Is the world ready for a technological revolution and the Metaverse? Most definitely so. Usurping the current establishments will be no mean feat but installing new systems that provide endless opportunities for inclusion, equity, and financial upliftment abounds in the new digital world. Daniela Henao and Elena Garidis are web3 change-makers building a tomorrow of equal opportunities and accessibility for everybody.
At Defy Trends, Daniela and Elena, together with founder Imge Su Cetin, are building a crypto investor toolkit that will even the playing field between institutional and retail investors. This platform provides actionable and digestible investment insights for crypto investors to make better-informed market decisions. Simultaneously, Defy Trends presents an educational platform and other community initiatives to support the onboarding of newcomers to this space in support of inclusivity, diversity, equality and empowerment.
Daniela is a multi-talented community organizer with a background in global markets, politics, community growth, and education. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA in International Development with an emphasis on Latin America and Africa and a Master’s degree in Leadership and Education from Relay Graduate School in New York City.
At Defy Trends, she is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer and the company’s community builder and organizational expert who developed its educational platform and the ‘Women Who Defy’ Ambassador Program.
Elena is a crypto enthusiast, norms-challenger and creative. She’s a J.P. Morgan alumna with a dual degree in Finance and Philosophy from Tulane University. Elena is passionate about innovation, art, philosophy, sustainability, and participating in creating a better world for all humans. After starting to trade crypto in 2018, Elena fell in love with the decentralized and more empowered financial system offered by the crypto space. She brought her trading lessons and business acumen to Defy Trends as co-founder and Chief Financial Officer. Previously, she led the rollout and conceptual design of an NYC-based CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) start-up’s first augmented reality feature.
The status quo of our existing systems is not sustainable. It is divisive, skewed for a few people instead of the billions of people, driven by poor leadership and lack of financial opportunity. For Daniela and Elena, the Metaverse presents the opportunity of a lifetime.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to do something to change the world,” Elena shares. “But, growing up and understanding the complexities of this world makes that a much more challenging task. While working on Wall Street after college, I had not forgotten about that dream but put it on hold. Working at one of the biggest banks in the world, I got an intimate view of the workings of our financial system in the USA and its impacts on the global financial system. It is an unnecessarily convoluted system in which banks are the gatekeepers of financial opportunity and the flow of money in our economy. Around the same time that I was starting to get disillusioned with our antiquated financial system, I started learning about web3 and crypto and recognized the massive potential for change. Tearing down old systems is extremely difficult, but replacing them with a better option is actually a viable option for systematic change. That is when I fell in love with the ethos of decentralization, a global P2P network, opportunity and transparency.”
Daniela’s journey to web3 and the Metaverse is similarly inspired by solving the world’s challenges. She emigrated from Colombia to the USA and is profoundly aware of the difficulties in her native country and the promise of opportunity in developed nations. From this, Daniela has always sought ways of building inclusive spaces for people worldwide to access opportunities. While at UCLA, she was introduced to blockchain technology, but it was only while studying global markets in Shanghai, China, that she recognized this technology’s far-reaching dimensions and applications. “After college, I started a business in Colombia to support women’s health and wellness. While traveling in Mexico, I found the marriage of my passions and skills when I met the founder of Defy Trends, Imge Su Cetin. I immediately knew this was something I wanted to undertake. Here was an opportunity to build a crypto product with the potential of reaching a global community and solving world problems.”
According to Daniela and Elena, the Metaverse provides the next level of consciousness for humans. It allows humans to interact with each other virtually in 3D, build structures and spaces from their imaginations, and fuel all activities with a crypto-powered economy. The Metaverse allows women leaders to thoroughly displace current leadership and community structures.
This shift is fundamental. There is no doubt that the Metaverse creates endless opportunities. Leadership in the Metaverse is redefined. “As DAOs become more established in the Metaverse, they allow people to create true meritocracies because people contributing to a DAO can be completely anonymous,” they explained. Without gender, race, and age biases, the Metaverse bridges the digital divide to create a world of communities. “A person’s resume essentially becomes their track record on the blockchain, stripping away the biases of the current systems and empowering everybody to participate in the new world. The Metaverse will continue connecting people and communities, adding more layers of connection and a deeper dimension of togetherness. Different perspectives are healthy for creative innovation and will be instrumental in balancing the crypto culture. The economic potential of the Metaverse will cause immense strides in many areas of our IRL lives.”
These trailblazers are excited about the future, enabling more people to utilize technology to achieve things that humanity never thought possible. This future will see more and more women gain financial independence, follow their passions, and build a world of opportunities for everybody.
Website: defytrends.io
