DFINITY Foundation Unveils Women’s Blockchain Scholarship

by Arthur · December 12, 2022

Cryptocurrency

The DFINITY Foundation, the non-profit organization developing the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) – the world’s first web-speed, internet-scale public blockchain – has announced up to $100,000 in grants to female developers and entrepreneurs.

The grants aim to encourage women to build on the ICP ecosystem and provide them with easier access to resources and rapid support recipients through key milestones in the development process.

Studies have shown that fewer women start Web3 projects compared to men, reflecting the lack of female developers and entrepreneurs entering the industry.

Through the grant program, DFINITY Foundation aims to inspire and support women to start building decentralized apps on the Internet Computer blockchain, backed by the 37th most valuable cryptocurrency at the time of writing with a market cap of more than $1.1 billion.

DFINITY Fellow and Supernova Hackathon winner Bernie Snell—known as Bertie Spell on Twitter—expressed the importance of Web3 grants for women in a Twitter thread.

“I wouldn’t even be in the room at all the other day if it wasn’t for a ‘Women in Technology’ grant that allowed me to finish my PhD and learn to code in the first place, many moons ago. Winning at Supernova meant I could then focus on blockchain and IC in particular, she said.

Snell is the founder of dApp Signals, a location-based chat app for connecting, creating community and discovering events. “Financial incentives bring people to eco. If you want women in the environment – fund them,” she added.

Lomesh Dutta, VP of growth at DFINITY Foundation, said: “The Web3 movement is about democratizing access to opportunity. We are very excited to see women entrepreneurs leading the charge, but we also recognize the need to provide more dedicated resources and support to women in this industry and to promote diversity in the Web3 area in every possible way.

“By launching these targeted grants, we look forward to welcoming more female builders to the ICP ecosystem and working together to build our vision of a user-owned, decentralized web on the Internet computing blockchain.”

Other women-led projects in the ICP ecosystem include Distrikt, a decentralized social media platform with 110k+ users, and Factland DAO, which works to slow the spread of misinformation online.

These dApps operate with zero dependency on a central cloud service such as AWS or Google Cloud and offer the associated benefits of data security, safety and lack of deplatforming risk.

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