This past week Eric and I took a week long stint to the Black Rock Desert. If you are a Nevadan you probably immediately cued into the fact that that the only reason one might subject herself to such harsh elements in the dead of summer, would be to take the trek to Burning Man. Burning Man has become a huge event and an absolute gamechanger in the world of festivals. I am a sucker for studying gamechanging startups, events, and movements. Besides going off the grid for a few days, I really wanted to be a part of a city that lives by rules that no other city lives by, and with very few hiccups.
Burning Man, as many of you know has several guidelines, or rules of engagement that make it one of the most unique cities in the world to live. Yes, I said city. This year there were just under 70,000 people in attendance. The city was complete with public works, urgent care, and Rangers. It is a fantastic experiment in community building and in the gifting economy-as there is not allowed to be any money exchanged at Burning Man. With the exception of the coffee and ice sold at center camp by the Burning Man organization. The proceeds of those sales go to being good neighbors to the town of Gerlach, NV, who has to deal with the traffic for over a week.
On the second to last day, as most people were packing up their things, I attended a Bitcoin meetup.Like Burning Man, Bitcoin is an experiment in doing something outside of the norm. The white geodesic dome was chock-full of people. Most of those in attendence were of the male persuasion, in fact, there were only six women out of the 50 or so people. Coincidentally, all but one of them, (of course I asked them), was there with their significant other. The XY- to XX-chromosome imbalance of the Bitcoin world is so baked in that newbies are actually warned to have their scam antennae on the lookout for “any user blatantly claiming to be female.” (Coindesk). It was a fantastic discussion about the stability of the currency, the future of the currency, the moral implications of dealing with currencies outside of the U.S. dollar. Amongst the crowd, there were investors, miners and people who simply trade in Bitcoin. A whole lot of knowledge on a subject that has only recently become a viable solution to operating outside of a currency that has historically deflated due to our ability to print more money. A few times there were some heated arguments as not everybody agreed on everything.
Like all innovative ideas, there is a tipping point. A point in which the early adopters are not the only people sitting around at the most inconvenient of times in a dome with no A/C in the middle of the desert, just to discuss the topic, to debate the intricacies and to predict the future.
Game Changers We Know About
What are some other products or startups that were originally out-of-the-box ideas that nobody thought would ever gain traction? Think about Etsy in 2004. Nobody had heard of Etsy or even been able to remember the name. Now, it is a household name, there are over 800,000 sellers on the platform, and Etsy is now partnering with major retailers to bring more innovative craft designs to the marketplace and to directly connect innovators and national brands. Whoa! Most never saw that happening. You mean to say that designers and makers no longer have to sit in a drab design house cranking out ideas that will never have their name on them? They have changed the way e-commerce is done, much like Amazon and Ebay, nobody has changed e-commerce the way those three amigos have. Consider Amazon for a moment. I use Amazon for almost all commodities online. Why? Because they ship faster and are cheaper than any other online e-commerce store. I would buy Tom’s shoes on Amazon before I would buy them from the Tom’s site. They have all but conquered the logistics of selling multiple brands online.
It is my belief that Bitcoin will also be a game-changer. It will most likely change the way we exchange currency in the future. People all around the world will no longer be tied to the constantly fluctuating currencies of their home countries. They will no longer have to wait hours or even days for a single transaction to a family member in another country to clear, or else pay large sums of money as a transaction fee to a middle man like Western Union. Retailers will no longer have to lose a huge margin of their profits to credit card processing fees. Oppressive regimes will not be able to stop a villager with a simple Nokia cellphone (a la 1999) from making transactions. Can you just imagine the future? A currency that is FASTER, CHEAPER, and HAS NO BORDERS? What about the deals and discounts that retailers will inevitably end up offering to customers who are willing to pay using BitCoin? Can I get an A.MEN?
Where Are My Girls At?
Pua Pyland, The Bitcoin Wife
So, where my girls at? Women carry the power of the purse, so why is almost all of the innovation that is taking place around this newish currency being developed by dudes? I believe that it is our responsibility to create the future we want to see. People who are early adoptors of Bitcoin have a huge advantage over those who find out about it later. I want to see women early adopters creating startups around the concept of Bitcoin. Coming up with ideas that include Bitcoin + (your passion) . Ladies, please join me in getting pumped about this. I need your brain power and your unique perspective as a woman to help develop this currency in all of the possible gamechanging ways.
So here’s my two cents on how you can get started.
1. Read. Read. Read. Get your head wrapped around the concept. Understand the benefits as well as the risks of making purchases with Bitcoin. And once you think you have a good working model in your head, then try it on for size.
2. Experiment. Buy a few coins-not as an investment or a storage of wealth, but as a something that is interesting that you want to try out. Like a hobby. Think about how we teach our kids to understand the concept of money as a currency. We let them play with a few dollars, right? We give them a couple of bucks and let them go crazy in the candy store. Or we help them sell lemonade for $.50 a cup in the front yard. Bitcoin is a different beast than the dollar and the process will at first feel foreign to you. Give yourself permission to mess up and to learn, just as you would give your kids the same freedom.
Resources
- Khan Academy-The guy who saved your parenting face when your kid brought home a differential equation problem that you couldn’t solve, now has a cheat video for you too! Bit Coin-What is it.
- TheBitcoinWife- a fantastic blog by a woman bringing you “the fresh and fabulous” in the Bitcoin world.
- Coindesk-a site for non-technicals that reports on Bitcoin.
There are endless number of resources on the topic, ironically, because those same geeks that are early adopters of Bitcoin also, largely tend to document things on the Internet very throughly. You can thank your nearest geek by donating Bitcoin to them. Kidding!
Happy Friday,
Ashley
