Boys Club co-founders want crypto skeptics to see it as a tool, ‘not just a vehicle for finance or investments’ | TechCrunch

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, a podcast that unpacks and dives deep into the latest trends, drama and news in crypto with some of the biggest names in the industry to break things down block by block for the crypto curious.

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Deana Burke and Natasha Hoskins, the co-founders of Boys Club.

Boys Club is a social decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, for the “crypto curious,” originally designed to get women and nonbinary people into the web3 world. Its new aim is to be an open space for anyone interested in web3.

Before Boys Club, Burke and Hoskins were co-founders of travel platform Allcall, which was acquired by Fora last year. Burke was also a communications partner for the blockchain-based Celo Foundation, and Hoskins worked at Fora as a general manager after the acquisition.

The inspiration for Boys Club originally stemmed from a desire to help people find their interests, whether it be something like art, sports or fashion, and capitalize on those opportunities in the web3 space, Burke said.

Burke has been involved in the crypto world since 2017, but Hoskins didn’t have as much experience in the space. In fact, she was once skeptical of the whole thing, until Burke walked her through it.

“It was an ‘aha moment’ for me around the application of Ethereum or of blockchains as very much this tool that you can decide what to do with and not just a vehicle for finance or investments,” Hoskins said.

The social aspect between the two former (and now again) co-founders felt really important, Hoskins said. That is what drove them to create a web3 social group focused on providing an access point to onboard crypto newbies.

Boys Club started as an event-focused group, but has “snowballed” since then, Hoskins said. The social DAO has a handful of other ventures like a newsletter and podcast, which I was a guest on, as well as events like crypto conference parties and trivia nights.

Looking to the future, Burke said they’re excited about crypto consumer applications. “That’s where our heart is, and that’s what we personally have a lot of energy around.”

Outside of gaming, consumer applications like fashion and physical products have a lot of opportunities and use cases, Burke said. She noted the web3 application IYK, which uses NFC and blockchain technology to tokenize real-world items and experiences.

“That unlocks a completely different relationship to the physical goods that you’re buying, that really enhances it and maybe not only gives you some sort of digital collectible but also maybe unlocks access for a concert or another IRL experience,” Burke said. “It’s doing work to create a really novel and new experience for consumers that adds value, and that’s the type of thing we’re really excited about.”

We also talked about:

• EthCC 2023 vibe check
• Inclusivity in web3
• Diversifying the industry
• Advice for the crypto newbies

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at noon ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at noon PT, subscribe here.