Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s pretty obvious how buzz around the ‘interwebs’ this past few years has been around cryptocurrency. While social media might have you believe that the entire world is either making memes or dancing and lip-syncing on reels, the real players are out there trading in crypto. And why shouldn’t they? Cryptocurrency is shaking up the notions and rules established by traditional finance, and disrupting the fintech industry at the same time.
But crypto is more than just a buzzword - it’s here to stay. The question we’re asking now is, if crypto is the future of currency, or at least a huge part of how financial systems work in the not-so-distant future, will it be able to embrace the idea of financial inclusion? Will groups and individuals, say women, who’ve been traditionally economically underprivileged be able to find equal footing when it comes to crypto trading? Can such trading under the umbrella of decentralized finance help bridge the gender wealth gap? Let’s find out.
Wait! Gender Wealth Gap? In 2021?
Yes, it exists. Sure, the dominant conversation out there is the one around the gender pay gap (another sad reality), but when you take inequality in wealth into consideration, the gap is even wider. Even in the top layer of wealth distribution, as of 2019, there were 2489 male billionaires in the world as opposed to 336 female billionaires. That’s a mere 11.9 percent share of the total. As we go down the slope, societal, structural, cultural and sociological factors kick in, and that widens the gap even further. For example, most of the frontline workers in the service industry in the US are women. They have been the worst affected after the pandemic hit, as service-based jobs dried up, putting a huge dent in their savings and personal wealth. Globally, there are about 1.7 billion people who are ‘unbanked’ (people without any bank account), out of whom 24.4 percent are women. But in China and India, more than 60 percent of the unbanked are women.
Crypto’s Role as a Wealth Creator
Just to demonstrate how crypto creates wealth, let’s take a look at Bitcoin. In 2017, Bitcoin’s value went from INR 73k to almost INR 139k in less than a year. Despite a few ups and downs along the way, that same value amounts to INR 47 lacs today. The point of citing these figures is to prove that cryptocurrency does generate wealth. And Bitcoin isn’t the only currency out there. The market has more altcoins joining the race to become the next Bitcoin and that only means there’s way more scope for people to make money.
Crypto’s ‘Gender Agnostic’ USP
Even though crypto-trading does have its own share of risks and requires a certain level of knowledge and awareness about the market, thanks to the ease of access in trading and the wide distribution of the internet, trading in crypto has managed to bypass the social, cultural and systemic obstacles that were holding women back. In essence, it’s a level playing field that is gender agnostic. You don’t have to be the stereotypical nerd who sits in front of their computer for hours, wears big headphones and slurps energy drinks to stay up all night looking at crypto-trading trends. Thanks to apps such as CoinSwitch Kuber, your entire wealth creating dashboard is at the palm of your hands.
Because the processes are entirely based on computer networks and AI, the societal, cultural and sociological problems take a back seat. The genderlessness of the crypto-sphere is what women can truly benefit from.
Crypto investments let women opt-out of a financial system that hasn’t worked for them. Women can choose to engage in a trading system that exists outside of the present workplace. With modern-day giants like Tesla, PayPal and Visa encouraging cryptocurrency transactions on their platforms, crypto-trading gains more credibility. This opens virtual doors for women to venture onto and take control of their finances. And while the challenges of accessibility to women remain, crypto-trading does allow for more money in the hands of women.
We are in a position where we can actively think about inclusion and rights in the financial and technological sectors. This leads to empowering more women technologically, thereby familiarizing them with crypto. Cryptocurrency is moving towards a world with more female investors, offering capital to more women entrepreneurs than ever before. And that is part of the solution.
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