The dark side of the crypto community
Now that I have arrived home to physical safety, I’d like to share my personal account of the Devcon harassment incident, including details from the formal report issued to the EF team at 11:17am on October 13th. While this incident involves other people, I want to reiterate that this is my personal statement, and I am not speaking on behalf of any organization or DAO.
On the morning of October 11th, I along with 10 other women entered Devcon for the first time and decided to take a picture in front of the 360 cameras. After taking a few minutes to decide what pose we wanted to do as a group, we were ready to take the picture. At this point there was a man behind the camera, verbally boo’ing and taunting us, giving us a thumbs down, and making fun of what we were doing in front of the camera. Multiple people in our group asked who this man was, as we were not sure if he was associated with the camera man or not. Several women in the group told him to leave us alone, verbally repeating “stop it,” “knock it off,” and “go away.” Multiple people even said, “stop harassing us.” It continued even after stating repeatedly that we wanted the harassment to stop and that we wanted him to leave us alone. At this point, I asked the cameraman himself to tell this man to leave us alone. He was told again to leave us alone and yet refused and remained in place behind the camera continuing the same harassing behavior.
I want to be clear that any type of disrespectful and unwanted behavior, that is degrading and humiliating, and repeatedly called out, and yet still continues is 100% harassment.
Harassment as defined by Naco is “Unwanted conduct with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment based on their race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, and/or age, among other things.”
The photo was taken and everyone moved away from the photo area. The vibe was off. People said “that was so weird”, “I’m uncomfortable”, and “he was creepy”. Someone in the group found the Devcon code of conduct and confirmed that the behavior experienced (harassment by definition) is not tolerated by EF. I sought out assistance from the Ethereum Foundation team to report the incident to keep those affected safe. First, I asked volunteers for help. Then I asked volunteer leads to escalate to the Ethereum Foundation team. One individual from the Ethereum Foundation team eventually did come, spoke briefly to 3 out of the 11 impacted individuals. Another EF rep then came and both of them then proceeded to talk directly to the harasser only for around 10 minutes, laughed and smiled with him, and let him go without telling us any details about the resolution. We were only told he was given just a warning via telegram after asking several times for an update via Telegram. Several of us felt very unsafe sharing the same environment with someone who refused to leave us alone after repeated pleas, and still felt uninhibited to continue to harass us.
We have reviewed the Devcon code of conduct, and this incident is a clear violation of that policy. The policy states “Be excellent to each other. If a participant is, in our sole discretion, harassing or otherwise unacceptably impacting other participants' ability to enjoy Devcon, we at all times reserve the right to remove the offending person(s) from the event without refund.” The harasser directly impacted several individuals’ ability to enjoy Devcon.
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Timeline
October 11th:
10:30am: Arrived at the photobooth to take a picture.
10:40am: We report the incident to a volunteer and asks for security/escalation
10:40-11am: We stand there waiting within 20 feet of the harasser
11am: Volunteers get EF
11-11:10 am: EF briefly talks to three of the eleven women present during the incident, without getting the full story
11:10-11:20 am: EF talks to the harasser while we stand there in clear view of him
11:20am: EF reps walk away without talking to us and let the harasser go
11:20am: No one checks in to update us about the conversation they had, giving us the impression that they took his word for what happened.
11:30am: We post in a Telegram group to speak directly with organizers. No one responds until the next day.
12pm: First tweet goes out about the incident.
In Response to False Allegations:
-On October 11th, I left the Devcon venue around 1:30pm because I felt extremely uncomfortable with the lack of response and action against the harasser. I never followed him, or came within 10 feet of him, ever. After the EF reps talked to him, I never saw him again that day.
-I never accused the harasser or told security at Devcon that this person was taking pictures of us. I was not present when/if the security guards checked his phone. I never looked at his phone because I was never near him, and I had already left the venue.
-The harasser never told us to just “jump” for the picture. What we experienced was repeated thumbs-down and boo’ing our group. Even after several of us repeatedly telling him to stop, as we all just wanted to enjoy taking the picture, he refused.
-I never harassed or falsely accused anyone. I reported harassment first to volunteers, Devcon staff, via Twitter, and then formally to the leadership team. I left the venue within 2 hours of the incident.
-I never took or sent a photo of the harasser to the organizers of the rave. The organizers of the rave reached out to me first, asked me his name, and told me that he wouldn’t be welcome at the rave. Several people, including myself, felt uncomfortable with the harasser being in line at the same time as us. I notified an organizer that he was in line. I never requested that he be kicked out of the party.
The original report and complaint was co-signed by 25 women. Co-signers of this report have been redacted to protect the individual’s safety and security. There are categorically untrue statements being said about me, and other people/organizations involved with this incident.
As it much too late to take appropriate action against the harasser, I am proposing the following solutions:
-An amendment to the Devcon code of conduct to institute a zero tolerance policy for harassment when multiple reports are received.
-On call safety and support team available onsite for anyone to report incidents.
-A public response from the Ethereum Foundation team detailing the incident, what they could have done better, and how they will improve to keep the entire community safe.
-A full-time professional hired by the Ethereum Foundation team to put appropriate policies and procedures and training to protect the safety of all in future events.
-Open source DEI training provided as a resource for the broader web3 community.
In addition, I would like to apologize to anyone who has been directly or indirectly hurt by the hateful vitriol based on me posting the message on Twitter. The allegations against this person are real, and they were submitted and reported by multiple people. I was the person who sent the tweet and the intention behind that was to create safety. In hindsight, I should have circled out who was the harasser in the picture and blurred out any innocent bystanders or found other avenues to have my concerns heard. This obviously has had the opposite effect for everyone involved, and for that I apologize. That being said, I stand by my initial statement, and the intention of this was purely to make sure that no other person would be subjected to such treatment at Devcon or any other events..
This situation has highlighted an insidious, misogynistic and racist underbelly of the crypto industry. It is heartbreaking to see that standing up for those affected has resulted in hundreds of racist, sexist comments and threats of physical violence against me. It sickens me to think there are individuals out there who decided to center themselves in this trauma, and use it as a moment to benefit themselves and their organizations. Moments like these are when genuine allies rise above, and faux advocates show their true colors. Thank you to everyone who has reached out in supporting me and the others. I hope this brings about greater change in the industry as a whole. Speaking out is never easy, but it is so important.
TLDR: I reported harassment at Devcon. The harasser crafted a convincing false narrative that he was the true victim. The general public believed this narrative, despite several victims reporting the same harassment incident. Extreme intimidation, threats, and false allegations from thousands of harassers ensues online against myself and anyone or any organization tangentially related to me. The dark side of the crypto community runs rampant.