Welcome Nirali and Hamisha, great to have you on ChainChat. I’m Natassja from Diversity in Blockchain. You may have figured out by now that what we do is ask each guest to leave a question for the next guest and at the end, we will ask you to do the same. For you, the question is: What brought you into Web3 and when?
Hamisha: Really nice question to start off with actually! A bit of background about me and how I got into the space. I have a really traditional corporate background in finance, strategy and consulting. My other half is a developer and it was kind of by osmosis I first learned about crypto, a few years ago. But I didn’t really get involved in Web3 until earlier this year and the projects that really brought me into it were World of Women, and then watching the BFF webinar. From that point, I was immersed, and here we are.
Nirali: For me, similar to Hamisha actually, as I’m from a corporate background. I used to be in legal and finance and then last year I took a break to become a full-time artist. I wanted to have a change and was inspired to do a different type of role, because the corporate life just wasn’t best suited for my creative flair. Looking for the next chapter and actually while figuring that out, Hamisha and Rakhee saw my work online and reached out to me. It was at this time that Hamisha was going down the rabbit hole, and they kind of pulled me in! To be honest, I haven’t looked back since.
Your group is?
Hamisha: We’re called Gold Bangle Club. So there are three founders actually, Hamisha, me and a third, Rakhee who couldn’t join us today. She has a background in social purpose and comms, as well as campaigns. Similarly to us, she went down the rabbit hole earlier this year. She’s at the end of her maternity leave and dipped her toes into Web3 during that time.
What are you trying to achieve in this space?
Hamisha: We came together at a point of reflection in all of our lives. What we’d found from our corporate background was that diversity and inclusion is something that’s always been on our radar, being three South Asian women. When we headed into the Web3 space, we all know the stats — few women, fewer minorities. That lack of diversity became even starker for us. In a few places we saw pockets of diversity and there are a few women-led projects, but there still wasn’t much representation of women of colour, including South Asians. That’s why we formed Gold Bangle Club. We exist to change this. Our core mission is to bring women onboard — particularly those from a South Asian background.
What are you doing just lately?
Hamisha: It’s a bear market at the moment so, like many others, we’re building, we’re engaging our community, and we have some events planned for the autumn. But one thing we’ve learned in real-life society, is that really, to change the dial on diversity, it can’t just be the underrepresented groups that are driving it — we need allies. And so what we are trying to achieve with GBC is a community where people who aren’t just from the South Asian culture can find a space to learn about it and immerse themselves in the art, the richness, and basically become better allies so that together we can really move the dial on diversity.
What barriers to entry have you seen when it comes to diverse audiences?
Nirali: I think that’s an interesting question and there are a number of things we’ve individually seen. But together, we’ve noticed firstly the notion that Web3 isn’t for us. People have an assumption or judgment that Web3 is not open to people like them. What that creates is a level of imposter syndrome when you’re going down the hole and feeling like it’s not for me, when actually that’s not accurate.
Another barrier we’ve come across especially in regard to specific cultures is societal and family expectations and risk. When you’ve grown up a certain way and been expected to have a certain type of career, people that don’t understand the premise of Web3, it’s hard to break free from that perception that our families and the older generations have. Another one is gender norms. It’s a big thing across society, the roles that women are expected to adopt.
How is GBC tackling the issue of diversity on the whole?
Hamisha: I’ll take that one. As a general approach, we’re trying to make sure we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. We’re focusing on four areas to try and tackle that lack of diversity in Web3. Through focusing on engaging a really supportive community, bringing together people who are curious about Web3, want to understand the nuances of South Asian culture, and/or want to support each other on a learning journey.
The second aspect is the network. One of the things we found in real life is that having a strong network makes a difference to progression and to personal development, especially in the corporate world. But that’s true also in Web3. Building that network, building connections, understanding that there are others like you in the space. For us, the dual element of virtual and real-life also comes into it. We hope to build a network that transcends both realms.
The third is education. There aren’t many South Asian women in the space because of those barriers that Nirali spoke about, it’s important to help people on that education journey and how we’re doing that is through the fourth element of artwork and the storytelling element of our artwork, making Web3 digestible and easier to understand. We all know there are tons of jargon. Much of it can be broken down very simply. So the four areas we’re focusing on are: community, network, education and symbolic art.
Good combo! What other projects or individuals inspire you?
