This week we spoke with Zayi Reyes of Meta Gamma Delta, an inclusive and empowering society supporting women-led projects.
From Hackathon Parody to Meaningful Community
“What I loved about my first call with Meta Gamma Delta was that all the women were so outgoing, excited, and powerful—no one was scared to be themselves.”
Zayi Reyes speaks about Meta Gamma Delta with a combination of pride, joy, and relief. Having been a part of the crypto space since 2016, Zayi is accustomed to being the only woman in the room—and often the only person of color. “Until my most recent job, I’ve been the first female hire at each company I’ve worked at in crytpo,” she said frankly. “It’s not anyone’s fault…I just see the discrepancy there is in terms of minorities and women in the space.” When the opportunity arose to join a supportive community of women in crypto, Zayi saw the appeal and jumped in.
The idea for Meta Gamma Delta took shape in February of 2020 at ETHDenver. Initially intended as a parody—a riff off the largely male dominated DAO, Meta Cartel, MGD’s three founding members playfully launched Meta Gamma Delta as a crytpo “sorority.” Despite its jesting origins, word got out about the DAO, and it became evident that women in crypto were hungry for a female populated space to socialize, connect, and support one another. MGD quickly grew from the handful of people it started with to the 70+ members it has today. “We realized that it wasn’t just a joke—that we actually had a community we could do something with,” Zayi reflected. She joined shortly after MGD’s inception and started attending weekly calls as the group began to form its mission and values. Today, Meta Gamma Delta is part social DAO, part grants-giving DAO supporting women-led initiatives, and part educational DAO, offering networking and learning opportunities for its members.
In their first year (which was 100% online given the pandemic), Meta Gamma Delta raised over $30,000 to give to 3 different women-led projects. As a volunteer powered DAO, this was no small feat. They now offer grants on a rolling basis to projects with specific funding needs, meet once every two weeks, and are divided into four committees: governance, fundraising, grants-giving, and treasury. Members are encouraged to attend bi-weekly meetings, which are half DAO logistics and half speaker series (each meeting hosts a different female thought leader to bring new ideas to the group). Ultimately, members can choose their level of involvement. “Our whole goal is to have a low barrier to entry and be an open community that hopefully anyone can be a part of.” All genders are welcome, and anyone can submit a proposal to become a member by filling out this application!
Support Meta Gamma Delta
If you want to learn more about Meta Gamma Delta or are considering joining, we encourage you to visit their website or head to their Discord page to get a feel for this powerful community. You can also support MGD and the projects they fund by donating DAI directly to their address (listed below) or give during a Gitcoin grants round with your PAN. If you have any additional questions, Zayi welcomes anyone to reach out directly at mgddao@gmail.com!
Support Meta Gamma Delta by sending your DAI here: 0x7d58c962356ae66ba91b108751d67ae5d3b022fc
Thank you to Zayi for the interview and to the Meta Gamma Delta community for your remarkable work in this space!