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Ep. 014 | Curate Conversations With Pia Beck
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PODCAST SHOW NOTES
0xx is an education hub and community designed to help all women overcome structural barriers & start participating in the crypto & web3 space.
In this episode, Episode 014, Pia talks with Briana Kurtz, founder of 0xx and past Curate client, about how she’s leading her community in using web3 tools and cyrptonomics to overcome womenomics.
We know the statistics related to gender financial inequality are multiplied in the global south and developing countries. 0xx is committed to making sure the same discrepancies related to economic security, confidence, accessibility, and literacy are not replicated in the financial space that is emerging.
In this episode, we talk about how information is accessed, how FOMO is not an investment strategy, how learning about web3 and crypto is empowering women with financial literacy, and honestly — so much more. Enjoy!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Join the Curate Community Membership (code PODCAST for 20% off)
- Follow 0xx on Instagram @0xxcrypto
- Visit 0xx website www.0xx.io
- Podcast The 0xx Podcast
- Fill out an application to join the Workshop – Transitioning from Web2 to Web3
- Buy a Community Membership NFT
- Join 0xx’s Discord 0xx Community
- David Ehrlichman’s Book Impact Networks
- Ori Brafman & Rod A. Beckstrom’s Book Spider and Starfish
- Netflix Documentary-Drama The Social Dilemma
- Special thanks to our sponsors:
- Parker Clay (code CURATE15)
- SeaVees (code CURATE20).
- The Artist’s Lawyer (code CURATE)
Music created by Queentide.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
0xx is an education hub and community designed to help all women overcome structural barriers and start participating in the crypto and web three space. In this episode, episode 14, I talk with Brianna Kurtz, founder of 0xx and past Curate client [00:01:00] about how she’s leading her community and using web3 tools and Cryptonomics to overcome womenomics. We know the statistics related to gender financial inequality are multiplied in the global south and in developing countries. 0xx is committed to making sure the same discrepancies related to economic security, confidence, accessibility, and literacy are not replicated in the financial space that is emerging.
Brianna is out to share about the opportunities that exist in this space with as many women and people from underserved communities as possible. She’s a mom, she’s worked in the wellness and wine worlds in past lives, and she currently lives in Spain. She’s a manifesting generator, a libra sun/tauras north node, which explains why she’s almost always on the cutting edge of things and showing others the way. Which totally explains what she’s doing with 0xx.
In this episode, we talk about how information is access, how FOMO is [00:02:00] not an investment strategy, how learning about web3 and crypto is empowering women with financial literacy and honestly, so much more enjoy.
Before we get into the episode, let’s hear from our partners.
SeaVees believes that there is a sea of possibilities and they put the sea in SeaVees because they’re committed to protecting it. They value our planet. One way is by partnering with organizations that are restoring ocean ecosystems and our coasts. Since 2020, SeaVees has partnered with Sea Trees an organization dedicated to restoring kelp forests that have the power to reverse climate change.
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All right, Brianna. [00:03:00] Welcome. I’m so excited to have this conversation with you. Um, the last time we talked about everything that you were doing with 0xx, I learned a ton. I have no doubt that I’ll learn so much more today. So thanks so much for being here and sharing your wisdom with us.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited.
So you’ve done a lot of things. Recently, you have a brand new website, podcast, social platform, community NFT, and you recently launched the most recent round of crypto class, which is your primary workshop. It’s 10 hours of comprehensive education on crypto and web3. What are you most proud of when it comes to your growth?
Either some of those recent things or. In the past and everything on your journey, getting 0xx is today.
Ooh. Yeah. When you say like that, it sounds like so much when you like, look at it all together at once, but. Each of those things has been exciting in their own right. I, I think overall I’m just really proud of it all coming together. Um, you know, we often have all [00:04:00] these ideas and visions and energy and just bringing them to life is really satisfying and fulfilling and yeah.
I mean, I’m really proud of being able to provide guidance and value to women, looking for quality education around crypto. Yeah. I’m really proud of that.
It’s so cool. And anyone, I think who stumbles across your platform would say that it’s absolutely stunning and I think is really a breath of fresh air in the crypto space. We’ll, we’ll dive more into this, but I think that everything you’re doing is a hundred percent not what. I think of, or, or used to think of before your platform, when it comes to crypto and, and all that it is.
So it’s a breath of fresh air and I think it’s a much needed resource. And I think it’s one of the only resources. its kind right now
thank
right now, um, which is so exciting for you. Yeah. so exciting for you. Um, and for your community who I know, I mean, the, the testimonials are just outrageous. It’s, it’s really obvious that everyone’s getting a ton [00:05:00] of value out of what you’ve created. So before we get in too deep I am a crypto, uh, non-educated person. I am like 100% your target audience, where it feels intimidating and a little bit overwhelming to me. And it’s not something that I’ve spent a ton of time in as of yet. And I would imagine that a decent amount of our listeners.
