这位女士怎样在区块链中找到机遇

BlockCypher首席执行官凯瑟琳·尼科尔森接受《财富》杂志采访时谈到了自己在区块链行业中的位置。

《财富》杂志：区块链是一种分布式公开账簿技术，它催生了比特币等加密货币。BlockCypher在其发展过程中发挥了怎样的作用？

尼科尔森：BlockCypher就是区块链领域的Amazon Web Services（AWS）。我们为区块链开发API，也就是应用程序编程接口。AWS把企业的工作变得很简单，企业只需要给亚马逊打电话就能大幅提高网络基础设施的运行速度。我们在区块链领域也是这样。我们在一个区块链上开发别人可以轻松使用的便携应用程序。一家初创公司可能得先下载节点，找到peers，之后它才有可能着手开发区块链应用程序。这通常需要6-9个月时间，而使用我们的API后，这些工作只需要花一个小时就能搞定。

BlockCypher支持比特币、莱特币、以太坊和狗币。你觉得会有一种加密货币成为支配者吗？

我们才刚刚起步。比特币是第一种加密货币，没什么前途。作为这个世界的王者，它是其他所有加密货币的参照标准。但这并不是说其他加密货币不会找比特币的麻烦。我确实认为会出现更好的加密货币。

你是一位区块链从业女性。现在许多行业都爆出了性骚扰事件，而你还是美国海军学院毕业生。

我在海军学院的生活真的决定了我的方向，但不一定是最佳途径。那是个男孩俱乐部。女生只能自生自灭。在大多数航空工程课上我都是唯一的女性，他们还会嘲笑我的声音。我第一次跟学术导师见面时，他就跟我说他只会见我一次，因为航空是最难的专业之一，而且女性在这方面不够聪明。而我坚持了下来，成为班里唯一一名航空工程专业毕业生。

那段经历确实为我在硅谷的工作打下了很好的基础。特别是对初创公司来说，你必须有些手段而且不能把“不”作为答案。这也是我坚决引进女性投资者的原因。

你打算筹集更多资金以加快公司的发展吗？

我们不需要这样做。再说区块链领域出现了很多变化。一年后我们还会做目前的工作吗？我们得观察情况，并能朝着自身预期中区块链的发展方向前进。（财富中文网）

原文最初刊登在2018年5月1日出版的《财富》杂志上。

译者：Charlie

审校：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.