Blockchain to Counter AI Bias Amid 10% Female Job Threat

- Blockchain's potential role in combating AI-driven gender bias. - On-chain credentials and smart contracts proposed as solutions for wage equity and fair hiring. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), artificial intelligence (AI) perpetuates gender disparities, which could disrupt nearly 10% of jobs held by women in high-income countries—almost three times the impact on men. On July 8, 2025, Cointelegraph reported that blockchain technology offers a promising way to address these systemic inequities. In the report, Lisa Loud, executive director at Secret Network, explained that blockchain's transparency and decentralized control can expose and correct biases within AI systems. Loud explained that AI algorithms trained on flawed data sets amplify societal inequities, reinforcing existing prejudices and wage gaps. Without intervention, AI could entrench these inequalities and further marginalize women, who are already underrepresented in the workforce. However, blockchain tools can address these root challenges by ensuring accountability and fairness in AI-driven systems. Loud proposed several blockchain-based solutions to counter gender disparities. On-chain credential wallets can help women maintain verified records of their academic and professional qualifications, including undervalued contributions like care work. Smart contract payroll systems can automatically enforce pay equity, making wages transparently distributed and traceable on the blockchain. Additionally, using blockchain to tag gender-disaggregated metadata in data sources can help identify and correct biases within AI applications. While these technological advancements offer hope, Loud underscored the structural challenge of women's underrepresentation in AI engineering. Since women make up only 29.4% of global professionals with documented AI-engineering skills, their limited influence in addressing algorithmic bias perpetuates a feedback loop of biased AI systems. The opinion piece stressed the urgent need to bridge these gaps to foster widespread adoption of decentralized technologies like Web3, as Loud warned that excluding women from decentralized finance (DeFi) and governance roles could undermine public trust in blockchain ecosystems. To counteract this systemic discrimination, she urged governments to mandate AI transparency in public services and incentivize blockchain initiatives that tokenize and reward women’s contributions. In closing, Loud emphasized that embedding AI systems within blockchain frameworks ensures immutability, which in turn empowers women to shape the future of technology equitably. By leveraging these tools, women can gain fair representation and a stronger foothold in shaping economic systems and technological infrastructure. According to CoinMarketCap on July 8, at 18:00 UTC, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,346, with its 24-hour trading volume up by 1.7%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $32,849, as its 24-hour volume decreased by 3.1%. Solana (SOL) was priced at $28.16, showing a 2.9% increase in its 24-hour volume.