Today is International Women’s Day, March 8, and Binance decided to dispel the five most common myths about gender balance within the blockchain space and the most overlooked myth is that Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, is a man.
It is very clear that there is a global view and perception that Satoshi is a man. Even in Japan, the origins of the name, it is considered a masculine name, it is therefore beyond fathomable for most that they could even consider for a second that Satoshi could be a woman. But not for Binance, who have boldly chosen to title of their blog post as “Satoshi is female.”
The first myth that Binance wishes to dispel is that women are not interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This, according to Binance couldn’t be further from the truth. As evidence to the contrary, the employees at Binance are split 50:50 (almost) between men and women. This includes the leadership positions as well and could be the case across the board not just in Binance. The ratio of male to female may not be clear cut in half but women definitely have an interest in the blockchain.
The second myth is that women are not skilled in investing in crypto. Well, it’s hard to point out the facts to dispel this myth because neither are most men but Binance cites a couple of studies that seek to support their opposing views. The first is research by financial services giant Fidelity Investments that sought to dispel the myth that men are better investors that women, not just in crypto but even in traditional financial instruments. The study found out that women are actually superior men in terms of investments.
In the study that involved 8 million investment accounts, Fidelity found out that “women not only save more than men, 0.4 percent, their investments earn more annually, also 0.4 percent.” The second study from the UK found out through a survey of women in blockchain that compared to the number of women in 2017, twice that number was interested in investing in crypto in 2018. That shows an increase in the number of women interested in crypto over time.
The third and fourth myths are somewhat related and they involve the theme that blockchain companies and by extension technology companies are not women-friendly. First of all, Binance itself has been cofounded by a lady (who is now in charge of marketing) He Yi. It could be true that compared to men, women are less in numbers in technology companies but that does not imply that these companies are deliberately being hostile to women to scare them away. As He Yi stated back in October last year,
“Today, we see more and more women joining the industry. Many outstanding women have emerged in the space. I think this is the best proof, as Binance does not consider gender or marital status during the recruitment process. We recruit a lot of excellent women.”
Besides He Yi, Binance has several other women leaders including Ella Zhang, head of Binance Labs and Helen Hai of Binance Charity Foundation.
Finally, Binance seeks to dispel the myth that women cannot contribute to blockchain development. A study from 2016 can help with this myth. It was proved that women are actually better coders than men on the GitHub platform but only if their identity was hidden. This reveals that once the identity is discovered, most women become victims of biased perceptions which affects their performance. However, blockchain offers women a pseudo-anonymous space to codify and develop their career without having to reveal their gender or identity.
In the sector everyone is playing for the same team and working for the greater good. In Helen Hai’s words: “We truly believe that by helping women, we help the next generation, consequently creating a better world.”
