Blockchain technologies are not gender-neutral. Women are underrepresented in the industry, with less than 5% of women in blockchain startups. They face a number of challenges including exclusion from conferences and informal networks, lack of role models, and exclusion from venture capital funding.

The Tech world is the savvy future, so why half of the world’s population is not involved in it?

“At a blockchain conference, the line for the men’s restroom is around the block, and because no one is using it, there’s never any wait.”

We want to take a ensure moment and reflect on why that is, and discuss how we can instill change that ensures the industry is welcoming to people from all walks of life, whether they’re looking for a job or not.

The current situation

The lack of diversity in blockchain and cryptocurrency is not only because the earliest adopters were predominantly male, white, cisgender and heterosexual. Regional factors also play a large role. For example, most participants of the early Bitcoin mining pools were concentrated in China. Because of institutionalized racism and sexism, the demographic of the beginning of blockchain and cryptocurrency was hugely white and male. Fast-forward about ten years, and look at where we are today: tech and finance industries. These industries are still predominantly white men.

Tech and finance are very white, heteronormative industries. There is an unfortunate lack of diversity- economic, racial, gender. And although we all could talk all day about the challenges that women face in the tech industry, that would be overlooking significant socioeconomic factors that work to discourage anyone outside of that traditional white, heteronormative sphere.

What do the survey say?

The pipeline of talented applicants coming from Black and Latinx Americans is woefully inadequate to support the needs of a rapidly expanding, non-traditional industry. Individuals who don’t have traditional degrees are also underrepresented in this field. IBM – a company, working to hire skilled workers without degrees – only hires 10% to 15% of new employees who don’t have a traditional education.

And in the 2017 Tech Leavers study, it was found that we’re out of every ten women experienced unwanted sexual attention while unrepresented minorities were most likely to be bullied or experience public humiliation.

That is indicative of some serious problems in the industry. These are not problems only about women.