Rhian Lewis
Director of Word3 Ltd
Please introduce yourself and your background. What has brought you into fintech?
I am the director of Word3 Ltd, a small consultancy offering content creation and advisory services in the Web3 space. As a part of Word3 I have been working for the last 10 years with organisations like Outlier Ventures, b9lab and CFTE. Drawing from my experience, I have also authored two books about cryptocurrency, both published by Kogan Page business publishers.
My career has taken two different paths: first as a journalist, where I worked for The Times of London, and then as a software developer. As a developer, I have always been keen to seek out new technologies and opportunities. When I first read about Bitcoin in 2012, I was intrigued. Having a BSc in Economics, I saw blockchain technology as the perfect intersection of finance and tech—two fields I had always been passionate about. By early 2014, a friend and I had launched one of the very first cryptocurrency portfolio trackers, which became a kind of a passport into this fascinating industry.
That sounds like an incredible journey—seeing the industry evolve firsthand must have been interesting. How have you seen the crypto industry change in terms of inclusivity, particularly for women?
It certainly has changed now! The industry is unrecognisable from how it was 10 years ago. Personally, I have always felt welcome and included, but back then, there were simply fewer women at crypto events. At times, I would be the only woman in the room, which is hard to believe now.
That was one of the reasons a friend and I founded the London Women in Bitcoin meetup in 2014—the first female-focused crypto meetup in the UK. It was a great way to build a community and form lasting friendships, and it came to a natural conclusion when it had fulfilled its purpose.
You mentioned your two books about crypto—The Cryptocurrency Revolution and Understanding Decentralised Finance. What inspired you to write them, and what impact do you hope to achieve?
Each book serves a different purpose that I hope will be achieved. The Cryptocurrency Revolution was the book I had always wanted to write because so many people would ask me about crypto, and I noticed a real lack of accessible and understandable materials. At the time I was writing a lot of long-form blog posts on my Medium, but I knew there was so much more to say. It starts with a fundamental question—“What is money, and how did it originate?”—and then carries on right through the history of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Understanding Decentralised Finance is more specialised, focusing on the DeFi ecosystem that has emerged in recent years. Again, my goal was the same: to make complex topics easy to understand.
With your extensive experience in blockchain education and advisory roles, are there any hurdles for success in crypto, particularly for women?
I sincerely believe the barriers that may have once existed are no longer as principal. When I worked at Boson Protocol, I collaborated with some incredibly talented women developers, and today, there are brilliant professionals making an impact across all areas of the industry. Just because they are not the people shouting the loudest on crypto Twitter, it doesn’t mean they are not there.
That is an optimistic take! Given that you do not see major barriers, do you think industry-wide initiatives are still needed to promote gender diversity and inclusion in crypto?
This might be a contrarian view, but I don’t think initiatives are necessary. Perhaps I've been lucky to work with inspiring women, but I believe we already have strong role models in this space. Instead of initiatives, I think the focus should be on visibility—if we celebrated these amazing women more, people would be more aware of them.
