Ways to Learn About Crypto and Web3
Hear from Shing Yiing Ong, co-founder of Cryptolingo DAO, and Amy Soon, founder of Blu3 DAO, on their unique experiences and struggles in joining the crypto and web3 world.
All views and opinions expressed by the guest speakers are solely their views and opinions and do not reflect or represent the views and opinions of Alpaca Securities LLC, Alpaca Crypto LLC, and AlpacaDB. The guest speakers' opinions are based on information they consider reliable and therefore Alpaca Securities LLC, Alpaca Crypto LLC, and AlpacaDB do not warrant its completeness, accuracy and it should not be relied upon as such.
The content is for general informational purposes only. Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC do not recommend any specific investments, investment strategies or cryptocurrencies.
Fintech Underground by Alpaca is a podcast devoted to all topics related to stock trading and APIs. From trading with algorithms or connecting apps or building out services, we aim to bring light to the different corners of Fintech.
• By Alpaca
TL;DR
In episode 20 of Fintech Underground by Alpaca, we interviewed Shing Yiing Ong, co-founder of Cryptolingo DAO, and Amy Soon, founder of Blu3 DAO. Cryptolingo DAO is an organization created to break the language barriers in the Web3 space, targeting non-English speakers. Blu3 DAO has the mission of empowering women, non-binaries, and allies to achieve financial freedom in the web3 space through learning, earning, and playing. Shing and Amy share with us their experience and struggles coming into the crypto and web3 world, and how they came to found DAOs.
Find the full transcript below. To hear more of the most interesting Fintech companies speak about their experience in the industry, check out our other episodes below.
Full Transcript
[00:00:00] Mariangela: Alpaca is a developer-first startup focused on building open APIs for stock and crypto trading, investing, and embedding. You can learn more by visiting our website at alpaca.markets. You can also find us on Twitter @AlpacaWeb3 or join our discord community also with the invite link @AlpacaWeb3.
[00:00:20] Hello, I'm Mariangela Martinez, Content Marketing Specialist at Alpaca. And this is Jason Hsu, Crypto Growth Manager at Alpaca.
[00:00:29] Jason: Hello. I'm incredibly outnumbered today, but we need more of that.
[00:00:34] Mariangela: That's right. Okay. We will be hosting today's podcast on ways to learn about crypto and web3, as well as where is crypto going.
[00:00:42] We have two guests today and our guests are Shing Yiing Ong, Co-founder of Cryptolingo DAO, and Amy Soon, founder of Blu3 DAO.
[00:00:51] Cryptolingo DAO is an organization created to break the language barriers in the web3 space, targeting non-English speakers all around the world.
[00:01:00] Blu3 DAO has a mission of empowering women, non-binaries, and allies to achieve financial freedom in the web3 space through learning, earning, and playing.
[00:01:11] I just want to say before we start that any topic talked about in this podcast is not financial, investment and/or tax advice. We encourage our listeners to seek individual advice should they deem it necessary.
[00:01:25] So, Shing, do you want to tell me a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:30] Shing: All right. Thank you so much, Jason and Mariangela for inviting us to the podcast. I'm Shing, the co-founder of Cryptolingo DAO. I originally grew up in Malaysia, but now currently living in New York city. So excited to be here.
[00:01:45] Mariangela: Awesome. The big apple. Perfect. What about you, Amy?
[00:01:51] Amy: Hi, super excited to be on my very first podcast as well. I also am from Malaysia, Shing and I actually go way back, we're best friends from college, we're still best friends, which is an achievement. And now we're in the web3 space building our DAOs together. So this is super exciting.
[00:02:11] I was an actuary back in my previous life, consulting Fortune 500 companies. And now I am leading and running Blu3 DAO a DAO to empower women, non-binaries, and allies into the web3 space.
[00:02:30] Mariangela: Awesome. Thank you so much. And it's great to hear that you guys are best friends and grew up together. And now you're both in this industry together. That's amazing.
[00:02:39] Amy: Thank you.