Are have a similar experience. Um, and so I think it would be really beneficial to define some of the terms that we’re gonna be using in the interview so that people can just kind of like follow along. So I’ve got a couple on my list and I’m sure you have more, so I’ll you, the ones that I have, and then you can let me know if there’s any other language that you know, we’re gonna be bringing up that you think we should define before we get in.
And then of course we can do it throughout the episode, too. Okay. So starting with the basics cryptocurrency.
mm-hmm uh, well first, yeah, I just wanna say that, you know, we at 0xx, like do understand that crypto is often presented and confusing in overwhelming ways. And we always start with the terms. So I [00:06:00] get it with crypto. It does feel like you are learning a new language and you kind of are, which is really interesting and exciting.
So cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency. Well, let’s just, let’s just focus on the crypto piece for a second, refers to the entire space of blockchain based technology. Which is often used to power digital currencies, AKA cryptocurrencies. Um, but there are also. Kind of like the base layer technology for things like NFTs that most people have probably heard of at this point, other web three applications and defi, which is decentralized finance.
And the way I like to explain it to people is if you have an iPhone on your iPhone, you have an operating system called iOS. And then you have all of these applications like Uber and food delivery and your banking app and all of those things that operate on top of that base layer technology. Right? And so blockchain is that base layer.
And then things like cryptocurrencies can exist on top of that. [00:07:00] And so cryptocurrencies are digital assets that originate from and live on top of blockchain.
Okay. That was such a good analogy. I love that. And, um, what I think is really interesting and we’re gonna get into this later too. I wa I was watching I think it was a John Oliver episode recently where he talks specifically about app stores and how they are by nature, not decentralized. In other words, like apple owns its app store and they take a percentage of the revenue generated by anyone who develops an app.
And you can only buy apps for your iPhone in the app store. So I think that was a really clear example and I definitely have a better understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency as a result. And I think it, again, just speaks to like the need for this world that you’re gonna, you’re gonna help us dive into because there’s so much that doesn’t operate in this. Um, and then you also, I know, feel really strongly that [00:08:00] cryptocurrency is not just about money, right? It’s about decentralization. Like we were saying autonomy community ownership. Tell us a little bit more about aside from the technical part of it. What all of that is about.
Yeah, that is one of, kind of the most important things for me to communicate, whether it’s through a workshop or through just through conversations that crypto isn’t just about money. Uh, it’s about so much more. And yeah, I mean, you touched on some of those points. I know we’re gonna dive deeper into like what web3 is and all the things, um, how to best summarize this in a succinct way.
Cryptocurrencies allow us to create value in new ways that aren’t just financial. Right. And so it allows us to kind of, take financial capital away from the center. Which has been the focus for far too long. And we’ve kind of seen what that looks like in our world and allows us to recenter other values like social capital and cultural [00:09:00] capital and spiritual capital and environmental and intellectual, cetera, et cetera.
And I think that that results in a system that is more reflective of our values than just a pure financial system. So it’s pretty philosophical in a way. I mean, the crypto space is multidimensional. I tell people all the time that if you’re interested in philosophy in technology, in art, et cetera, it’s all welcome here.
There’s a space for all of that here. And so, yeah, it’s not just about the money. It’s about so much more. And I, I know we’re gonna unpack a lot of that as our conversation unfolds.
Yeah, that’s great. I think that the idea of recentering other forms of capital is that’s a, that’s a key takeaway for me from what you just said. Um, okay. So I, my last one and then you can add anything to this list that you wanna add is, uh, it’s two in one web2 and web3. So we’re talking about this, like transition from web2 and web3.
And I think that it would help everyone if we could define each of those independently first.
All right. So I don’t know [00:10:00] when this podcast is coming out, but we did. We are in the process of launching a new workshop all about this because it is such a big topic. It’s a two hour workshop, so we don’t have two hours today to talk about it. But, um, so web two is the internet. Most of us know today, right?
It is an internet that we’ve grown up with. It’s dominated by very large monopolistic for profit companies. That provide services in exchange for our data. And we have little to zero ownership rights over that, or like say in company operations or even like transparency into how they operate. Right. And web2 is funded by advertising and monetizing your data.
So for example, 80% of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising, right. And there’s this documentary that came out on Netflix a couple years ago called The Social Dilemma, I believe. And there’s a great quote from that, [00:11:00] um, doc that says, if the product is free, you are the product. And by you meeting your data. So that’s one part of web2. Another way we could talk about web two is. It is the version of the internet where we just, we weren’t just consuming content or reading content, but we were actually creating content. So this is the era in the phase of, of evolution of the internet, where we started to see things like blogs and tweets and Facebook posts. And, you know, liking and comments and Instagram and posting and think because we, we weren’t just consuming anymore we were also now creating. Which brings us kind of around to web3. It’s the next evolution of the internet, if you will. And it is web3 applications are built on top of blockchain.
