00:05Okay, I gotta get something off my chest.
00:08Is it just me or do the Bitcoin bros sound a little crazy?
00:12I want to get in on this whole cryptocurrency thing,
00:15but I just can't get past the guys who sound like this.
00:18And this is a magic ledger.
00:20It's a hedge against monetary policy.
00:22It's financial freedom, bro.
00:24This technology's answers to Beanie Babies.
00:27And when you change something here, it magically simultaneously changes there.
00:32Judging from that description, it's hard to imagine that anyone knows what Bitcoin is.
00:37So I went down to Wall Street on my lunch break to see if anyone could explain it to me.
00:42Hi, you guys. We're doing a video on Bitcoin.
00:44Do you know anything about it?
00:46Oh, okay. Bye.
00:48We're doing a video on Bitcoin. Do you know anything about it?
00:51Nothing at all.
00:51That's okay. Me either.
00:53Hi, you guys look hip. Do you know what Bitcoin is?
00:55I don't know.
00:56Bitcoin.
00:58Bitcoin.
00:59Yeah, it's like a cryptocurrency.
01:03No white men know what Bitcoin is.
01:05It's a new day.
01:07Do you guys take Bitcoin just cash?
01:10Okay, so nobody takes Bitcoin.
01:12Nobody wants to talk about Bitcoin.
01:13Why should I care about this?
01:16Turns out when you need a mansplainer, you can't find one.
01:19So I reached out to the one woman who I kept seeing on TV who seemed like she knew what
01:24she was talking about.
01:26Venture capitalist Jalak Jobinputra.
01:31So from the top, bare basics for anyone who doesn't know, been turned off by like the dude bro culture
01:38of like crypto Bitcoin.
01:40What the f*** is Bitcoin?
01:43Bitcoin, at its core, is just a way to send money peer to peer without any banks in the middle.
01:51Right now, we're just handing our money over to banks.
01:54They're charging us.
01:56Right.
01:56And it kind of just doesn't make sense in this day and age when there is actually technology where we
02:02can actually control our money.
02:04You can use this technology for so many good causes.
02:08Bitcoin can be used for good causes?
02:09So I'll give an example of a company.
02:12Yeah, yeah.
02:12It's actually a female founded company started in Nairobi, Africa.
02:17They are using Bitcoin as a way to allow businesses to transfer money within countries in Africa.
02:24And it used to cost 20% of a transaction and now it only costs less than 3%.
02:32I kind of know what Bitcoin is now.
02:34I have a better understanding.
02:35What the f*** is blockchain?
02:36Well, blockchain is just simply the technology that Bitcoin was built on.
02:42Okay.
02:42The reason Bitcoin works and you don't need banks or you don't need intermediaries in a transaction is that there
02:50are thousands of computers around the world that record every transaction.
02:55Think of it as a global kind of record of every transaction that's made.
03:01So it's like a Google Doc that like everyone has access to around the world?
03:05Exactly.
03:05Missed that?
03:07Yeah, it's kind of complicated.
03:09But blockchain is a system of computers that stores information on unhackable and open documents.
03:15And that's really important because it means that no one company or person runs the whole system.
03:20So Jalik explained to me that with Bitcoin and blockchain, we have the opportunity to rebuild the financial system.
03:27And it's still early in that process.
03:30So women have the opportunity to build real wealth.
03:33Now, not to be too dramatic here, but I think that's really exciting because throughout history, men have controlled the
03:40world's wealth.
03:41For example, women make up only 2% of the world's self-made billionaires.
03:46And there are more CEOs named John than there are women leading companies.
03:51Seriously, for every woman leading a company, there are 1.3 men named John leading a company.
03:58So if your name is John or even David, statistically, you are killing it.
04:04But if you're a woman, you are seriously outnumbered.
04:07What if this is our moment in history to rethink things and do things differently?
04:12What if this is our moment in history to catch up?
04:15Bitcoin and crypto seemed like the opportunity to rebuild and rethink these institutions that women didn't historically lead or benefit
04:23from.
04:24But then I talked to the senior writer at Wired, Erin Griffith, and she told me that most Bitcoin investors
04:31are men.
04:37So if Bitcoin and blockchain is supposed to be this liberatory, revolutionary thing, it seems antithetical that 98% of
04:46Bitcoin is owned by men.
04:48Like, who are they liberating? Other men?
04:49I mean, a big part of the problem is that the people who invested early obviously own the most and
04:54they have made the most money on it.
04:56And a lot of the people who are early to it were men, specifically in the U.S.
05:00That is definitely changing. It's becoming much more global.
05:03You know, women have become interested in our investing and dabbling in investing.
05:07But like with the tech industry, like in the finance industry, there are some cultural issues within the Bitcoin and
05:13crypto communities.
05:14But why is it a little douchey?
05:16Yeah, so there are some stereotypes. The Bitcoin bro is a real thing.
05:21They've taken some of the worst aspects of the tech industry and the sexism that occurs there
05:26and blended it with the worst aspects of the finance industry and the sexism that occurs there.
05:31Yeah, I heard the North American Bitcoin conference. The after party was held at a strip club.
05:36Yeah, you get these kinds of headlines that happen frequently.
05:39I recently saw one that was in Hong Kong that of their top billed speakers, the only one that was
05:44a female was a robot.
05:47Oh, my God.
05:49I've seen men say, oh, well, women just aren't interested in that for sure mirrors the tech industry.
05:54Like, oh, women aren't interested in coding. They're interested in people.
05:56And that's bull****.
05:57Women are very interested in STEM. They're very interested in all kinds of new technology.
06:03And it's been an unwelcome environment for them.
06:05That's why there are so few of them, women graduating with CS degrees, the number has actually declined.
06:10In 1985, more than 35% of computer science majors were women. But by 2014, that number had dropped down
06:19to just 18%.
06:22Statistically, it is proven that when women are involved in a company, they're more profitable and more successful.
06:27So why wouldn't you want women involved?
06:29Right.
06:30Alexia Tatsas, the former editor of TechCrunch, now she's an investor, wrote,
06:35So women, consider crypto. Otherwise, men will get all the wealth again.
06:39And that's sort of a way of saying we're building this new thing from scratch.
06:43This is the very beginning stages of something that could be huge.
06:46Let's not let this mirror every other institution that we have, especially the tech industry, which is still male dominated.
06:52Let's start now with, you know, a very equal representation.
06:57So even though Bitcoin combines the worst aspects of tech and finance into a cocktail of unbridled sexism, male privilege,
07:04and light stage capitalism, it's good to know that there are some women who aren't drinking the Kool-Aid.
07:11The only way that Bitcoin and blockchain can disrupt anything is if they're actually inclusive.
07:16Okay, that's time, Elisa.
07:18Otherwise, aren't we just recreating the same problems we had in the past?
07:21I have another patient outside.
07:23If it's supposed to be this liberating, democratizing force, who's being liberated?
07:27The exact same people?
07:29You can't fall down the blockchain k-hole here. You have to leave.
07:32I'm not leaving until we resolve this.
