#17: Raine Revere, Shapeshift: Blockchains and Diversity at Denver Startup Week

4 min readNov 8, 2017

In this episode of Creating a Humanist Blockchain Future (Youtube, Soundcloud, iTunes), I interview Raine Revere, the Lead Architect of Shapeshift Prism and a co-founder of a blockchain diversity startup, Maiden. For me, this is a crucial interview in a relatively neglected area within the blockchain space. One of the key system-level loops that we operate within is between technology and society. We need to actively think about the values that we (society) are pushing into our technology. Raine gives us some food for thought. Enjoy!

Decentralization is a key “value” within the blockchain space. But what about the decentralization of the kinds of people who are creating this new technology? How does decentralization align with diversity?

If you look at the number of women in tech it’s small. Then number of women in finance is smaller. The number of women in Fintech is smaller still. The number of women in blockchain is smaller still.
We glorify the decentralized future. But at a blockchain meetup, is that what you want? Is that future you want?
There’s diversity and the intelligence innate to that diversity. Why not ensure our future has that?
Decentralization is about decentralization of value transfer and wealth. AND of backgrounds. It actually matters. I’m a trans women and bring a different perspective.

A primary humanity-level goal is antifragility and resilience within the system. If it’s just rich white males, then that feels like a trust point of failure at the human level. How does Maiden begin to solve that?

That antifragility is key and that’s where Maiden comes in.
Maiden is a for-profit blockchain company with a social mission. Educating and empowering people with blockchain skills. From cryptocurrency investment to smart contract development.
Not many people are taking on this educational challenge. We’re doing so in a socially conscious way. It matters who we train up.

In a pessimistic way, blockchain is the compounding of existing power structures. But it’s also an opportunity because it’s so new. The libertarian mindset is “self-focused”. What can a libertarian do at an individual level to increase diversity in this space?

People’s hearts are there. It’s the nature of privilege and power to not be aware and to compare to historically disadvantaged groups. One big thing is just to name it and acknowledge it. There’s a myopic version of reality where we don’t talk about identity. But we need to.
Maiden is creating opportunities for new culture. More inclusive meetups where people come back. If you have an event and a woman isn’t respected, she’s going to go home. If we want to unlock that potential and that intelligence, we need her to stay.
It’s not offensive to ask about someone’s experience. Ask women or a person of color about their experience in the tech space.

Instead of the human level, what can we do at a system level? New ways to incentivize diversity perhaps?

Blockchain gives us the ability to shift the economic incentives to align with our human values. We sometimes forget that.
I don’t have an answer now, but we should be thinking about how we can incentivize diversity.

Do we need to wait to concentrate on diversity until after we’ve completed other social goals like financial inclusion?

We don’t have to wait.
Impact is a one-directional focus. Takes away focus from object onto subject. What are we helping, who are we helping? A just as important, if not better question is, “who is doing the helping, who is in a leadership position, and who are we listening to when we’re seeking advice and seeking expertise in this space?”

It’d be awesome for blockchain to be the place that all the other tech industries look at for leadership here. What is the one final thing we can do to make blockchain more inclusive?

There is unequal access. It’s not due to bad intentions. It’s due to a system that’s set up with unequal resources.
First step is to recognize that. Communicate with the people around who are talking about blockchain. Embody the normalcy of diversity. For example, how can we get more women on this panel? Instead of it being a side thing, make it part of the main conversation. And when we seek experts, start looking for diverse perspectives.

Thanks to Keith Klundt, Mike Goldin, John Desmond, Colin Wielga, Harry Lindmark, Joe Urgo, John Lindmark, Jacob Zax, Katie Powell, Jonathan Isaac, Brady McKenna, Jeff Snyder, Ryan X Charles, Chris Edmonds, Ned Mills, Kenji Williams, Scott Levi, Peter Rodgers, Kenzie Jacobs, Jon Frechin, Nathan Schneider, and Kash Dhanda for supporting me on Patreon!

Thanks to Shapeshift for sponsoring the show!

About Me: My name is Rhys Lindmark and I’m a social entrepreneur. I’m creating a humanist blockchain future by hosting a daily systems podcast with experts. I’m an alumnus of Techstars Boulder 2015 (Edify). Please reach out if you’d like to connect or have feedback! I’m curious about what you’re working on. You can support me on Patreon, follow me on Twitter, or connect on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: I own less than $100 of any given cryptocurrency, so my monetary incentive is not directly aligned with Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.