How to Celebrate Women Shaping the Dapp Space in 2026

For International Women’s Day on March 8, 2026, you can celebrate women in the dapp space by learning about the work behind blockchain applications—and supporting it beyond a single day. That work includes building protocols and tools, making wallets safer, explaining technical changes and helping communities participate.

There is no official roster of the “most influential” women. Influence is not only a founder title or a large following, and one person’s work can be hard to separate from a wider team. The examples below span different roles so you can explore the ecosystem without treating the list as a ranking.

A useful way to start is to choose the kind of contribution you want to understand:

• Protocol and ecosystem leadership: how networks and their communities are supported.
• Products and security: how people interact with dapps and protect their assets.
• Education and reporting: how users make sense of fast-changing technology.

Then look for the person’s own talks or writing, verify the account or publication, and share useful work with context. You do not need a wallet, token purchase or paid event ticket to take part.

Aya Miyaguchi is a prominent example of ecosystem leadership. She has served as president of the Ethereum Foundation, after leading it as executive director. The foundation supports work around Ethereum, a network used by many smart-contract applications. Its role is not the same as operating every dapp built on Ethereum: the wider ecosystem includes independent developers, organizations and users.

Miyaguchi’s work is relevant if you want to understand the less visible side of dapps: supporting research, coordination and public-interest work around a network. A blockchain application depends on more than its user interface. Developers need tools and documentation; researchers examine technical questions; and communities debate how a system should evolve.

When you explore her public work, consider the distinction between ecosystem support and direct product development. A foundation leader may influence priorities and resourcing without personally writing a dapp’s code or controlling its governance. That distinction helps you recognize contributions accurately rather than attributing every change on a network to one person.

For Women’s Day, you could share a talk or interview about ecosystem-building and add a sentence explaining what you learned. That is more useful than posting a name without context.

Kathleen Breitman co-founded Tezos with Arthur Breitman. Tezos is a blockchain platform designed to support smart contracts and applications, so her work connects to the infrastructure on which dapps can be built. Her example also shows why it is worth looking beyond apps themselves: decisions about a network’s design and development can shape the environment in which applications operate.

To explore a founder’s contribution thoughtfully, separate three questions: What did the person help create? What does the underlying technology do? What remains the responsibility of other contributors or users? A co-founder’s role does not mean they independently built every feature or control every decision made by a network’s community.

You can use Tezos as a case study without buying a token or connecting a wallet. Read introductory material about how the platform works, then compare it with another smart-contract network. Focus on practical questions such as how applications are deployed, how updates are handled and what users need to trust.

This approach turns recognition into learning. It also avoids reducing a woman’s contribution to a biographical label when the more interesting story is how her work fits into a technical and social system.

Tegan Kline co-founded Edge & Node, a core contributor to The Graph, a protocol used to organize and query blockchain data. Dapps often need to retrieve information from a blockchain in a usable form. Data infrastructure can therefore affect whether an application can show users timely, understandable information.

This kind of work is less visible than a trading screen or a popular game, but it is part of what makes many applications practical. Kline’s example gives you a reason to look at the supporting layers around a dapp: indexing, developer tools and services that help applications communicate with blockchain data.

When you read about infrastructure projects, check what the protocol does and what a particular company or contributor does within it. A project can have multiple independent contributors, and a single founder should not be treated as the sole source of its progress. Look for technical documentation alongside interviews or company announcements to understand both the system and the person’s role.

You can celebrate this work by explaining why data access matters to ordinary users. Specific recognition helps audiences see that dapp development includes much more than writing a front end or launching a token.

Taylor Monahan founded MyCrypto, a self-custody wallet, and later worked on MetaMask after MyCrypto was acquired by ConsenSys. Wallets are a key part of the dapp experience: they let users manage keys, review transaction requests and connect to applications. That also makes wallet security a high-impact area of work.

Linda Xie brings a different perspective. She is a former Coinbase product manager and co-founded Scalar Capital; she is also known for educational writing about crypto. Her example illustrates why accessible explanations matter. Users need to understand what a transaction does, which risks they are accepting and what a product’s limits are before they interact with it.

You can learn from both product and education work by asking practical questions: Does a wallet clearly show the network and requested action? Does an explanation distinguish a blockchain transaction from a company’s service? Does it make risks understandable without promising safety?

Never share your wallet recovery phrase with anyone claiming to offer support, and treat unexpected messages about prizes or urgent wallet fixes as suspicious. Recognition of security educators is useful when it helps more people learn defensive habits.

Camila Russo founded The Defiant, a publication covering decentralized finance, and wrote about Ethereum’s history in The Infinite Machine. Journalism and independent education are not the same as building a protocol, but they can help people understand what builders create, how decisions affect users and where risks may be overlooked.

When you follow crypto reporting, compare a story’s claims with primary materials such as a project’s documentation or a public governance proposal. Check whether a piece distinguishes confirmed facts from analysis, and whether it explains conflicts of interest. Those habits apply to any writer, regardless of gender.

For International Women’s Day, consider sharing an article or interview that changed how you understand a dapp or a piece of infrastructure. Add a clear summary rather than treating a person’s identity as the only reason to pay attention. You can also recommend reporting to a book club, student group or local technology community.

A strong ecosystem needs people who make technical work legible to readers. Supporting careful reporting and education can help new users participate with better questions and fewer assumptions.

A one-day celebration is not a substitute for ongoing access, safety and recognition. If you want to support women in the dapp space, make the action specific and sustainable. Consider this checklist:

1. Share work, not just names. Link a person’s idea to a talk, article, research contribution or product they helped build. (Do not share unverified claims or impersonator accounts.)
2. Credit expertise accurately. Name a person’s actual role and avoid presenting a team achievement as one individual’s work—or erasing their contribution altogether.
3. Make participation easier. Recommend accessible learning materials, invite a range of speakers and make event expectations clear.
4. Support lasting work. If you have a budget, consider paying for education, research, event contributions or professional services rather than expecting unpaid visibility.
5. Keep the focus year-round. Follow the work after March 8 and share it when it is relevant, not only during a themed campaign.

You do not need to make a financial contribution to be supportive. Thoughtful credit, respectful discussion and better access to learning can also make a difference.

Crypto topics can attract impersonation, speculative promotion and pressure to act quickly. Keep your celebration separate from investment decisions: a person’s achievements do not prove that a token, protocol or dapp is safe or likely to succeed. Do not buy an asset because a post associates it with a founder or Women’s Day campaign.

Avoid these common mistakes:

• Treating visibility as proof of impact. A large audience does not tell you whether a person’s work is technically sound or widely adopted.
• Calling a broad ecosystem role a direct dapp role. Be precise about whether someone built a product, supported infrastructure, researched a topic or reported on it.
• Sharing a giveaway or token claim without checking it. Verify announcements through authentic channels and never send funds or reveal a recovery phrase to claim a prize.
• Expecting women to provide unpaid education or representation. Respect boundaries and support professional work where you can.
• Making recognition a once-a-year task. Continue to credit expertise and widen participation throughout the year.

The best way to celebrate is to learn, attribute work fairly and help more people take part safely. Keep the focus on real contributions—not hype or pressure to transact.