So I think that’s like your first clue. So when you hear web3, you’re like, okay, blockchain should be that base layer. Unless someone is just trying to do the green washing version [00:12:00] of, you know, web3 and crypto and blockchain. And it allows us to. Ownership for the first time over that content that we are generating and over our data, which is not only fantastic as far as privacy is concerned, but also massively empowering to creators.
And so. The world is being known it like we can create all the content we want, but we really have no authority over this. So we can think of Instagram for example. Like I had this happen to a friend of mine. She’s a jewelry designer. She has a massive following on Instagram and she really heavily relies on Instagram for her business.
And one day she woke up and she was blocked out of her account. And like overnight that can ruin your business, you know, your income, like paying your bills and, you know, she. Did everything she could eventually got her account unlocked, but there was no no law that said that Instagram had to reinstate her account.
And in fact, they could have given her username it’s in their rights and in their power to give [00:13:00] her username to another person. And so she has no ownership over that and web3, again, because of block the underpinning blockchain technology allows you to actually have ownership over the content because the content lives in your wallet and not on the platform.
Hmm. Okay. That was great. Thank you really good examples. Really tangible, and I think a really good foundation for us to, to dig into later. So one of the things that you, uh, articulated really well, the last time we talked, uh, many months ago. Is that we’re living in a time of a reorganization of the global financial economy.
Right. That’s kind of what’s happening now. And for the first time it’s a bottom up phenomenon. So the community is creating the opportunity. This is decentralized, right. And it focuses on centering other forms of capital. It has the potential to make all of our [00:14:00] systems or the system particularly more reflective of our values. And I know that there are some potential downsides to this too. So can you tell us about the pros and cons of a decentralized financial economy?
I think it really depends on who you ask. Right? So if you, if you have someone who is all for crypto and blockchain, , you know, they’re going to air on the side of loving decentralization. If you ask a government official or someone from traditional finance, if they like decentralization. It is in their interest to be kind of anti decentralization, if you will.
So that’s the first thing. Some of the cons let me try to think of this in like, from the perspective of like the everyday user.
It’s really tricky because yeah, I mean if I’m being very honest, I am kind of biased to the side of the pros of decentralization. What I see is out there, that’s playing out in [00:15:00] real time, kind of, as we speak, when it comes to decentralization, is people using that term? As a way to, again, kind of like the, the greenwashing version of crypto.
So what I think people need to understand is that centralization is a spectrum. And that not all things in the crypto space are decentralized, right? So, um, some blockchains are more centralized than others. some. Blockchains are private. Like, so for instance, like an IBM blockchain is private to IBM, right?
Like you, it’s not, uh, as transparent as say Bitcoin blockchain or Ethereum blockchain. And so I would guess, I guess I would say that’s. More shedding, more light on the concept of decentralization. Not necessarily like digging into the cons. But if we wanna use decentral like if we wanna kind of like compare and contrast. I think it might be a better framing for decentralization versus centralization is in a decentralized system there’s no single point of failure. And so there’s this book from [00:16:00] 2006 called the, uh, “Spider and the Starfish”. I don’t remember the author off the top of my head. I apologize. But if you visualize a spider. and you see the spider’s head at the center of this being. If you cut off the spider’s leg, it’s gonna harm it, but not kill it.
But if you harm the spider and you attack it at its head, it’s going to destroy the entire system. Where if you look at a starfish. If a starfish loses a limb, it can regenerate because it has different nodes or networks. If you think about it that way. And so that’s why a decentralized system is preferred by some, because it has no single point of failure, which makes it more secure.
You also mentioned earlier, this kind of like bottom up phenomenon. So for instance, if you think of like a state currency, you know, that is from the government down into the economy or into the nation state level. Whereas something [00:17:00] like Bitcoin that runs on a decentralized blockchain platform like no, no state owns Bitcoin, right?
It was created and generated by a small community because people wanted alternatives and it is more permissionless and more accessible than maybe, um, traditional financial systems. And you know, some of these things, another thing that’s really important for me to say about this is. I want to really dispel any notion that these are new ideas.
And I know this is a little bit tangential, but you know, the us government experimented with digital currencies in the 1990s. And in the 1940s, um, John Maynard Keys, who many believed to be the father of like modern economics proposed the development of a supernational currency called Bankcorp. And there is a crypto company that exists now called Bankcorp, . In order to have a more equitable international trade [00:18:00] system.
And so when people like, say like, oh, Bitcoin or crypto, is this new scary thing, like, I really push back on that. None of this stuff is actually very new. All the precursors to Bitcoin, which was the first blockchain, uh, released existed for decades prior to 2008 when Bitcoin came out. And so none of this is new and I get that it’s a little scary and intimidating, but there’s a lot of potential.
Yeah, I think there’s a lot of misconceptions. Um, and I think you made a really, first of all, I wanna acknowledge that. I think all of this is so nuanced, right. And you’re doing a really wonderful job articulating that. I think it gets in an effort to make it more accessible, to translate it, to invite people into this opportunity.
