One Thought On How To Make Crypto More Inclusive

I was out to dinner last night with my two youngest sons (14 and 16). I was talking about how happy I was about the rapid growth of Crypto Mondays, and how it’s going to make Crypto communities stronger in cities around the world, and how it’s going to help inclusion, as we ask that at least one of the four Co-Organizers of every Crypto Monday be female.

I was taken aback at the strong negative reaction from my sons to our female inclusion initiative. I explained that there has been systemic bias against woman since the beginning of time, and this was one thing we could do to help foster a more inclusive community. I told them about BTC Miami where only three of 85 speakers were female, and the official networking party was held at a strip club.

My argument didn’t hold water with them. They just saw the “insanity” of me fighting discrimination by discriminating (against more capable men if they wanted to co-organize a Crypto Monday but were denied due to our policy)

They asked me why I didn’t spend my time fighting the root causes of discrimination. Truth be told, I found myself arguing with my kids against the same ideals I had before I became jaded by reality. Jaded by the fact there is only so much time in the day.

So what can one person do? I think we can all do more. And I think the obvious thing to do, is to not only call someone out for bad behavior, but to actively stop doing business with people who you believe to be fostering an environment hostile to woman, or any other group of people. It seems EVERY article I read about Harvey Weinstein includes quotes like today’s NYT interview with Tim Robbins where he says “Everybody knew,”about Harvey Weinstein (and nobody did anything). Well, the least we can do is do something when we see that kind of behavior. So I’m going to start doing something, and it starts with not going to BTC Miami anymore as long as Moe Levin is running it.

I don’t know Moe Levin. I never met Moe Levin. What I do know is that Moe Levin fostered an environment where only three out of 88 speaking slots went to woman. What I do know is that Moe Levin decided to invite the 5,000 attendees of his conference to a networking party at a strip club. What I do know is that when asked if it was wise to hold the party at a strip club, he defended the choice by saying it was “…the ideal layout for networking”. What I do know is that Moe Levin’s follow up comments “Having the networking party at E11even was a misstep. We always aim to be as inclusive as possible and create a safe environment”, is hard to square with his actions. If Moe Levin really cared about being inclusive, there would have been more than 3 woman speaking at the conference. If Moe Levin really cared about creating a safe environment, he wouldn’t have held the party at a strip club.

So I’m going to listen to my kids. They rightfully asked me why I didn’t spend time fighting the root causes of discrimination. So I will. And it starts for me, with BTC Miami.

Whether it’s BTC Miami, or something/someone else; when we see someone being biased, someone discriminating against any class of people, we can take action. That’s one thing we can all do to make Crypto more inclusive.

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One Thought On How To Make Crypto More Inclusive was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.