Investment strategist Lyn Alden looks at her own Bitcoin journey and is met with skeptics and industry male bias.
A recent survey conducted by OnMessage Inc. in the state of Texas found that men are 30% more likely to own bitcoins than women. And most who have attended a Bitcoin meetup will have noticed a mostly male attendance. In the Bitcoin space we often say “Bitcoin is for everyone”, yet the statistics show uneven participation.
but bitcoin is for everyone, right? So what can we do to make Bitcoin culture more accessible to women?
There are many potential paths, but the one I choose to pursue is learning and telling the stories of women in bitcoin. And where better to start than with Lyn Alden, founder and CEO of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy?
With a background in finance and engineering, Alden brings a unique and humble perspective to the Bitcoin space. His main emphasis is on the analysis of macroeconomics, investment research and monetary systems. She has been interviewed on numerous podcasts, including “what bitcoin did,” “The pomp podcast,” “Coin Stories” and others. His work has been featured or cited in The Wall Street Journal, Time’s Money Magazine, and The Huffington Post, among many other publications.
Below, find Alden’s answers to a few questions about his journey and the evolution of Bitcoin culture.
How did you first learn about Bitcoin and what specifically drew you to it?
I first heard about it in 2010 or so, when someone I knew was mining it on their gaming computer. It seemed cool to me at the time and I planned to look into it further, but life was hectic and I never got around to doing it. Then a few years later I ran into it again and while it still looked neat, the exchanges seemed pretty sketchy. Once again, I planned to investigate further, but due to the complexities of life, I put it on the back burner.
During the bitcoin bull run of 2017, I was running an investment research firm, so I finally took the time to dig into it and wrote a public article about it in November of that year. My article discussed the merits of the technology, but was skeptical of the price after the euphoric price increase of the year, and I passed it off as an investment. This ended up being a good idea, as bitcoin crashed and then stalled sideways for the next two and a half years. However, this time I did not repeat my previous mistake: I kept digging through the bear market and eventually bought it, and then I kept learning and buying more.
What have been the reactions of your colleagues to your belief in Bitcoin? And how have you seen this change over time?
I’m not in the general habit of talking about it too much. One of my friends became interested in it partly because of me, but most people I know are relatively uninterested. However, I have a large audience for my public writing, so I have used that platform to share what I have researched on bitcoin, among all the other topics I write about.
Some of my audience were (and still are) skeptical about it or just don’t like the fact that I’ve been writing so much about it for years, and they’d rather I didn’t. Other parts of the audience were happy and learned a lot from him. Most people can’t spend a thousand hours researching something like Bitcoin, so instead I can do it as part of my profession and write about it so the knowledge sharing gets a little better. And in doing so, I also attracted readers from people who have been in Bitcoin longer than I have, who might be interested in my articles on other topics.
How do you normally respond to those who disdain Bitcoin?
People only have so much bandwidth. There are probably a lot of things I despise that I shouldn’t, but I can’t focus too much on everything at once. As a macroeconomics and monetary systems analyst and someone who also has an engineering background, Bitcoin is within my realm of research and focus, but for many people it is not. It’s easy to dismiss, especially for people in developed markets with reasonably well-functioning banking systems. To many of them it seems like a solution in search of a problem. Many of them focus on important things that I despise instead.
The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is people who really dislike it and yet aren’t well informed about it. That’s usually an ideological issue, or an ego issue, or an energy-related misunderstanding about it and the associated moral panic that the media has often fanned into the flames.
In your opinion, why is it important to close the gender gap in interest and adoption of Bitcoin?
I see bitcoin as a very useful form of global money, and money is for everyone. It’s as simple as that. Therefore, it is natural to want to include people who are underrepresented in the Bitcoin spaces.
At the very least, if, say, a Bitcoin meetup is 80% male or more, it’s worth asking why. It’s not necessarily something negative or surprising; Interest in sound money economics and computer science are areas that have skewed men for a while, statistically. So, I am aware of that starting point when it comes to Bitcoin. But even so, we can wonder why men seem to find this technology more relevant than women, noting that the majority of content producers are men.
Some women feel out of place in male-dominated spaces, just as some men feel out of place in female-dominated spaces. Somehow this is not “for them”, although they are not prohibited in any way. For people (often men) who make educational materials about Bitcoin, is it understandable that they make those materials for people like themselves and therefore perhaps miss out on some ways of sharing the information that might be more conducive to women or men? other people who are not necessarily like them? ?
While I don’t think it’s a problem that a given space, including Bitcoin spaces, is more male-dominated (or in other cases, female-dominated), I do think it’s worth thinking about underrepresented groups and seeing what can happen. be done to include more people in general. After all, most people who like Bitcoin think that it will continue to grow in importance and affect more people’s lives over time, and it is for everyone. The challenge and the opportunity, then, is to find more ways to communicate that idea to many different types of people.
when i heard for the first time Alden speaks at Bitcoin 2021 in MiamiI remember thinking that he is absolutely brilliant and communicates with a humility rare in any industry. What is more impressive than his intellectual prowess is his commitment to financial education, especially as it relates to Bitcoin. Her writing has impacted countless people for the better, helping to increase Bitcoin adoption.
A big thanks to Alden for taking the time to provide his thoughts on this topic, and for anyone who is curious, Bitcoin is indeed for everyone.
This is a guest post by Becca Bratcher. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
