Crypto spaces are still unsafe as we see harassment cases popping up at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual harassment, cyber harassment, sexual assault, and possible stalking
The Bitcoin 2022 conference hosted by Bitcoin Inc. at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida in the US in April was embroiled in controversy as various instances of harassment emerged from the three-day cryptocurrency event. Several women have made allegations of sexual harassment and cyber harassment following the conference.
On April 9, the final day of the conference, a conference attendee found her Twitter mentions flooded after someone from the conference posted an unflattering picture of her. She makes a living from yield farming and cryptocurrency trading and has a modest online following. The picture had been taken and published without her knowledge or consent. Responses included derogatory remarks about her body and appearance, as well as crude solicitations of a sexual nature. The woman traced the origin of the malicious tweet to a user named @bitcoin_fuckboi, whom she identified as someone she met and spoke to during the conference. At the time of writing, the offending tweet is still publicly visible on the user’s profile, along with other inflammatory content surrounding the event.
Justifiably concerned, she tried to consult the event’s harassment policy, only to receive lukewarm, noncommittal replies from the organizers. After a direct message to the conference’s official Twitter account, she was put in touch with a speaker who identified himself as Twitter user @Chairforce. The person directed them to the contact form on the event’s official website. She found that the user had also liked some of the tweets she flagged as harassment.
On April 10, BTC Inc’s events director Justin Doochin responded to the victim’s email regarding the incident. Although he apologized to her for what had happened to her, he did not propose any follow-up action. According to Wired’s article, he claimed that “without that individual’s name or email address, we have no way of identifying them and preventing them from attending future events.” However, the victim pointed out that during the event @bitcoin_fuckboi had posted a series of selfies on his account with prominent bitcoin figures that may indicate who was harassing them. No further action was taken to rectify the situation.
Bitcoin Inc CEO David Bailey wrote on Twitter that @Chairforce has been “seriously reprimanded but everyone makes mistakes and I will not fire them.” Of the conference itself, he wrote, “26,000 people attended, don’t let a few bad apples stain the community.” When asked how the organization handles violations of its harassment policy, Bailey declined to answer.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only incident of harassment at the Miami conference.
A woman alleges that a man fondled her breasts at a private party while she was attending the conference. Another woman was leaving an after-party at the home of a prominent crypto investor to find someone had slipped an AirTag (a small tracking device) into her pocket. She has since quit a job in the industry due to community toxicity. Both women were troubled by the incidents but chose not to report themselves to law enforcement for fear of a backlash in the crypto community or retaliation from their harassers. They have asked that their identity be kept secret.
Two other women spoke about not attending the conference after finding out that Peter Todd, a former Bitcoin developer, would be speaking. Todd was accused of sexual misconduct in 2019, although he continues to deny his wrongdoing.
Harassment in the crypto community also extends to those trying to speak out against it. Bitcoin podcaster Tom Maxwell received an onslaught of derogatory slurs, hate comments, and even death threats for his tweet over his blog post calling for an end to “glorifying rape, misogyny, and sexual harassment” within the Bitcoin community.
Similarly, European lawmakers are facing unprecedented online harassment as EU institutions regulate the crypto industry. Members of the European Parliament, especially women, have been targeted by the mostly male proponents of cryptocurrencies. European Parliament co-rapporteur Assita Kanko has faced harassment, including sexist, racist slurs and threats of violence.
The tech space, and by extension the crypto space, has been rife with female toxicity in these male-dominated arenas. These are not the first incidents of harassment the crypto community has experienced, and unfortunately they won’t be the last for quite a while either. It is high time that accountability measures and safeguards for vulnerable members of the community were put in place and enforced where necessary. We hope that highlighting these incidents will encourage leaders and stakeholders in the crypto space to champion and demand a safer environment for all participants, especially women, who are a minority in this space.
Disclaimer: This article is largely based on a Wired article published back in May and the email thread our team was involved in with other spokespeople on the matter. The parties in the email thread attempted to reach out to the victims but unfortunately were unable to converse with them for further updates.
Also read:
Banner image courtesy of Unsplash
Learn Crypto Trading, Yield Farms, Income strategies and more at CrytoAnswers
https://nov.link/cryptoanswers
Comments are closed.