[00:02:39] Mariangela: Yeah. So I'm going to start with a few questions for you, Shing. Tell me, what is your background in FinTech and how did you end up in the financial industry?
[00:02:51] Shing: Honestly, right now I think about it, growing up like financial stuff. I didn't really know too much about finance until I was college when I came here. I also have a background in actuary. Yeah, I know I love math, I love looking at numbers. That's all I knew in high school. So I got myself into the actuarial industry working for a Fortune 500 company as well and fast forward to now, being investors, learning how to invest, you know, I would say growing and working at the beginning, we never really knew how to invest and what to invest in and you're just really focusing on building your career.
[00:03:38] So when I started learning how to invest, when I started learning what cryptocurrency is, I sort of got a lot more interested in learning the space and like web3 and what really cryptocurrency is. So that kind of got me curious and how I got involved with actually went to EthDenver where I really dipped my toes in learning what web3 is, and what DAO is. So that is how I actually got myself into it, because the space is very open. It's very new and I am being part of Blu3 DAO at first with Amy, and I learned that the space is just full of different opportunities to learn.
[00:04:30] So I just want to learn more in web3, so I kind of got myself into that space. Hopefully that kind of answered the question, just so step-by-step. Cause I always loved numbers and that just kind of flow into this web3 space unintentionally because there's so much stuff to learn in this space.
[00:04:48] Mariangela: That's right. I feel like you never like finish learning, you know, there's always something coming up in and you keep learning more.
[00:04:57] And what made you want to start Cryptolingo DAO?
[00:05:01] Shing: So initially how I approached Cyptolingo DAO, when we started it, it was focused on non-English speakers.
[00:05:10] I'm very passionate in my own language, because my main language, I would say my main first language is actually Mandarin Chinese and a bunch of different dialects in Chinese. So English is not my first language. When the founder approached me, my two other signatories, which we now changed it from governors, approached me in wanting to lead the Mandarin space. I immediately said yes, because education is very important to everyone. Just like you said before, we never stop learning. So learning in, specifically our own language, I find it very challenging at the beginning when I came to the United States, because English is not my first language and a lot of times I had to translate every single word in... what we have researched actually most of, if you look at our proposal, most of the users right now in web3 is actually about 74% are non-English speakers on the internet. And nowadays in web3, most of the education is in English.
[00:06:22] I'm very passionate about reaching different communities and especially to a world that has kind of left behind and another, all the governors as well, they, some of them speak, one of them speaks Spanish and one of them speaks Portuguese, and we wanted to just touch on our, I would say our community learning crypto in our own specific language so that they could actually get the education as well, so that we can reach the non-English speakers.
[00:06:48] So that's kind of how we started. We just wanted to reach our community and give something back to the community where they could actually learn something and not get left behind.
[00:06:58] Mariangela: Being from Malaysia, did you feel like you had more disadvantages than English speakers?
[00:07:04] Shing: I wouldn't say I had more disadvantages than English speakers, but one of the things being in Malaysia, in the crypto world itself, it's education right there and because everything is very new starts from here. Not a lot of people in Malaysia understand what web3 really is. And that probably creates some sort of advantage in a way that, because not a lot of web3 information is being passed to Malaysia, but that's because we in Malaysia have multi-languages, we do speak English. It does help a little bit, in a way that we are able to learn all the education now in English, but because there's really not a lot of organizations right there in Malaysia that actually educate web3, as much as you know, in the United States, there are so many conferences and people are, a lot of companies have started in the United States.
[00:08:06] So I would say a lot of the disadvantage is more education wise. Whereas speaking-wise, since we are multilingual, we are not so far behind in the world. That's that's my opinion right there, but in some area where like financial wise, because I would say education right now, not just in Malaysia, a lot of people, a lot of education did not educate, you know, how do we invest? How crypto really really works it is, that is more of a disadvantage right now where people just don't know what exactly investment is and what exactly web3 is because the education nowadays are just mostly, just very web2. And how we look at bookkeeping, things like that, that we are, it depends on what area you're in right now.
