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Bitcoin's gender divide could be a bad sign, experts say

Accepted submission by dw861 at 2018-01-01 21:05:48
Business

The CBC reports, http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bitcoin-s-gender-divide-could-be-a-bad-sign-experts-say-1.4458884 [www.cbc.ca]

Bitcoin, and the world of cryptocurrency, is a boys' club, say some experts, and that should be cause for concern.

Google Analytics results put the divide at 96.57 per cent men to 3.43 per cent women: https://coin.dance/stats/gender. [coin.dance]

That's a huge red flag to Duncan Stewart, research director of Deloitte Canada's technology division.

"It isn't merely that the value has risen as far and as fast as it has; it's the fact that it's 97 per cent men — that is, in and of itself, a potential danger sign," he says.

"There are studies out there that suggest men are predisposed towards bubbles in a way that women are not."

Stewart made his case in a recent online post about the subject: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bitcoin-bubble-gender-split-says-probably-duncan-stewart/?trackingId=LlXWi2rCxUW0itfA92%2BhSQ%3D%3D [linkedin.com]

Stewart said he "cannot think of any security, currency or asset class in history that shows that extreme a gender divide and has been sustainable."

Iliana Oris Valiente is a rarity in the cryptocurrency world. She has emerged as a female leader in this space and was recently chosen to lead consulting firm Accenture's global blockchain innovation division.

Oris Valiente doesn't buy into the theory that an outsized amount of male interest in a particular asset in and of itself creates a bubble.

"If we have primarily men involved in building the businesses and being the early-stage investors, they're likely to share the new tidbits and the new deals with their own established networks."

But without a major catalyst, she doesn't see the gender divide in this field narrowing anytime soon.


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