Dicks in Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency that promised to revolutionise the fruit and vegetable industry, did nothing of the sort. To the dismay of the risk taking salad eaters who had invested, the criminal creators grabbed the cash, drank their unethically sourced carrot juice, and legged it. But they left one thing behind. One single word on their website. A word that gives accurate commentary to the dire state of affairs in the cryptocurrency space. Penis.

Cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology that they are built upon, were intended to work as a democratising and equalising force in this imperfect world of ours. But women trying to involve themselves in the recent gold rush have experienced a gender imbalance not seen since very... very recent times. By some estimates only 4–6% of crypto-investors are female.

This disparity is particularly worrying because the early days of an industry are when fortunes are made and cultures defined. These successful fortune owners will then go on to invest in the next edition of businesses, and ideas. A gender imbalance in the nascent stages of an industry, will lead to an entrenched imbalance in its maturity. Something that we see already in the tech space as a whole.

There are many who argue that women simply take less risks, they are more cautious.

Men are, and have always been, the ones to throw themselves at the mercy of chance. Thus it is unsurprising that it is those in possession of a Y chromosome who strap on their muscles and go out to place speculative bets on the rise and fall of highly volatile digital assets.

Men take more risks. It makes evolutionary sense. Close your eyes, you’re in a cave. It’s ages ago. You’re a caveperson. The cavemen around you have to go out and and kill a brontosaurus so that the community can eat. The cavewomen need to stay in the cave and suckle the caveyounglings. Evolution needed men to take more risks, and women to take fewer.

Here’s the snag though: most older studies that take this evolutionary argument and find supposed proof in the modern era were based on anecdotal or epidemiological evidence. Evan speak English you darn word user. Sorry, what I mean is that those older studies couldn’t prove that risk taking was caused by maleness, only that the two were linked.

But close your eyes again and take yourself back slightly less far through the ages to when these studies were being done. It’s entirely possible that females 50–100 years ago, were yearning for a cliff and a paraglider. But women were actively encouraged by society not to take risks. They just didn’t have the same opportunities for risk taking as men.

Indeed, today’s research is challenging the preconception that men are nuttier than women.

Study after study reveals that there is more variance in a sex than there is between sexes. Consider a recent survey of over 36,000 employees from 10 banks, covering all levels of seniority and all areas of specialism. It found that 46% of women had a higher tolerance for risk than men.

However, it is interesting to note that there does seem to be a difference between the nature of risks that each gender tends to take. Put humans in a laboratory, make them gamble, and the male ones will tend to risk more. Yet, when you look at other risky situations, you see that women are more likely to take other kinds of risk. They better support their in-group even if it could be to their detriment, more probably bring up unpopular issues in the workplace, and are more likely to head off on a career change later in life etc. etc.

So, as the cryptocurrency space is mostly full of gambling speculators, perhaps there is some evidence that the imbalance is partially the result of differences in each gender’s approach to risk. But to be frank, it’s total and utter crap to explain away this totally lopsided gender divide with this biologically centered argument.

Take a moment to look at how the cryptocurrency world is being run and you’ll quickly see that blockchain bros are a much bigger cause of female absence. The North American Bitcoin conference put out its speaker line up. 86 men and 1 woman. There were complaints. The organizer replaced two of the men with women. And then thought to himself, “good me”. “Me do equality”. Then for the official conference party, well durr, that was in a Miami strip club.

Datecoin, a recent offering to the crypto space, advertised its Initial coin offering on Facebook, with an advert that featured a reclining woman captioned “Touch my ICO”. I mean come on guyyys, that doesn’t even make any damn sense. You’ve really gone out on a limb there to bring in some good old fashioned sexist bant.

As a technology whose genesis focused on pushing the world towards a more equal and democratic system, it has certainly strayed. The conclusion time and again of numerous academic and practical studies is that in greater equality and diversity, we find greater strength. Like any other industry, crypto and blockchain can only benefit from becoming more accessible, approachable, and responsible. I’ll leave you with the words of Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook:

“The World is still run by men, I’m not sure it’s going that well.”

This piece is transcribed from The Zip Files — an irreverent weekly 20–25 minute podcast to help the busy millennial catch up with all of the week’s most important tech news.