[00:08:58] Mariangela: Yeah. I mean, and I also think like growing up, you know, you go to middle school and high school, they don't teach you about financial stuff at all. Like everything that I learned is because I researched. There's no financial classes or tax advice, you know, like tax classes.
[00:09:14] Shing: Yes, nowadays, like tax, even tax advice, there's nothing in school that actually teaches you, you actually have to learn on your own when you start making money. And, like how this tax really works. How do you invest in the right stock, right crypto, nothing in education right now actually educates you on what you're supposed to do.
[00:09:33] Mariangela: Very true. Tell me a little bit more about the company. What stage is it in right now?
[00:09:40] Shing: Right now, we actually just started not long ago about, oh my gosh, about a month ago now. I just subtly kind of had this, trying to see where we are. But about a month ago where we actually, it was born under Blu3 DAO, it was born in EthRio, where they went about a little bit more than a month ago where we just received, funding, $10,000 funding, to start the DAO.
[00:10:06] Right now, we are still in the building phase where we want to create a channel on YouTube to educate people on very basic stuff like education things from literally, what is cryptocurrency to what is web3, very basic, to hopefully eventually to teach you how to actually build a DAO.
[00:10:28] So we are actually starting and launching really, really soon, in probably less than a week. We're going to start with our YouTube channel first, where we are going to launch a few videos in our own native language, where I am taking care of the Mandarin language and two of my other signatories we'll take care of the Spanish and Portuguese.
[00:10:44] That's where we started off first. But eventually we wanted to bring in more speakers, such as Arabic and French, and we're still working on that. So we're currently creating a lot of content and just enrolling people into joining our mission, to educate non-English speakers, to be part of our DAO.
[00:11:03] Mariangela: Wow. That's really cool. I think you'll have a big audience because there are many people that want to learn about it.
[00:11:10] Shing: We're very excited about it.
[00:11:12] Mariangela: Congratulations. Well, let us know when you launch it.
[00:11:15] Shing: Oh, of course. I will let you guys know. It will be launching definitely in a week. Our website, our telegram, our Instagram, Twitter, are all up. It's all Cryptolingo DAO. So hopefully you can get to join us and follow us on our social media.
[00:11:31] Mariangela: Awesome. So when this podcast comes out, you guys will be launched. So there you go. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more, I read that you have three company mandates: education, inclusion and gamifying. Can you tell me a little bit more about it?
[00:11:46] Shing: Yes. So education, obviously, it's pretty obvious where we right now web3 is just so new and literally a few months ago, I had no idea about it, but we all these resources out there, gets to educate us right now and going to conferences, going to all this, like, you know, EthRio, Amsterdam, I unfortunately wasn't able to be there, but there are so many things that we able to educate ourselves.
[00:12:14] So in Cryptolingo, we believe that education is one of the most powerful tools. So we wanted to create very basic stuff because sometimes when I go to conferences, things can get very overwhelming when you're a crypto baby. When I walk into a conference, I literally have no idea what web3 is and nobody was able to explain the basics. So we believe that starting from basic is a really powerful to enroll more people that are very interested in the space that feel a little intimidated to come into web3 space. So education, you never stop learning. So hopefully when they can follow us the tutor journey and eventually get more and more comfortable into the web3 space.
[00:12:57] Whereas inclusion, we want to include everyone in the world, in order to do that, we want to break the language barrier. So the content that is unavailable in their native language. We are hoping that we can educate them in their own native language so that they don't feel intimidated to come into the space just because they don't speak English, that is one of our mandate. We want to educate. We also want to include everyone to be inclusive in this web3 space.