I think it gets simplified sometimes. And I think you’re doing a really wonderful job. Um, just kind of zeroing in on those overlooked moments of truth. That come from being like really thoroughly educated in the space. So thank you for that. And I think that you made a really good point about, the fact that [00:19:00] decentralization is, is a spectrum.
And, you know, I think it’s really interesting. You didn’t mention this as a con, but I’ve also know, noticed that term. Becoming kind of a buzzword people are using it to describe like other things. And I’m sure that that can be misleading when you then take that word and put it back in its, you know, home container of missing that nuance, right.
Missing that spectrum and, and not fully understanding how to empower yourself with it. Yeah. Okay. So. I wanna talk about something that I know is kind of core to your platform, which is this idea of Womenomics. So, you know, as, even though this is not a new idea, and even though it is, uh, bottom up, and even though the cryptocurrency world does give us the opportunity to recenter our values, there are people who can get left behind.
Right? And whether that’s their choice, um, or not at all their choice. And it’s more of a systemic issue. There’s women, minorities, people in developing [00:20:00] economies that, you know, aren’t necessarily. taking advantage of, of this opportunity because they can’t. And so womenomics is the CU cumulative, excuse me, economic effects of gender financial inequality.
Right? So women make 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns studies show that boys make more allowance than girls. For women impact peaks around age 45 at $55,000 a year. Whereas for male workers, their medium in median income peaks towards the end of their careers, like over 65 at $66,000 a year, and women are 80% more likely to face financial hardship at 65 or older.
So that’s the idea of womenomics is that there’s this gender financial inequality. And that’s something that you’re facing head on with the 0xx community. So tell us a little bit more about that and why that exists [00:21:00] specifically as it relates to the crypto space and why this is essential part of, of your story and your mission.
Right. So I am familiar with a lot of those statistics and I know that they pertain mostly to the United States. What I know is that statistics related to gender financial inequality are even more multiplied in places like the global south and developing countries. So for instance, we know that 5 billion people in the world live in cash only homes.
And if you live in a cash only home, you can almost never save. Cuz frankly, it’s very difficult and also quite unsafe. And so all of the statistics that you quoted come out of yes, a systemic failure of equality from a traditional financial system. And so what I don’t wanna see is these same discrepancies related to economic insecurity.
Confidence literacy extending into the crypto and web3 space. [00:22:00] And so yes, at 0xx we are committed to creating more diverse spaces, welcoming spaces, safe spaces for women to learn. Because what I’ve really noticed is just that people with formation have more access to opportunities. And so it’s about getting that information into people’s hands and making it actionable for them.
You know, I, my, my perspective on education isn’t that I’m trying to convince you of something it’s trying to empower you with information so that you can make decisions for yourself about what’s best for you. And another fascinating piece of information. And I can say I’ve experienced this personally myself, but also I’ve seen so many women in the 0xx community echo the statistic from the global gender gap report. Is on a scale of one to ten, women gave themselves on an average a favorable seven plus when asked if their financial literacy and independence had improved since they had been begun using cryptocurrency. And I don’t come I’m what they call crypto [00:23:00] native.
Like I don’t come from a financial background. Like I didn’t work in traditional finance. I like learned so much through the lens of crypto and yes, it did and I did up my overall financial literacy, but crypto just feels so much more accessible and it is which we can dig into that if needed. But that it really is a great front door for people. And especially women to walk through to gain more like confidence and empowerment within the, entire financial space.
Yeah, let’s talk about that. Why is it more accessible? Because I think at first glance, or at least in, in my experience, like it, it didn’t feel. Super accessible right away and not, not more or less than, you know, the financial mechanism that is more traditional in our day in age or, or was more traditional.
And, and that, you know, some of us might be more familiar with. Like, I don’t think that’s accessible either. Um, but I wanna hear your perspective on why.
[00:24:00] Well, when you think about trying to access services in the traditional financial system, you think you have, okay, you have a credit score that follows you around, which is a bias system. You have to fill out applications like you have to ask for permission to participate. And we, we also know that that is an inequitable system.
Often denies a lot of people entry. And with crypto. It’s completely permissionless. As long as you have an internet connection, you can participate. And you can earn, you can invest, you can access financial services in the defi space, which offer the exact same services as in the traditional finance space, without that, just that layer of permission.
And some people might think, oh, well, that layer of permission is really important to keep those, keep people safe, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Then explain to me every traditional financial crisis that we’ve experienced in the last like 50 years because of mismanagement by the [00:25:00] traditional banking system.
And also, I mean, you can look at, what’s just happened most recently in this space and show how well defi operates and how well it, um, just the way it. It’s designed to be. I’m trying to like keep the technical language down, but like safer and more transparent, which is massively helpful. And. You can’t just like, I think people have this idea that crypto, you know, it’s, they call it the wild west. Which is a horrible, I think, analogy for many reasons, but you know, they think you like, oh, you can get a loan in defi.
