A recent headline on Micky — an iconoclastic media outlet that focuses on cryptocurrency — read “Crypto Twitterstorm: ‘Creepy sexist trolling’ or just a funny meme?” The article explained, “A post making fun of Blockstream’s Samson Mow has sparked a Twitterstorm over accusations of misogyny. Was it funny or just ‘sexist garbage’?”
Also read: Rumors of Bitcoin’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Is Crypto Sexist?
The meme juxtaposed a photo of Mow embracing a Transformers toy box with an image of his romantic partner posing in gym clothes with an over-muscled male. The post was in bad taste, I believe, but it was far more anti-Mow and anti-male than sexist. The people involved in the Twitterstorm, including Mow, may or may not be sexists themselves. I don’t know. Discrimination against women is a common accusation hurled at males in crypto, however.
Here is what I do know. Everyone is equal on the blockchain; women, men, children, gays, transgendered people—all are equal. No gatekeeper slams a door shut because of a user’s race or any other secondary characteristic. Bitcoin is a protocol without prejudice or bias, with the only barriers to entry being the acquisition of knowledge and the access to a computer. In the flesh, the crypto community can be prone to the social insensitivity that comes from interacting more with technology than with people, but this is not discrimination; it is awkwardness. What seems to matter most to crypto zealots are characteristics such as competence and a willingness to learn. Contrast this with traditional payment systems for which politicians, bankers, and bureaucrats make all the rules, with entry being on their terms.
Nevertheless, when crypto users interact off the blockchain, they are often greeted by accusations of sexism—that is,
