Bitcoin adoption in India is rising, but the number of women involved in Bitcoin development remains small. In technical spaces, such as open-source or finance, female participation is numbered in India.
We are witnessing a slow but meaningful change to this.
For software developers, Bitcoin is not just a financial asset. It's a system worth studying.
The protocol is open-source, figuratively battle-tested, and extremely conservative in how it evolves. It forces us to understand a lot of technical nuances such as distributed systems, cryptography, serialization, and consensus.
It also forces us to think long-term: changes to Bitcoin are rare, and usually require months( or years) of review and testing.
This appeals to engineers who care about clarity and systems thinking.
For young developers in India, especially women entering a male-heavy engineering space, this meritocratic structure of bitcoin development, despite its rough edges, can be refreshing.
You don’t need a fancy degree. You don’t need to relocate. You don’t need permissions. You just need know your code.
If you write meaningful code, or even better, review code, you can and should, contribute.
Holding Bitcoin in India as a Woman
There’s a separate layer to all of this jibber jabber: savings.
For women in India who earn in fiat, holding money is a constant tradeoff. INR loses value year over year. Gold is traditional but not liquid. Bank deposits are barely above inflation, and often not truly yours if you try to move large amounts without explanation.
Bitcoin doesn’t solve everything, but it changes the default. With self-custody, women can hold assets without needing permission or validation from a family member or a fintech interface. This is not about "investing" or flipping coins. It's about basic control over earned income.
In a culture where financial autonomy for women is often limited - whether through family, employers, or societal norms, holding Bitcoin privately and securely is a quiet form of leverage. It doesn't require approval.
The Bitcoin Dev Ecosystem
The Bitcoin development ecosystem is global but not compulsorily inclusive, like all software development.
The majority of maintainers and contributors are from the West due to which English is the default. Assumptions are often Western. New contributors, especially women from outside the typical geographies, can sometimes find the culture intimidating at first. Eventually it all gets comfortable, but sticking around till then is the hard part.
It's not usually hostile but there is a lack of mentorship structures, owing to flat hierarchy and peer culture in Bitcoin development. Most people figure it out on their own by reading mailing list threads, PR reviews threads, reverse-engineering what-you-may-have implementations and going down rabbit holes.
Chasing hype doesn't really hold value to any bitcoin developer. They are working on it, simply for the merit they see in it. And maybe that's the whole point. Working on thing you feel are worth giving a damn about.
A general lack of visibility compounds the issue: younger women don’t see many examples of Indian women contributing to Bitcoin, so its easier to assume it’s not of significance to them.
The Hellscape of Buzzwords
Bitcoin is often lumped in with "crypto" and what fresh hell has this created for engineers working on it, or on any supporting software.
How do we nurse folks who got a taste of crypto in the 2020 crash. Sad, but stupid nevertheless.
More importantly, how do engineers in India, especially women, deal with the constantly flabbergasted family members who neither care about nor understand the greater implications and philosophy of freedom tech.
For most engineers working on it, this is beyond annoying. The only answer I could find - you don't deal with it.
Bitcoin doesn’t have a founder's office. It doesn’t run on venture capital. It has no centralized team, no upgrade path, and no airdrops. That makes it a harder project to sell, but a more honest one to build on.
My two cents
Bitcoin isn’t a social movement in India. It’s not a revolution for most people. It's a better system. It rewards patience, clarity, and deep technical thinking. It gives financial agency and offers global collaboration without hierarchy.
There’s still a long way to go for Indian developers, especially Women, in terms of mentorship and education but matter-of-fact is, Bitcoin has fundamentally changed our understanding of money and value transfer. It has inspired incredible innovation and hints at a future with inclusive and efficient economic system.
IMHO, this is something worth building on/for. Hope to see you along the journey!
