Why do we Need More Women in Crypto?
Women
are alarmingly underrepresented in the cryptocurrency realm, even when compared
to the mainly male tech sector as a whole. According to Google Analytics data
from June 2018, men account for 91.2 percent of those involved in the bitcoin
community.
Cryptocurrencies
are digital assets that are encrypted and recorded in a public blockchain. A
blockchain is a public and secure distributed ledger that records transactions.
It is not managed by a centralized institution, such as a bank or a
technological corporation, because it is distributed. The intermediary is
removed using blockchain technology, allowing transactions to take place
directly between two persons. The most well-known cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, have been focused on payments, but blockchain technology can also be
used for computation, storage, and a variety of other applications. Though some
are skeptical of its long-term sustainability, this technology has the
potential to transform many aspects of our life, including banking and beyond.
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Women
have played a modest role in defining blockchain technology applications thus
far. Only 8.5 percent of 378 venture-backed cryptocurrency firms created
between 2012 and 2018 were founded or co-founded by a woman, according to an
international Quartz survey. In the tech sector as a whole, a woman is on the
founding team twice as often as a man—still low, at 17.7%, but far better than
in cryptocurrencies.
The
official conference party for the North American Bitcoin Conference in January
2018 took held at a Miami strip club, according to a New York Times article
about "blockchain dudes." Only three of the 87 speakers at the event
were female. The conference organizer, Moe Levin, replaced two male speakers
with two female presenters only after receiving concerns about the gender
disparity. "It was just a coincidence that there were more men than women
speakers," Levin explained. "It wasn't on purpose that they weren't
included. We simply don't have the time to add them." The gathering had
featured skimpily clad models painted gold and sporting Bitcoin logos the year
before.
The
underrepresentation of women in cryptocurrencies is garnering attention,
especially in the context of the #MeToo movement and a spotlight on gender
disparity in computing in general. Women in Blockchain and other organizations
are increasing awareness about the value of diversity in the field. The startup
Mogul organized a "Women in Crypto" event in April 2018. Women, who consider
crypto, tweeted Alexia Bonatsos, a female venture capitalist. Otherwise, the
men will once again inherit all of the riches.
Some
of the responses to the gender gap have been damaging in their own right.
Anastasi Shvetsova, a managing partner at an M&A PR agency, which represents
tech companies, recently attended a summit where there was a 'Pink Room,' an
area intended particularly for women. According to Arianna Simpson, managing
partner of Autonomous Partners, a cryptocurrency venture capital fund, this
isn't the proper way. According to Simpson, this marginalization has a
significant impact. She stated, There are women who are experts on literally
every area on crypto and outside of it, and that I believe that putting those
highly competent women onto the main panels, rather than saying, Look, we have
women in blockchain panel, should be the focus.
It
isn't just a question of fair wealth distribution. There are numerous reasons
to assume that women may make important contributions to the industry and that
a lack of women could be negative.
According
to Duncan Stewart, research head of Deloitte Canada's technology division,
there are studies out there that suggest men are inclined to bubble in a manner
that women are not. According to researchers, women are more cautious when it
comes to investing in the stock market, but they outperform their male
counterparts. "Is Bitcoin a Bubble?" asks the author of a piece
titled "Is Bitcoin a Bubble?" Of course, the gender divide doesn't
prove that Bitcoin is a bubble, Stewart noted, adding that the gender divide
doesn't prove that Bitcoin is a bubble. But the fact that men
account for 95% of BTC [bitcoin] and other cryptocurrency investors is a huge
red signal for him, he argued. I can't think of a single investment, currency,
or asset class in history that has demonstrated that a large gender gap can be
sustained.
According
to Masha McConaghy, a German blockchain entrepreneur, women will benefit
disproportionately from bitcoin access. Women are still more likely than men to
be financially disadvantaged over the world.
In
Saudi Arabia, for instance, women cannot receive a business loan without having
two men testify for them. And in the United States, the National Coalition
Against Domestic Violence found that 94 percent of women who were victims of
domestic violence had also been victims of economic abuse, where the abuser
restricted access to finances. Cryptocurrency is anonymous—users’ finances are
connected to a key, not to their name—so women who have internet access and a
phone can theoretically take advantage of digital currencies to manage and
control their own finances, out of sight of men, the government, or others who
might seek to control them.
As
blockchain and cryptocurrencies open up new financial frontiers, it's critical
that women engage in digital currencies as both creators and consumers. Women
will be left out of the next generation of financial innovation if this does
not change.