這位女士怎樣在區(qū)塊鏈中找到機遇
BlockCypher首席執(zhí)行官凱瑟琳·尼科爾森接受《財富》雜志采訪時談到了自己在區(qū)塊鏈行業(yè)中的位置。 《財富》雜志:區(qū)塊鏈是一種分布式公開賬簿技術(shù),它催生了比特幣等加密貨幣。BlockCypher在其發(fā)展過程中發(fā)揮了怎樣的作用? 尼科爾森:BlockCypher就是區(qū)塊鏈領(lǐng)域的Amazon Web Services(AWS)。我們?yōu)閰^(qū)塊鏈開發(fā)API,也就是應(yīng)用程序編程接口。AWS把企業(yè)的工作變得很簡單,企業(yè)只需要給亞馬遜打電話就能大幅提高網(wǎng)絡(luò)基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施的運行速度。我們在區(qū)塊鏈領(lǐng)域也是這樣。我們在一個區(qū)塊鏈上開發(fā)別人可以輕松使用的便攜應(yīng)用程序。一家初創(chuàng)公司可能得先下載節(jié)點,找到peers,之后它才有可能著手開發(fā)區(qū)塊鏈應(yīng)用程序。這通常需要6-9個月時間,而使用我們的API后,這些工作只需要花一個小時就能搞定。 BlockCypher支持比特幣、萊特幣、以太坊和狗幣。你覺得會有一種加密貨幣成為支配者嗎? 我們才剛剛起步。比特幣是第一種加密貨幣,沒什么前途。作為這個世界的王者,它是其他所有加密貨幣的參照標準。但這并不是說其他加密貨幣不會找比特幣的麻煩。我確實認為會出現(xiàn)更好的加密貨幣。 你是一位區(qū)塊鏈從業(yè)女性。現(xiàn)在許多行業(yè)都爆出了性騷擾事件,而你還是美國海軍學院畢業(yè)生。 我在海軍學院的生活真的決定了我的方向,但不一定是最佳途徑。那是個男孩俱樂部。女生只能自生自滅。在大多數(shù)航空工程課上我都是唯一的女性,他們還會嘲笑我的聲音。我第一次跟學術(shù)導(dǎo)師見面時,他就跟我說他只會見我一次,因為航空是最難的專業(yè)之一,而且女性在這方面不夠聰明。而我堅持了下來,成為班里唯一一名航空工程專業(yè)畢業(yè)生。 那段經(jīng)歷確實為我在硅谷的工作打下了很好的基礎(chǔ)。特別是對初創(chuàng)公司來說,你必須有些手段而且不能把“不”作為答案。這也是我堅決引進女性投資者的原因。 你打算籌集更多資金以加快公司的發(fā)展嗎? 我們不需要這樣做。再說區(qū)塊鏈領(lǐng)域出現(xiàn)了很多變化。一年后我們還會做目前的工作嗎?我們得觀察情況,并能朝著自身預(yù)期中區(qū)塊鏈的發(fā)展方向前進。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 原文最初刊登在2018年5月1日出版的《財富》雜志上。 譯者:Charlie 審校:夏林 ? |
Catheryne Nicholson, CEO of BlockCypher, talks with Fortune about her place in a volatile industry. FORTUNE: A blockchain is a distributed public ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. What role does BlockCypher play in its development? NICHOLSON: Block?Cypher is like Amazon Web ?Services [AWS] for blockchain. We build APIs, or application programming interfaces, for blockchain. AWS made it easy for firms to just call up Amazon and get their web infrastructure going much faster. We provide the same for blockchain. We build one applic?ation on a blockchain, and it’s easily portable to others. A startup would have to download the node, find peers, and do all of these things before it could begin to build a blockchain application. Instead of spending six to nine months doing that, it can spend an hour using our APIs. BlockCypher supports Bitcoin, ?Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Do you believe one cryptocurrency will reign supreme? We’re still in the very first inning. Bitcoin was the first crypto?currency; it’s not going anywhere. It is the king of the world against which all other cryptocurrencies are benchmarked. That doesn’t mean other cryptocurrencies won’t nip at Bitcoin’s heels. I do think that a better cryptocurrency will come along. You are a woman in the blockchain business at a time when many industries are grappling with sexual-harassment issues. And you’re a U.S. Naval Academy graduate. My time at the Naval Academy was really defining, and not necessarily in the best way. It was a boys’ club. Women were left to either sink or swim. I was the only woman in most of my aeronautical engineering classes; they used to mock my voice. In my first meeting with my academic adviser, he told me it’d be the only time he would meet with me because aero was one of the toughest majors and women weren’t smart enough for it. I went on to become the only person in my class to graduate as an aeronautical engineer. That experience set me up really well for Silicon Valley. Particularly for startups, because you have to have sharp elbows and you can’t take no for an answer. That’s also why I was adamant about getting women investors. Do you have plans to raise more funds to scale the business faster? We don’t need to. Plus there are a lot of changes in blockchain. Is what we do now going to be what we’re doing a year from now? We’d rather watch what goes on and be able to pounce on where we think blockchains are going to go. A version of this article first appeared in the May 1, 2018 issue of Fortune magazine. |