The first decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was released as open-source software in 2009. Since then, more than 4,000 cryptocurrencies have emerged. The benefits of the idea are obvious: cryptocurrency offers super-b and secure financial transactions, and is not chained to any central banking systems. But the need for a new form of money isn’t being echoed in every corner of society, and for many the idea of money that you can’t always hold in your hand or wedge into your old mattress isn’t exactly that secure no matter how safe the transactions are. We asked U.S workers whether they thought cryptocurrency was a scam, and found an interesting division along gender lines.
The information comes courtesy of an ongoing study by Comparably. More than 1,000 anonymous employees responded to the question.
Women are a little more concerned than men about the legitimacy of crytpocurrency. 58% of men think the new currency fad is legit, compared to just 54% of women.
Hispanics are the least worried that crytpocurrency is a scam among ethnic groups. The 60% of Asian/Pacific Islanders were also largely convinced that crytpocurrency was a legitimate enterprise. African-American and Caucasian respondents aligned with the overall female vote.
The 61-65 group, who have lived the longest with old fashioned notions of paper and metal currency, are most wary of crytpocurrency.Younger people generally feel crytpocurrency is a safe investment, with suspicion rising once they near middle-age.
The trend seems to be that less-educated people are less supporting of cryptocurrency, with those claiming some college experience most concerned the new currency is a scam.As education level rises, concern about cryptocurrency being a bad idea drops, with those with Master’s degree approving the new form of currency at about 60%. This data supports the idea that the idea of a new form of money is suspicious to many, but that with deeper understanding of cryptocurrency comes more acceptance.
As we saw with age, less experienced workers are less convinced that cryptocurrency represents a potential disaster.This suspicous rises with experience, with the over 10 years bucket five percentage points more worried about the negative potential of cryptocurrency.
Workers in San Francisco/Silicon Valley, arguably the nation’s top tech region, are markedly unconcerned about the dangers of cryptocurrency. Responses from Seattle, also a modern tech hub, were more divided.
When results are filtered by job department and gender, we see that women are in most cases more suspicous of cryptocurrency’s benefits than men.This is not always the case: Men in Business Development responded that the new currency was a scam at a rate 17 percentage points higher than women; Male Legal employees voted ‘scam’ at a rate 21 points higher than their female counterparts; Men in HR, Design, Operations, and Sales were also slightly more worried than the women in those departments.
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