Successful “Women in Blockchain” launch event

With the objective of promoting gender equality in the burgeoning blockchain sector, Procivis, Trust Square and FDP. The Liberal Women Switzerland joined hands to launch the Women in Blockchain event series. The events aim to bring together thought leaders in blockchain to educate, inspire and connect female talents in the sector. With 170 people in attendance, the 12th June marked the first of these events which was hosted by Trust Square, Zurich’s blockchain hub.

The evening was set in motion with two workshops: The introduction to blockchain workshop hosted by Emi Lorincz, Shape Shift, offered new comers an entry into blockchain technology with an overview of the fundamental concepts. Alongside, Angelica Fulcher, Smart Contract Developer at Validity Labs led a workshop on smart contract coding, where participants were taught to create and deploy a simple ICO smart contract.

The workshops were followed by keynote speeches featuring Carmen Walker-Späh, Economics Director of the Canton of Zurich, Mark Branson, director of the Swiss Financial Market Authority (FINMA), and Manuel Sager, Director-General of the Swiss Agency of Development & Cooperation (SDC). The speakers highlighted the transformative potential of blockchain technology in their respective fields and their actions to facilitate its adoption.

The keynotes were complimented by a panel discussion featuring four accomplished speakers: Angelica Fulcher, Smart Contract Developer at Validity Labs, Catrina Luchsinger, Partner at Froriep Legal AG, Mona El Isa, Co-Founder and CEO of Melonport and Monique Morrow, Co-Founder and President of the Humanized Internet. These successful women inspired the audience by rendering personal stories about their journeys into the world of technology and more specifically, blockchain. The audience were led through the evening by renowned National Parliamentarian Doris Fiala, who has been a great advocate of blockchain technology on both the national and international stage.

The event was concluded with a live demonstration of a blockchain application: the Token of Gratitude. The Token of Gratitude is a smart contract based on which individuals can contribute to a charity project by donating Ether. In return, the smart contract issues a non-transferable token to the contributor’s wallet, serving as a “donation certificate”. Attached to the token, the smart contract produces a unique virtual flower for each donor, which can be viewed through the “view donation” function on the website. The “crypto flower” is conceptualized as the anonymous equivalent of a “thank you note” sent by the charity. The smart contract will be collecting funds for a total of 8 weeks. At the time of writing, it has already collected 19.7 ETH and you can still participate until August 7.

We believe that fundraising via public ledger can greatly increase transparency, reduce administrative costs for charitable giving and contributed to spreading awareness about the possibilities of blockchain technology. Therefore, we are very happy that the Swiss charity IAMANEH agreed to collaborate with us to accept donations denominated in Ether.

IAMANEH (International Association for Maternal and Neonatal Health) is a Swiss charity focusing on the physical, social and psychological well-being of women and children in Mali, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania. The “Token of Gratitude” community fundraiser supports a 3-year project (2016-2019) in Burkina Faso, which IAMANEH have implemented in collaboration with their local partner AMMIE (Association pour l’Appui Moral, Matériel et Intellectuel de l’Enfant). Their focus is to provide young women with information and access to reliable means of family planning. Additionally, IAMANEH supports young women with children in building up their own source of income, such as a sewing or barber shop, helping them to achieve financial independence.

If you would like to contribute and be one of the first to participate in this transparent way of fundraising, simply go to our website. You will be able to see the smart contract address by clicking on “donate”. Simply copy the address to your wallet or scan the QR code. Don’t forget to raise the gas limit to 250’000 to ensure that your transaction will go through. If you do not have a wallet yet, you can consider downloading a mobile application such as Edge*.

IAMANEH is a ZEWO certified charity, meaning all donations are tax deductible. In order to get your attestation, send a screenshot of your wallet with the address visible together with your name and postal address to info@procivis.ch. Please make sure to send the PUBLIC key, never send or display your private key to anyone!

We are very happy about the great interest in our first Women in Blockchain event. If you are interested in attending the next event of the series, make sure to follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop or subscribe to our newsletter.

*Please note that Edge is one of many solutions and the choice of a suitable wallet to be used is entirely up to you.