[00:13:32] While gamifying is because education sometimes people get intimidated, so we want to make it fun. So actually our goal is to eventually do an app. If you know Duolingo, Cryptolingo name's was kind of born from that, where we wanted, instead Duolingo it's Cryptolingo where there's an app in multilanguage where we want to be able to space to actually learn with playing games. So just for example, if you know Duolingo.. When I was learning Spanish, I was playing the game, all this, and then you sort of level up, you get some coins, something, and then it just makes it really fun and makes learning a new language, really fun. So web3 is a new language. So we wanted to educate web3 in some sort of app. That is our long-term goal, so that you can learn and educate in a fun way through that app. So with that app, when you learn, and when you are playing that game, you earn some tokens Lingo tokens, eventually, so that you can use our tokens to vote or we're still figuring that out. So that, it's why we wanted to make it really, really fun as well.
[00:14:42] Mariangela: Cool. Yeah, no, I wanted to learn about how to earn the social token, but it's just playing and leveling up, right?
[00:14:49] Shing: Yeah, that is part of our goal. So when you play and maybe after this level, you earn some sort of tokens. And with that token, you may be able to use it in certain events, come to our events or apply through certain scholarships.
[00:15:04] We're figuring out our tokenomics as of right now. So we don't really have an exact number. So that is one of the way to earn the coins, the tokens, not coins. Our tokens is one of it's to eventually play in our app to learn and level up and you're in one level and it goes to another mission.
[00:15:26] Mariangela: Nice. Okay. Good to know. I'll play and get some tokens.
[00:15:32] Shing: Yeah, we're in the process of building the app.
[00:15:36] Mariangela: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Shing. So, Amy going with you a little bit, can you tell me a little bit of what is your background in FinTech and how you ended up in the financial industry?
[00:15:51] Amy: Do you want the one line answer or do you want the story?
[00:15:55] Mariangela: Between, let's do in between.
[00:15:57] Amy: In between. Okay. Let's see. Hmm. So I guess the story, the in-between would be my parents used to argue a lot about money growing up. So as a kid, I actually made money wrong and I told myself that money was not the most important thing in the world. And little did I know it was the only thing driving my life. So I did some inner work a few years ago, which was when I discovered my blind spots. Despite being a consultant as an actuary, helping Fortune 500 companies with their money, I didn't invest my own money for over 10 years. So when I did the work, I realized I was afraid to invest my own money because I was afraid to make money important. Long story short, when I woke up, I was like, "oh my God, I got 10 years to catch up." And that was the point, the turning point of my life, where I started to kind of learn everything I could about investing. And I think that was probably the start of my FinTech experience as an investor, a woman investor.
[00:17:02] Mariangela: That's cool. Yeah. Money can be a risky subject and definitely scary. So what made you start Blu3 DAO?
[00:17:10] Amy: So when I was, let's see, I think it was last year during COVID, I actually, was depressed. I took time off from work just to kind of like, you know, recover and heal myself. But in that moment, I got invited/crashed a crypto happy hour in New York city.
[00:17:33] And at that point, as I told you, I've been learning everything I could about investing. I was trading and investing crypto for, you know, 12 to 18 months by that point. So here I am in this crypto happy hour at Terra actually, I started meeting all these founders, all these geniuses behind all these projects, and it was such an inclusive culture, Mariangela, they were so smart yet so humble and inclusive, and they're all super passionate about their projects. It was such a different environment. And I was, I remember at that point I was like, "what is this space? I love it. I feel like home now." And I told myself that I was going to be at a career in web3.
[00:18:15] Fast-forward two, three months later, I got a book deal with Harmony One, an amazing project by the way, they gave me a book deal. I wrote a book for Harmony and at that point, my life had completely turned. I felt like a butterfly. I went through a metamorphosis and now I've recreated my whole career and my whole self, and I wanted to recreate that experience for other women to enter web3 space and that's how I started Blu3 DAO.
[00:18:44] Mariangela: Wow. Okay. I definitely want to know more about your book, but let me focus first on your experience in crypto. So you were in EthDenver and you just came back from EthAmsterdam, right?
[00:18:56] Amy: Correct.
[00:18:57] Mariangela: Yeah. So was it different from years ago, if you've noticed, like from the way you were treated or from the percentage of women going there, has it changed or what do you feel?
