum Protocol, along with Puja and Xiaowei Wang, who is now co-executive director at the Ethereum Foundation. What brought me to blockchain really was the opportunity that I saw and found for growth and knowledge. I wasn't really knowledgeable about blockchain. The most I had ever heard was Bitcoin. And so this was a space that I knew that I could enter and have longevity and self-personal growth as far as building my knowledge and something that I'm very passionate about and making sure that there is a pathway and space for women.

speaker-1: Latana, you have closely worked with leadership, both men and women. I'm curious to understand what are your views on the challenges which are being faced by women in Ethereum? Do you think that they are facing different kind of challenges than any men developer? Yeah, I

speaker-0: think I have a very unique perspective on the challenges, or not the challenges per se, for women in the space. I have been honored to work with two very, very successful women in the space, with one being Xiaowei Wang, who is now the executive director at the Ethereum Foundation. And when I started working with Xiaowei, she was a researcher within the protocol cluster. Also, I have worked with her. And so, Being exposed to women who are in a very powerful position as women, leading in a space that is heavily male driven, I think my perspective is a little bit different. I see that both of these women have shown me that there is the potential, there is the opportunity in the blockchain space to kind of carve out your path. And so with that, I think I'm able to speak to women to say like, yeah, open those doors for yourself. There are opportunities. You just have to be permissionless with your voice and ask for the things that you need and seek partnership with those people who have the ability to get you to those places that you want to be.

speaker-1: That is awesome. In the previous conversation, we have mentioned this quite a few times that Ethereum is a great example of women in leadership. We have two leadership positions held by women, which is great to have. And that kind of also positively affect the environment where we are working. We hope that Ethereum is made a safer space for women in general.

speaker-0: Yes, definitely.

speaker-1: Well, from your experience, Ladana, like we are working together for Women in Ethereum protocol, right? And we see that sometimes women are hesitant to get into this space. Are there possible challenges or myths? Would you want to share about that? Like what stops them getting into this space? Yeah.

speaker-0: think ultimately what stops women from entering a space over the last couple of years of like gathering research, I think it's the same challenges that we face outside of the ⁓ ecosystem of blockchain web three, is that we still haven't found the power in our voice. We still kind of shrink in environments where we feel vulnerable. And that I think is not exclusive to the ecosystem that we're currently in, but overall. And so I think when women, again, are permissionless with their voice, whether in the space or outside of the space, they will find that there are men counterparts that are opening up doors, that are willing to give you the tools and resources that you need to either build your skills or continue to develop your skills to enter spaces that you may feel like you don't have a seat at the table, but From my experience, I am seeing more and more that there are actually spaces for women to feel safe and to grow, but we just have to be permissionless with our voice and be okay with the vulnerability of not knowing certain things and asking questions and being aggressive with building partnerships and mentorships. I think that will carry women a long way in the space.

speaker-1: These are pretty good advice. I really appreciate you sharing this. I hope that women hear out this conversation and be inspired. Well, if you have to like talk about what inspires you to be working in this space, whom you look up to as a woman in blockchain web three or maybe outside this web three space.

speaker-0: Yeah, you know, for myself, like, every day I wake up and I feel like I'm challenged in a way to continue learning about the Web3 space. But also, I have this kind of, like, philosophy that I go by, each one teach one. And so, always finding something that I can teach another person who may not be as comfortable with learning something that's very challenging. If I can say, let me think a little bit, there's so many powerful women in the space that I've encountered. just in my journey, I'm just trying to pinpoint one person that I would say inspired me. And that's really hard, right? Because I've gotten the opportunity to work on the research team. And I will tell you, each researcher that I've ever worked with has been so passionate about the work that they do, their experience and what they leave in the ecosystem and what they provide has always inspired me to do more, right? To do more with opening doors, do more with. saying it's okay to not know as long as you're willing to learn and be okay with sitting close to people who have already gone through the journey that you want to travel. It's okay to sit close to those people and listen to those conversations and to just kind of know what you don't know and what it is you want to know, right? So I don't know if there's one person that I could particularly say inspires me, but the entire ecosystem, everybody that I have encountered has been. so open to sharing their experience, their knowledge, create partnerships and mentorships. And that keeps me inspired with the work that I'm doing now.

speaker-1: And I think the WIP work that I can say for sure is great. I mean, this platform gives opportunity to many women to make their first contribution to Ethereum ecosystem. It's an exposure to this Web3 world. So that's a commendable work. I really appreciate you for that. We are working in the direction of increasing diversity, not only at client level, but also on the developers level. What does a more inclusive work in

speaker-0: Yes.

speaker-1: Ethereum ecosystem or Web3 ecosystem looks like to you. When can we say safely that we do not have to advocate to onboard any more women? We see that they are naturally progressing into this new ecosystem.

speaker-0: Yeah, I think a more inclusive environment in the ecosystem for me looks like every aspect of the process, right, includes messaging that Ethereum is for everyone. Ethereum is open so that the conversations don't always feel so geared towards inclusiveness, exclusiveness, like the language, the way we approach, whether it's hiring, whether it's... educational opportunities, partnerships, the language surrounding that. I think once that changes, it will feel more inclusive, right? And just being, I guess, having compassion for people who don't necessarily fit into the boys club, right? Understanding that there are just kind of things that we do naturally that we don't think exclude people. But from my experience, I entered the space and I was kind of like the only woman of color at the time, but. I use my voice and I'm permissionless and it's like, no, I wanna be here at the table and I wanna learn what I don't know. And I have a certain unique skillset that I can offer. But with that skillset, it brings me closer to the people that do know. And so that has been such a huge benefit for me in the Web3 space, being able to just say, hey, I don't know you, what do you do? ⁓ that sounds interesting. Let me learn more about that. And deciding for myself, is that a pathway I wanna go towards? No, but at least I know it exists and I can expose other people to that pathway.

speaker-1: is we need people to be connected with each other. So that skill set is definitely going to be helpful for many people who knows what to do, but they do not know whom to reach out to in order to make that contribution they want to. So that's a very good thing to have in place. Very well, that brings to the conclusion of all the short answer questions. Maybe we can just go ahead with the rapid fire question round. It's going to be one word. One phrase, sentence, whatever comes to your mind, just want you to speak your heart there. Okay. All right, online or in-person events. One myth about women in tech you want to break. One word decentralization feels like hackathon or conference. One word that defines women in Web3.

speaker-0: in person. Fear. opportunity. Conference. ⁓ W-I-P.

speaker-1: Right. Message to women entering web3. The future of Ethereum is awesome. And that concludes all the rapid fire question. Thank you, Ladana for speaking your mind and taking all those questions boldly. I don't have a gift hamper for you. Very sorry. But we can share the t-shirts that we have from WIP.

speaker-0: Be fearless. for everyone.

speaker-1: Ladana, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today and for sharing your journey, your work and your perspective. It's truly inspiring to see the impact you are creating with WIEP and within the Ethereum Foundation.

speaker-0: Thank you. Thank you so much, Pooja. Thank you, Manashi, for having me in ETHCAT Herders. I just would like to end and say Ethereum is for everyone and happy Women's Day.

speaker-1: to our listeners. you for tuning in to the special series Women Powering Web3 by ECH Institute. If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with more women in the community. And if you are someone looking to take your first step into the ecosystem, I hope these stories encourage you and you take that step. Thank you so much for joining us. Cheers.