The Power of Collaboration in Blockchain and AI
Blockchain has long been hailed as a tool for decentralization, empowering individuals with data ownership and fostering transparency. But what if its true potential lies in something deeper: collaboration? At ETHDenver 2025, I spoke with Thessy Mehrain, founder of Women in Blockchain, to explore how leadership based on feminine principles could be the key to shaping AI, blockchain, and the future of technology as a whole.
Women in Blockchain: Pioneering Diversity
Thessy Mehrain established the Women in Blockchain community in 2016, long before diversity in the tech world became a mainstream topic. At the time, it was one of the few female-focused blockchain groups in existence. “There was this hunger to understand blockchain,” she recalls. “And, of course, there is a need for diversity in any emerging technology. If different perspectives aren’t in the room, the technology ends up serving the same narrow group of people—overlooking the contributions and requirements of the rest. We’ve seen this problem across industries, from medical research to automotive design.”
For Mehrain, true diversity isn’t just about representation; it’s about influence. “If you hire your first female developer, make sure she’s a top developer,” she emphasizes. “It’s not about hiring women for the sake of it—it’s about putting them in positions where they shape the future, not just exist within it.”
Mehrain consistently notes that gender equity in blockchain and tech isn’t solely a women’s issue. “Men become allies once they understand the benefits. Most companies, especially in the early blockchain days, were run by men. To advance women into leadership roles, men have been supportive once they understood the hurdles.”
Lessons from Kenya: Community-Driven Economies
At ETHDenver, Mehrain hosted a session featuring Njambi Njoroge, Operations Director of the Grassroots Economics Foundation in Kenya. The organization has been at the forefront of community-driven economies by digitizing traditional mutual-aid systems with blockchain. “Njambi talked about how collaboration has always been at the core of Kenyan communities,” Mehrain explains. “For centuries, people have come together to build houses, till land, and share resources. Now, with blockchain, they can track these commitments and scale them beyond their immediate community.”
Grassroots Economics formalizes these agreements into digital vouchers—blockchain-backed tokens representing labor, goods, or services. By enabling communities to exchange value independently of national currency, these tokens foster financial inclusion and resilience.
Mehrain believes this collaborative culture offers a valuable model for the rest of the world. In her view, “In the West, our economies are increasingly relying on central authorities—where ‘trusted middlemen’ own everyone’s data and hold the power. But in many places, economies are rooted in collaboration. One of the features of technologies like blockchain is to add a trust infrastructure that allows to remove central entities, and create cooperative economies.”
The AI Challenge and the Feminine Principle
Following Njoroge’s talk, Lisa Loud, Executive Director of Secret Network Foundation, discussed the pressing need for privacy in AI. Loud noted that while companies like Google started with a mission ‘for the people,’ they now often monetize user data. Alternatively, Loud suggested that exciting opportunities arise from using this technology to serve the humanity; AI could solve urgent, complex problems like the eradication of cancer, and the advancement of age-related illness research.
Mehrain highlights how profoundly interconnected these topics are. “If AI is designed as a domination tool, we lose. AI will outthink us, outpace us, and the game will be over before we know it, because AI is smarter than us. But if we build AI for collaboration, it becomes a tool to enhance humanity, not replace it.”
This is where Mehrain proposes her most thought-provoking idea: the difference between masculine and feminine principles in technology. “It’s not about gender—it’s about mindset,” she explains. “The masculine principle is about domination—the winner is who gets there first at any price, the winner gets to own the system. The feminine principle is about collaboration—winning is defined by getting there first as well but accounts also for the impact on others. You only win together. That’s why how we program AI matters, who programs matters because biases will be reflected in the systems. Another benefit of diversity, everywhere.”
Fortunately, blockchain is inherently a collaborative technology. AI must adopt a similar ‘mindset’, or we will face serious consequences.
Rethinking the Future: AI’s Role
Mehrain is clear: this isn’t about making AI or blockchain “softer” or less powerful—it’s about making them smarter by valuing human contribution and making them sustainable, ultimately benefiting humanity. “We need to stop designing systems where the goal is to ‘individually win,’” she says. “AI has no conscience, it’s smarter than us. AI will win. Instead, we should design systems that define winning looking at the bigger picture to improve life.”
“We must ensure AI and blockchain serve people, instead of controlling or even eliminating them. Blockchain gave us the infrastructure to re-invent power, to distribute it to the individuals, to collaborate. Blockchain in its structure is horizontal vs centralized power like that of corporations, which is top down,” Mehrain concludes. “AI can empower either, we have a choice to solve the world’s most pressing issues now if we train AI to collaborate and define winning by a best case scenario for everyone. If we train it to dominate, we will fall victim to the AI version of DOGE. If we don’t get it right now, we miss the greatest opportunities of our life-time and might not get another chance.”
With leaders like Thessy Mehrain, Njambi Njoroge, and Lisa Loud leading the way, the future of AI and blockchain will be built with intention, through a commitment to collaboration.