You could just go online and get a loan for a million dollars. Like, no, it doesn’t work that way. Like there’s collateral mechanisms and, and other financial instruments that you have to consider. So it is like a very well thought out, very, very well thought out and considered system that operates extremely well.
Mm. [00:26:00] Yeah, you make a really good point. Um, and you know, on the note of financial crisis and, and your comment about people referring to it as the wild west, which I agree is awful, on so many levels. Um, you know, I think that the crypto space has this reputation of being volatile or risky or whatever other word people wanna assign to it so.
Yeah, I will push back on that right away. Um, you know? Yes. Well, let me, let me just say this. Yeah, it, it can be volatile. Okay. Last I checked before this most recent rebound coin bases stock have gone down 90%. So does that considered volatile? You know, and if you live in a place like Argentina or Venezuela, where they’ve seen inflation up to 40000%, crypto doesn’t seem that volatile and it is a lifeline to most of the people in the world.
So yes, I get that if you’re in from a quote unquote first world [00:27:00] country, it’s not gonna seem as attractive as a financial instrument, as it might seem to people who are coming from developing economies or the global south, or quote unquote, you know, Third world countries, if you will. Which I never use that language, but if it’s, if it’s illustrative in this context, I’ll use it.
But that’s why we see adoption in these places. I’m actually studying right now, adoption trends in Africa. Cause I’m fascinated by what’s happening there. I’ll be sharing more of that as I learn more, but I mean volatile compared to what you know, it’s it’s relative. So yeah.
Yeah. it’s a good point. So you’ve, you’ve been in the crypto space for a long time. Long before it gained kind of its recent ish huge popularity. And you’ve got a lot of close relationships with the leaders in the space and, and that’s part of the value that you’re able to offer your community.
How has crypto changed over the years?
[00:28:00] I think, I mean, gosh, there’s so many ways to think about this. So many angles that come at it from, but I, I think that it’s just be proven itself more and more. I think, I mean, it moves so fast. I every time I, we do a round of our workshops. I have to update certain things because it, it changes so much from quarter to quarter.
I think that it’s becoming more and more accepted. We see more traditional finance, financial institutions, trying to find their entry points. You know, Black Rock just announced a partnership essentially with Coinbase the other day. You see big banks, you know, the big ones, like offering different ways to get exposure to crypto assets.
So I think that’s something that is important and you see r egulators coming down harder, which means they’re starting to take it more seriously. Um, so I do think it’s proven itself in a way I still think we’re just at the beginning. I also think another kind of signal for [00:29:00] validation is that about 25% of the fastest growing brands are crypto related companies.
And every metric shows like everybody who’s measuring this shows that software developers are leaving web2 companies and migrating to web3 in droves. And so look, you can, like, you can follow the money or you can follow the talent, but all signs point towards web3 and crypto and blockchain, like it’s not going anywhere.
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So super interesting. What do you think is we are just at the beginning, let’s say, what do you think is coming in the next year, five years, 10 years.
Yeah, I think. well, I ask this question almost every day to myself, like what is gonna be the next thing that onboards the next millions and billions of users? Cuz I wanna know what that [00:33:00] thing is cuz I want, I’m gonna be fascinated with that thing. I don’t think it’s gonna be one thing. I think, you know, this last cycle we saw a, you know, NFTs did a lot of that lifting, gaming of course. Um, I think that the UX needs to get a lot better. I think we need better wallet security, uh, design. I don’t think seed phrases are gonna be the best option for people to have custody over their assets. So I think we’re gonna need to see some innovation around that and we will, I have full confidence that that’s coming also around insurance.
Big opportunities for crypto insurance in this space and it already exists and it, it has worked. Um, but we need to see a wider application of that. I think we’re just gonna see more and more people jumping into the pool. I mean, I think I just, before we get on this call, I saw Coca-Cola’s new NFTs have just launched.
And so I think we’re gonna see a lot more of that. Um, what else? There’s so, so, so many things, I think we’ll see a lot more mobile. I personally don’t [00:34:00] use, uh, mobile wallets, but I think that, you know, that’s an inevitable integration. I think we will con continue to see track by entering the space.
Um, and I hope that we get, competent and clear, regulatory guidance as well. That would be very helpful for the space moving forward. To remove uncertainty, um, would help the entire space.
Totally. You mentioned something that I have a follow up question on, which is, uh, people finding their entry. And so from the perspective of someone, let’s say it’s an individual, not an organization who’s entering this space. One of the barriers that I felt personally is like, I don’t know if I have time for this. Like my perception, whether it’s accurate or not.
And it, it might not be, is like, this is something you have to kind of nurture every day. Right? You have to check it, you have to be paying attention. You have to be always learning kind of what’s next because it is moving really fast. Um, is that true? Yes or no. And someone who wants to get into this space, [00:35:00] what would you recommend in terms of like bandwidth that realistic.
I think you’re not wrong. I, do think in the beginning that it is beneficial for people to cast a very wide net in order to just kind of get a lay of the land. And this is what, this is what I tell people in our workshops. Like I say, like, look, I give you a map. We’re gonna like go over the map.
