Bitcoin: More than Store of Value — Inbar Preiss / Pt. 2 - YouTube

As far as I'm informed, you call yourself digital nomad.

Could you explain what this means for you?

For me it means that I work with just me and my laptop,

and then me and my laptop can be anywhere in the world.

So, I like that I can have the freedom to move

wherever I want, whenever I want, and it's actually a lot harder than it sounds.

But yeah, every few months I kind of find a new place to stay.

Then I wonder how might...

how cryptocurrency might make life easier for digital nomads?

Well, it means that I don't need to earn

based on... so, currency isn't an issue. So it doesn't matter where I am, I'm earning the same currency.

There have been recent news that North Korea is developing its own digital currency,

its own, actually, Bitcoin.

What are your thoughts regarding this idea?

Well, it should be interesting. I mean, we've seen from,

perhaps, the Petro in a Venezuela...

Will it fail like Petro coin?

I don't know. I also don't have enough information. But we can see that when

digital currencies are used... so far, used and developed by nations and central governments,

I haven't heard about many success stories,

so we'll have to think about that.

What are your thoughts about Libra? How successful it could be?

I think it will be very slow. I mean, as we see, there's already have been kind of,

you know, waves of success and failure already and it hasn't even started.

So I think it will take a while before we really see it put into action

since all the bureaucratic issues. Well, that's the problem of being a central corporation.

But then, I think it can have the potential of being an adversary kind of implementation

on having such a strong corporation, such a powerful corporation, also have finance involved.

I think it can potentially be dangerous for users.

Are people already ready to

appreciate and tolerate such new innovations like Bitcoin, or might we see kind of

resistance against new technologies from citizens and government both?

I think both will happen.

So, there are those who are willing already to adopt new technologies, perhaps they see the freedom that is

possible with it, while others will be more conservative and take more time perhaps to realize

if they need it at all. I think the important point is to

have the alternative available for people who seek it.

And I don't believe that Bitcoin mass adoption is the most important aspect.

I think that it's important in a way that those who need it can find it.

When it comes to mass adoption, how do you think,

what is the biggest obstacle for Bitcoin for being more widely adopted?

On one hand, it's the whole user experience, which might be difficult for people to adapt to.

And on the other hand is, I think...

yeah, so, including the user experience, it's just the lack of ways to use it,

so it's either selling or trading, you know. So, it becomes a bit more complicated to just use cryptocurrency

or Bitcoin specifically, even harder to use it on a daily basis.

It doesn't meet the requirements that people need on a daily basis in terms of money.

And on the other hand, there's the illegality of it in some countries or the difficulty of doing, you know,

paying taxes and so on. So this makes it all very difficult in a governmental and bureaucratic way.

Recent research actually says that we already have sort of elite in a cryptoindustry.

And earlier adopters or holders accumulate a huge amount of money in a few hands.

Don't you think that we already have the same situation in traditional financial system, and

could this situation prevent Bitcoin from its mass adoption?

Yeah, so, the Bitcoin "whales", so on and so forth. I mean, it's too bad, because it's such a decentralized...

So, I think it shows that human nature has a way of, behavior of carrying out certain things,

and these things are inevitable. Even if you have a fully decentralized system,

some kind of elite will always form.

So, I think it's a shame that this has to manipulate the market and

the potential so much, but, on the other hand it's inevitable.

And yeah, we definitely see... I think there will be financial elite

anywhere where there is a certain amount of freedom, because on the other hand, we don't want to fully...

communists, dictatorship that will make sure that everything is completely equally distributed, because,

you know, we've seen that hasn't worked out very well in the past.

And yeah, probably the last question. What is the most interesting part for you about Bitcoin?

What attracts you the most?

I think, to see a different spectrum of people that it attracts and for different reasons.

For example, here we see, I think, the most original cryptoanarchist cypherpunk approach to

cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, while there's, you know,

on the other spectrum there's a very corporate side of it. So, I find the different political movements,

philosophical movements, social movements attached to this very innovative, new currency,

I find it very fascinating.

But, you know, Bitcoin was born from the efforts of cypherpunks, and now

it becomes a store of value.

Is it a problem, or we just see that people come to appreciate Bitcoin from different routes?

Yes, I think it's inevitable that there'll be different approaches,

and I do hope that some of the cypherpunk ideals can, you know, penetrate through time and also

be accessible to people to realize that there is, perhaps, more to Bitcoin than just store of value.

There is also a stereotype that women are less knowledgeable when it comes to technological skills.

According to you, if there are more women among developers,

how might Bitcoin benefit from that?

I think that's a very important question. I think to have women involved is

very important in development, because we're really in the midst of creating the future, in a way.

So I think it's very important to have all sides represented in that, and not just have, you know,

the dominant white male kind of perspective and everything, but also

have the different perspectives and have the different influences.

Do you personally feel that cryptocurrency industries are male-dominated?

Yes, of course.

In which way, could you do explain?

Well, I mean, you can look around conferences and you'll see: usually, most often women are a minority.

As speakers or on stages, also in the crowd, in the audience.

But I think it's also becoming... since the time that I entered into this whole niche, I have seen...

Some changes?

Some changes and more women involved, and more women speaking out and participating.

How can we encourage more women to become familiar with decentralized technologies?

I know there's a lot of women in blockchain events, I see them quite often.

So, kind of women oriented events, but I think it's just

important to make an inclusive space that everyone feels welcome at.

And make sure that there's, you know, at least some representation of women in events,

to show an example that it is completely possible.

Thank you so much.