053. Beyond Traditional Financial Systems and Bitcoin as an Alternative with Sandra Ro

Sandra is the CEO of Global Blockchain Business Council and throughout this conversation it becomes apparent two of the things that I believe are extremely important to her are:

• leveling the playing field by being able to provide financial opportunity for all
• a desire to bring people together toward a common goal, in part through education and for the purpose of empowerment

This is the second podcast Sandra has done with Speaking of Crypto. The first one was recorded in August 2018. It’s episode #24. Please see the link below.

This time around we only touch on her time at CME group and how she paved the way for the launch of Bitcoin futures at the end of 2017.

More so we talk about blockchain enabling shared economy models and more opportunity through this next evolution of the internet. She shares some of the ideas that I’m personally excited about like tipping or monetization of things we do now for free, and passive income streams that are becoming more available.

“So you've done a piece of work, you've written a tweet, or you written a blog and someone likes it? Could you get tipped for that? I think these models are nascent, but they're really exciting.” 

Sandra’s also the managing partner of UWIN Corp. She and founder Julius Akinyemi, MIT entrepreneur in residence, are helping farmers in rural communities around the world register their assets on a blockchain so that they can access financial services that they would otherwise exist without.

Essentially what they’re providing is “the ability to have an identity to be able to register their assets to be able to know that they have net worth it.”

“These are things that we take for granted as a society in the US or in Canada, or anywhere else, where there are structures in place that recognize land titles that recognize that when you buy a car, you have a title to that, and no one can take that really away from you. In most other countries, those systems and those infrastructures do not exist in a way that is enforceable, and therefore leaves people vulnerable.” 

We also get into the discussion around our data having been compromised and what blockchain can change where personal data is concerned.

“The question now is, can any of this information be held by the individual owned rightfully by the individual? And there's another piece of this, which blockchain does, is question and say, can the individual actually monetize this? And should the individual be actually paid for that information?”

Sandra talked to me about the JP Morgan coin, which she believes is not a true cryptocurrency. 

We talk about governments creating their own digital currency and what kind of efficiencies that could create.

And we talk about the importance of having an alternative to the traditional payment systems or assets and that what Bitcoin allows is choice. That choice is especially important in countries where people are in dire financial need or in financial crisis.

Sandra Ro on the SOC podcast August 2018

http://speakingofcrypto.com/024-sandra-ro/

UWINCorp

https://uwincorp.com

Sandra is Co-founder of

Proof of Art

http://proofof.art

Global Blockchain Business Council

https://gbbcouncil.org

Best moments:

• GBBC 7:00
• Owning our data 11:45
• Tipping on The New Internet 14:50
• leaving CME Group for UWINCorp 16:10
• First mile problems 21:00
• Passive income and distributed economy 24:50
• JP Morgan coin 29:00
• Bitcoin, the alternative 32:30