Then you’re gonna get to decide where you go on your journey. Like, are you gonna go towards NFT land? Are you gonna go through towards defi land? Are you gonna go towards gaming land? Like because no one can be an expert in all those things, cuz like you said, that’s a full-time job. And when it comes to investing, you know, I can kind of take your question from a different angle.
You know, it’s like I have to be on top of this every single day. Well, yes, maybe. Yes. And maybe no, if you wanna be a passive investor, you’re probably gonna stick to some more conservative crypto investments. But if you want to be like in it every day and the thick of it or you want to take on more risky investments, then that level of risk is going to need to be matched by level [00:36:00] of engagement.
And so yeah, if you’re gonna be playing in some of the riskier ends of the cryptos sphere, then yeah. You’re gonna need to be like in it every day, for sure. I mean, that’s my advice. I that’s what I personally believe.
But I also say, you know, we just finished a cohort so I can actually. And what other piece that is helpful is I do not believe that you need to understand, let’s say ZkSync technology in order to be a good investor in this space, or you don’t need to understand, um, even how blockchain blocks get made necessarily in order to understand how NFTs could be beneficial to you or your business or your friends or whatever.
Right. So you can kind of get to pick your level of engagement.
Totally. That makes a lot of sense. Um, I think both of those things like getting to pick your level of engagement and also having it be kind of proportional to the level of risk that you wanna participate in out of curiosity. And, and you don’t have to share if you don’t want to, where do you fall on that spectrum?
[00:37:00] I would say I’m highly engaged.
Okay. cool. I figured, but you know, just thought everyone. That was probably a question that everyone who’s listening was wondering. So thought I’d just throw it out there. Okay so there’s, there’s kind of two things that I wanna dig into as it relates to, uh, our, our business owner listeners out there.
So the first is the trend towards decentralized work. Tell us, like, what is this? What does this mean? What is the trend? Break it down a little bit.
So the first thing I just wanna kind of point to is that we’ve brought up decentralization several times, and this is actually the first concept that we go over in depth in, uh, crypto class. Because to me it is like everything refers back to this concept of decentralization. And so I just want to kind of like highlight that this trend towards decentralized work.
Um, so of course, many people have probably heard of Dows or DAOs or decentralized autonomous organizations. Which are a new kind of organizational structure and [00:38:00] coordination mechanism. Basically, that just means like how decisions are getting made is different in these organizations than maybe traditional structures that we are used to where there’s like a CEO and a board of directors, et cetera.
And so decentralized organizations are a little bit more of a flattened hierarchy. And basically my favorite kind of definition, I guess, if you will, of a Dow is a group of people that oversee a pot of resources or a treasury, right. Tied to a project that they are associated with and also responsible for ensuring the long term success of that project. And I don’t think that that definition would apply again to traditional organizations that we’re used to. Because for instance, if you work at like a [00:39:00] big, I don’t, let’s use like a big, I don’t know food company of some type. Like if you work for Cheerios, I do not know why that’s coming to mind, but like, if you work at Cheerios.
Like you as a worker, have you do not oversee the treasury or the resources tied to specific projects. Um, and you are not, you’re not really as a daily worker tasked with ensuring the overall long term success of a project or responsible for that. Right. And so what flatten hierarchies do in decentralized organizations is give people, again, more ownership, always coming back to this idea of ownership.
They align incentives more because if you have ownership, then you are aligned. You have, you have like a, you have some skin in the game, if you will. Which is a really great coordination mechanism. And you also because the hierarchy is flattened, it just allows for more like life and energy within organizations. Cuz you think of a traditional organization that has like again the CEO, the [00:40:00] VP and the board of directors and everything’s kind of top down. But in Dows what we like to say is yes, of course there’s hierarchy.
Like hierarchy is a natural thing that exists in nature, right? The earth revolves around the sun Okay. So hierarchy is not inherently bad, but strict and like rigid hierarchy is when that those people who float to the top and generally accumulate more control, power, authority, and wealth. And then that is just static and never changes.
That is just a very like uninspiring place if you will. But if you have a flattened hierarchy, what people like to say is. I’m gonna probably, I’m gonna paraphrase this. The leader is the person who knows what to do next. Which means, let’s say you have a big advertising campaign coming up. Well, then the person who knows the most about advertising is gonna float to the front and they’re gonna lead.
And then let’s say when that campaign’s over and it’s time [00:41:00] to, you know, really focus on the next product. Well then the person who knows the most about product and that product management pipeline, they’re gonna float to the front. And so it allows for this fluid hierarchy, which is again, much more vibrant, much more alive and allows for more equity within an organization.
And yeah, that’s kind of how I see it as the difference in decentralized work.
You explain that so well, and you know, I feel like I’ve seen this done successfully and I feel like I’ve also seen it not done successfully. So what are some of the. major transformations. Whether that’s, from the former leadership team and or mindset readjustments across the whole organization, like, like what does it take to make this successful?
