Former management consultant plans to bring crypto knowledge to the mainstream

It was discovered in a survey last year that 98% of respondents could not pass a basic crypto proficiency test. However, with increased crypto adoption in emerging and developed economies, the focus has begun to shift to crypto literacy.

Recently, financial solutions company Step announced a $300 million debt financing, led by Triplepoint Capital and Evolve Bank & Trust, to expand into crypto investments while working on a national financial literacy curriculum.

Be[In]Crypto spoke with Unit Masters co-founder and former McKinsey consultant Thy-Diep Ta to understand more about crypto skills and the transition to Web3.

Why is Web3 literacy in focus?

Thy-Diep Ta explained: “We believe there are six different themes that are important for a holistic understanding of Web3. Each of these themes is a module in the Unit Master’s six-week program: The Internet of Value, The Web3 Ecosystem, Incentive Alignment ( Consensus Mechanisms) & DAOs, Metaverse & NFTs, Stakeholder Capitalism & Sustainability, and Token Economy.

After being a management consultant, Thy-Diep Ta launched Unit Masters as an online, flexible and open to all free masters program to provide education on modern economics and banking.

“What’s important is understanding the right level of abstraction. Each of these topics in itself can be full six-week programs. For a person who is new to the ecosystem, we find that the biggest challenge is to stay away from getting lost in the rabbit hole.”

Thy-Diep Ta added that the Unit Masters focuses on providing the basic understanding and key terminology, allowing students to delve deeper into their areas of interest after graduation.

“Our design principle is: Less is more!”

How gender plays a role in Web3

Several previous studies have found that women’s participation, both as investors and creators, is far less than their male counterparts.

Thy-Diep Ta emphasized: “We have about 5-25% of women’s participation in Web3, depending on which data and subsector we look at. There is a long way to go. For many women, the industry seems a little geeky, maybe a little too technical , too profit-oriented.”

A BlockFi survey released last year noted that one in three women planned to buy cryptocurrencies within the year, while nearly a quarter already owned digital assets. And among these, the majority, 70%, were reported to be HODLers.

The same survey showed that 50% of women make financial investment decisions based on conversations with friends and family.

At the same time, crypto adoption among women has been boosted by high-profile Hollywood celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Mila Kunis.

Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Kim Kardashian for not disclosing a payment she received in exchange for endorsing a cryptocurrency asset on Instagram.

Thy-Diep Ta believes, “Since Web3 is a fast-moving industry, trying to keep up with the latest developments is almost hopeless. That’s why it’s more important to learn the basics and then learn to upgrade the areas most relevant to your interest.

“Blockchain knowledge is important as it helps separate the signal from the noise. It helps to understand how to negotiate salary. Being well-educated also helps protect against scams.”

Learning in a fast-paced environment and coping with worries

Recently, Google Cloud and Coinbase announced a long-term strategic partnership to develop more for Web3. Bank of New York Mellon, one of America’s oldest and largest banks, has also announced that it will protect its customers’ cryptocurrency assets alongside traditional investment assets.

As it happens, the crypto and blockchain coach brings the experience of his previous profession into the UNIT master’s cohort program. She told us, “What I learned as a consultant is to learn to learn and to familiarize myself with a new subject in the shortest possible time.”

“When I left my career as a management consultant, I went to coaching school for a few hours a day for a few months. This was a very rewarding experience, where I learned to integrate the rational cognitive “How to learn” skills that I had acquired at McKinsey & Co, with the more emotional “How to sense”.

“I developed a ‘train the coach’ program called ‘Mindful Coaching’, combining key aspects of emotional intelligence with systemic coaching elements. That’s when I also met Web3 and was impressed by the opportunities this new industry offered to close it the prevailing gender parity gap in business. I saw that every day we didn’t bring more women into the ecosystem was a day we’d widen the gap!” Thy-Diep Ta added.

Building crypto competence among environmental concerns

Thy-Diep Ta told Be[In]Crypto as Unit Masters examined the most critical skills for the future, as listed by groups such as the World Economic Forum, to incorporate into the course.

She added that you’ll find skills like “active learning and learning strategies,” “resilience and stress tolerance,” and “critical and thoughtful analysis” in these surveys.

“These are modeled into the Unit Masters Programme, where we not only impart basic blockchain understanding, but we’ve designed the program to include a range of methods that sharpen the skills of the future. We have modules on mindfulness, resilience and personal development,” said the former consultant.

However, cryptocarbon has been a matter of debate on platforms globally. Projects have invested in carbon-neutral missions or changed the mechanism to become more sustainable.

For example, Ethereum recently made the final transition from an energy-intensive proof-of-work to a more sustainable proof-of-stake mechanism with the merger.

In this regard, Thy-Diep Ta explained, “We have an entire module focused on stakeholder capitalism and sustainability, where we invite mentors to share about the almost endless opportunities we still have to shape the industry in the way we feel it should evolve . . Why is it like that?”

“It’s because we’re still so early in the industry that each changemaker still has a relatively high impact. There are still a lot of open questions where contributors can set the standards.

The more diverse the skill portfolio of the early contributors, the more “holistic” the creation process becomes. That is why we focus on attracting talent from all continents, age groups, backgrounds to the Unit Masters Program. Together we are building the new economy, added the teacher.

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