Nirali: There are so many projects that we’ve come across as well as individuals. Especially artists with projects that have specific values. What they stand for, they’re incredible. A few of our favourites that we’ve been rooting for from the very beginning are Guava Girls, BFF, Chipped Pixels, Boss Beauties and I think Hug is probably the other one. The reason we’re championing for them is because of how they’re championing diversity and making the space welcoming for everyone. They’re extremely friendly and inviting. And uplifting others while they’re doing that.
Along your journey so far, what discoveries have you made that could be insightful for others?
Nirali: I think actually a very simple one, but no-one’s an expert! At the beginning, we felt overwhelmed with all the information, the learning curve is really steep, it’s brand new. What we soon started to realise as we went into this journey, and started to learn and understand a bit more is that we are all in the same place. That’s the beauty of how early on we are in Web3 at the moment. There’s space for everyone and we’re all in the same boat.
There’s still time to shape it. That’s our whole game as well. Get everybody on board now while there’s still time to shape its evolution.
What makes someone diverse? And why should people pay attention to those who move through the world differently?
Hamisha: I love this question, and the reason I love it is because personally, the journey that I’ve been on in terms of D&I has evolved. There once was a time where the mention of diversity made people only think of those outwardly visible traits of gender, race, ability, sexual orientaion… The tick boxes on a form. But when you really unpick diversity, it’s about diversity of thought. And that comes from all of those things, but also, different backgrounds, different experiences, upbringing, education, that’s the richness of individuals and all of those things make people diverse. The more diverse a group of people, the more innovation you get, and because Web3 is about innovation because we are still in the early days, we need that diversity in minds and experiences coming together to shape what we don’t know yet! For us as GBC it’s about recognising those outwardly visible diverse traits that by default mean that people have different experiences, upbringing and education. But also there are others who also bring that richness of different experiences and that’s diversity too.
Great answer. What opportunities do you think there are in this space?
Hamisha: It leads on quite nicely from the last question because I mentioned that there’s lots of innovation to happen in Web3 and so there are other opportunities we know about today, like NFTs, utility, building community, brands, but there are a ton of opportunities that haven’t been discovered yet. That’s why we need more people from an array of different backgrounds to help find these opportunities. Otherwise, we end up in an echo chamber of — I can’t say expert because no-one’s an expert — but those who are really involved in Web3 and it becomes their echo chamber. Twitter is a little like that at the moment. We need more outside thought coming in.
What has been your greatest resource whether for learning or for something else?
Nirali: Probably the communities that we’ve joined, I think the love and warmth you get from joining these communities is invaluable, especially with BFF and having Guava Girls, it’s just very, very inclusive and you feel like you’re part of something bigger. You get to shape something you’re really passionate about which is lovely. Another of our resources has been our advisory board who between them, have a ton of experience in the Web3 space with innovation, tech and strategy. That’s been valuable. Our community as well, has been our strength. Building two-way engagement, getting the feedback it’s been powerful to see how much impact we’re having and also how much they can impact us.
OK, give us one personal fact.
Nirali: A random one? I really enjoy rollerskating. I started during lockdown as everyone did, starting hobbies that they didn’t think they’d continue. I’d go to the park on my own, it was fantastic. One about Hamisha that might not be obvious is she loves to do Henna. She trained to do henna. She’s great.
Hamisha: That’s my creative side. Nirali is our artist and all of our artwork is done by her and it’s stunning, but my little bit of creative input is henna..
You’ll have to think of a way to turn a physical henna business into a Web3 one. There must be a way! Alright, any other wisdom or insights that you’d like to share?
Hamisha: From our perspective it’s that everyone is learning, at the moment Web3 is unpredictable, we don’t know where it’s heading, just that it is growing and will become more mainstream as years go by. I guess the wisdom or insight from us is just to use this time to learn, no-one can take knowledge away from you, so investing time in learning won’t be wasted. Webinars, Twitter, go on LinkedIn, go to conferences, speak to people on Discord and use that as a time to learn. You just don’t know what will come of it.
This has been great. All I’m going to ask you now is to leave a question for our next ChainChat guest.
Nirali: I have one, a slightly difficult one, but the question I’d like to leave is: If you could focus on solving one problem, knowing that you’d succeed, what would it be?
Great. We’ve had a similar one before but it’s always great to see, as you say, how different people give different answers and leveraging that diversity of thought. Thank you so much for coming on!
Hamisha: Thanks for having us and to the audience for listening! If you do want to learn more about Gold Bangle Club, we’re on all the socials, the most interactive and visual is on Instagram and we’d love to connect.
Have a great day!