Yeah, it’s really hard and messy. Um, I, I have also seen it be work and I’ve seen it. be well, be really hard and not work. So, first, [00:42:00] first I wanna say that this is not a crypto on, this is not just a crypto thing. Okay. So decentralized networks have existed or in work has existed long before crypto. Uh, there’s a great book called “Impact Networks”, by David Ehrlichman. Which I probably butchered his last name, but I have the pleasure of knowing David personally. And he wrote an entire book around decentralized work that has zero to do with crypto. He didn’t even like know about crypto when he and web3 when he wrote it. And now he does work in this space.
So I would really point to that on this topic as like the place to go. You know what it really comes down to us. Because imagine a workspace with fluid hierarchy and the amount of trust that that would involve and how many emotions that would bring up. And so when it works, it’s because people are willing to have hard conversations.
It’s usually a network with high emotional intelligence. Who also have the skills and tools to really work through the hard stuff. And when I’ve seen it not [00:43:00] work is when it’s explosive people don’t have, don’t know how to talk to each other. Don’t know how to communicate. Don’t have the emotional intelligence, don’t have the skills and tools to do conflict resolution.
And, um, I mean, look, sometimes it just, they dissolve because the project’s over or because it’s outgrown become a new thing who knows it can, it can dissolve, you know, peacefully as well. But yeah, Dows are, you know, they’re figuring it out. Like all of these things we’re talking about are being built as we speak and and Dows are definitely a specialty area within this space.
Um, I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in them, but yeah, we still have a lot of learning to do about best practices in this space. So, which is exciting.
Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I think it’s really interesting because , it creates this beautiful Venn diagram of, you know, concepts that we see in the crypto space and also the fact that our work culture and our way of working in general at least in the US. Is also changing a lot [00:44:00] right now.
And I think this is like that crossover. Um, and so I, I find that really interesting that dynamic and it’ll be, it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to unfold. So the other thing that I wanted to talk about that I alluded to earlier in our conversation is this idea of existing businesses transitioning from web2 to web3. So, uh, businesses that were formed under, you know, the internet as we grew up with. And as we have known it. Into, the new evolution of the internet.
So maybe you can give us some examples of what this might look like.
Examples of businesses transitioning, make doing, making that transition from web2 to 3?
Yep.
Well, I think, yeah, I mean, I just mentioned, or I think earlier, like Coca-Cola. But you know, you see companies, you’ve got like Disney and Tiffany just did their crypto punk pendants. I think this past week, um, Starbucks just announced their NFTs are coming out.
So like [00:45:00] every big company’s doing it, everyone is going to do it. It’s inevitable whether people like it or not. But, you know, I, I just wanna make sure, like, everyone knows, like it’s not just for big companies. And what’s so great is now we’ve reached a stage of maturity within this space where there’s plenty of web3 apps that make it so easy for anyone to launch an NFT or token. Like, you know, Dow tooling in a box.
And if T in a box like, um, that all exists now, and that, I can’t say that that was true even, almost even a year ago. And, you know, I, I definitely, I do consult for a handful of organizations that are making that transition from web2 to web3. I think in order to do that, the first thing you really need to understand is all of the, like, why, how, where when, with what, with who and just really everyone has every organization or individual has to check in with themselves of like, why are you doing this?
Like, are you doing it just because everyone else is doing [00:46:00] it, that’s probably not the best reason. And I say that with investing too, I’m like FOMO is not an investment strategy. And I guess, you know, you really, you wanna understand the why, and in order to understand the why you really have to start with education.
And I would also say that spend a lot of time considering your community design, your community dynamics and take your time. Yeah. Take your time. Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. Because if you just like learn a few things and then you’re like, okay, well that seems like a model I could do that. I guarantee you in like two weeks or three weeks or a month, you’re gonna learn like 10 new things and you’re just gonna constantly be pivoting.
So I really think it’s best for people to like, get a lay of the land first and then make decisions because what I’ve seen for some of the projects I’ve consulted for is exactly this. Where they wanna get in, they wanna move fast and then it, that causes them to have to like change a lot of things along the way, which [00:47:00] of course costs money too.
So, but it’s definitely something that is. again, very accessible for anyone who wants to put these tools into practice in their business. And I think we’re, again, just beginning to scratch the surface of what this could look like for business owners, yeah, like in the future.
Yeah, that, that was so helpful. And I have two, I think kind of like areas of business that I’m curious about. So I know that you recently converted to a web3 community first model, and you mentioned the importance of like community dynamics. Tell us about that piece specifically.
What does that mean to build a successful community in a web3 format?
I think, uh, well, so the web3 community first. So we, we have an NFT and if you purchase our NFT, then you get access to all of our content, which is, you know, all of our workshops, all of our special events, resources, et cetera. that’s kind of the web three piece, but we also understand that some people are like just getting in and so [00:48:00] we make it very accessible to obtain that item if you will. In order to unlock all the benefits, um, community first, I think that, you know, if we wanna go back to this web2 web3 compare and contrast. Web2 is very extractive.
It’s all about like, selling and taking, selling and taking, and web3 is more about it. It’s from a place of value. So it’s like, what are you providing? What are you, how much can you give? Like, what do people need? How can you meet that need? And it’s also about ownership. So if someone joins the 0xx community, And we’re not there yet.
Like we are building toward this, towards this cuz as I said earlier, like I think organizations need to take their time. But theoretically it’s definitely possible in the future that if you were to hold an NFT, then that might give you governance rights. Right? So this comes back to the Dow piece where you could, we could then have a voting mechanisms within the community that say, if you’re a token holder at NFT, you know, 0xx and NFT, token holder, as an example, you can choose.
How much [00:49:00] money we allocate to this project or what workshops we do next, or what initiatives we take on next, or you know, you can come in and start a project and then put a proposal through to get certain amount of funding from our treasury to then carry that project forward. And like we, as a community would make that decision rather than like me per se or our core team.
Cool. Cool. Okay. That’s a great example. I love that. And my other thought was on the example that you gave earlier, right? You have this friend whose Instagram got shut down, right? She was relying on it for sales and, uh, she didn’t own it. Right? Instagram, meta Facebook, shut it down. And they could have given her handle her domain, her profile to somebody else.
So what’s. Equivalent of let’s say, promoting and or selling your products and or services on social media in a web3 context.
So we’re not there yet. I would say, you know, this is something I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about is like, what does a web three sustainable [00:50:00] web three business model look like? And the truth is I. It’s my personal opinion that we’re just not there. I, I would call it more like web 2.5, where you can have, you have some of these pieces and revenue streams coming from the web three side, but also from the web two side.
And I could give some examples from the crypto side that, that are most successful that have a mix of both. Um, and that’s just being very honest. And also, you know, I should just say, we should probably say this at the very beginning of the conversation, but Hey, like I am not a crypto maximalist.
Like I do not believe all things in crypto are good. I don’t believe that crypto is going to, like, everything that happens within crypto is okay. And that it’s going to like save us. And, um, I, yeah, I think that they’re amazing tools and It’s really up to us as humans to build systems that are reflective of our values.
Um, and that I do believe that blockchain based tools in web three and, and cryptocurrencies included in tokens [00:51:00] can help us do that. But they are not the thing. They are the tool to help us build the world and the thing right. That we want.
Yeah, totally. I think that’s a really good point and is, is very much needed in this space. You know, I saw a testimonial on your website that was like, you’re blocking out all of the bro marketing. And I think that that like maximalist perspective is probably exactly what that person was referring to. Yeah, I think like the level of discernment and nuance that you’re bringing to all of this, is in line with what this system can make possible for us. Right. Which is agency and ownership and choice. And, and only if we, as humans commit to showing up that way in that community, right.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. So I wanna hand you the microphone and give you an opportunity to say whatever it is that needs saying that I didn’t ask you about. What do you want everyone to know about this world, your [00:52:00] platform? else? Floors yours.
I guess I would say that, you’re not late to the party. Don’t worry. You can absolutely learn about this exciting and vast space. You can find your place within it and diversify your financial options. You can find supportive community and that you are absolutely worthy of having financial security and confidence.
Hmm. I love that. Thank you so much. I’m sure that this was 1000000th of everything that we could talk about. And so with that, I’ll just say to everyone who’s listening you should definitely purchase the 0xx NFT. You should get access to their community. I know that Brianna has. A huge amount of resources and support inside of her platform that, [00:53:00] um, this episode may or may not have done significant justice too.
So definitely go check it out. And thank you so much for being here, Brianna, this was a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate it and really grateful to have your expertise and your guidance and your discernment in this topic.
Thank you so much for having me and asking such good questions. Sometimes it’s even harder to talk about crypto when people don’t ask really good questions. And this was, this was great. So thank you.
Coming off that conversation. I think it’s really important to share why Brianna got into crypto in the first place. In her words, I was friends with a lot of women. Who were waitresses, bartenders, performers, yoga teachers, graphic designers, basically a lot of women that economically identified as freelancers and belonged to the gig or creator economy.
And I always wondered how in this new structure of work, where we had more freedom and control over our time, but with little to know, safety nets, like retirement funds, employer [00:54:00] paid healthcare, paid time off, et cetera. How were we as women going to afford to have kids? Because most freelancers when they’re not working, they aren’t getting paid. So many years later, Brianna has birthed an absolutely beautiful and wildly comprehensive community and education platform to help solve this problem among other problems.
I wanna put a period on the end of this episode, by reiterating something Brianna said and believes to be true. Crypto is not just about money. It’s about so much more. Decentralization autonomy, community and ownership. You can find 0xx @0xxcrypto on Instagram and at www.zeroxx.io. I encourage you to purchase the 0xx NFT.
If that feels right for you and to check out the resources that Brianna mentioned. We’ll have those linked in the show notes. See you next time.