[00:19:09] Amy: So I've never been to any Ethereum conferences prior to EthDenver. So the first conference I went to was EthDenver this year itself. I can't compare to prior years. But what I've heard from other member, other crypto conference goers in Amsterdam, I asked this person and went, "oh, how has the woman ratio changed?" and he mentioned that it's getting better. I think a year ago it was probably like 85% men, 15% women. And then this year he said it was closer to maybe like 75, 25. Which is great. There have been a lot of women led DAOs and projects, kind of sprouting across the board. And so that's good. Together we can collaborate and really improve that metric.
[00:19:59] Jason: Are you two going to Consensus?
[00:20:02] Amy: So we haven't discussed Consensus. It's not on our roadmap right now. Blu3 DAO sponsors scholars across different conferences around the world. We're going to at least eight countries this year. Right now we are looking to go to Permissionless in Miami. Consensus I believe is the following month, which we might not be going because we will be in NFT and EthNew York City.
[00:20:29] Jason: Okay. Okay. I mean, I know a lot of people that are going to both Consensus and NFT.NYC, very different crowds. Yeah. Yeah. And, we'll have a booth there. We're also talking to an actual alpaca farm nearby, so you guys can come pet real alpacas.
[00:20:48] Amy: Oh so cute! Wait alpacas in Texas?
[00:20:51] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. In Austin.
[00:20:54] Shing: I was gonna ask that.
[00:20:56] Amy: Do you import them from Latin America?
[00:21:00] Jason: It's actually, I guess Uber-able from the convention center.
[00:21:05] Amy: Oh my God. That's great. Now, now I feel like we should go.
[00:21:13] Shing: Yeah, maybe just maybe us, I don't know.
[00:21:18] Mariangela: Perfect. Let's see. So tell me a little bit more about the book, "Create Wealth In Harmony". When is it coming out? What is it about? What inspire you to write it?
[00:21:29] Amy: Sure. So I was in the middle of Times Square, Harmony One was launching their campaign, Create Wealth in Harmony, so they had two massive billboards that they basically shared the video that they made and the video was about creating wealth and harmony, where anybody should feel that they can create wealth. No permission needed. No prior experience or skillset, all it requires is your passion and your desire to show the world through your eyes. I think the idea is that we should be building bridges, not walls. And I think that's the ethos of web3, being collaborative, inclusive, and that anyone can achieve wealth.
[00:22:17] And when I saw that, I told the founder, Steven Lee, I said that we actually have a similar mission. At that point I was running my web2 personal finance company with my sister MoneyBoss, and Create Wealth in Harmony is something that's very close to my heart. As I shared a little bit earlier, my family used to argue a lot about money and I lost my mom on my birthday six years ago. And until the day she died, she was still worrying about money. So it's something that's really deep in my heart. And I really, you know, now that I have the tools to liberate her, you know, through money IQ and money EQ, psychology of human beings, I'm too late to save her. I'm too late to liberate her. So it has become my personal mission to liberate other families. And to empower more women to be free. And so that was my inspiration to write the book. When I shared this with Harmony, they proposed that we collaborate it to write the book together. And so, we printed a thousand copies. It was a soft launch at EthDenver. We gave it out in Denver. But that was just a soft copy and it's open source, in other words, you can find it on Harmony tweets, on my Twitter account as well, because we're following the ethos of web3. I'm now gathering community feedback. I would love it if you guys read it too and let me know what you think.
[00:23:41] And then over the next two months, I'll be rewriting the third section because now that I have a lot more, and when I say a lot more, I mean three months, now that I have three more months of experience in the web3 space, I'll be rewriting the third section on crypto wealth. Then I plan to launch it later this year, maybe in Q3 or Q4 on mainstream publishing.
[00:24:06] Mariangela: Cool. I mean three months of experience is lot.
[00:24:09] Amy: Exactly. In the web3 space, correct. Yeah.
[00:24:13] Mariangela: Wow. Okay. Thank you. Definitely gonna get to read it.
[00:24:17] Amy: Thank you.
[00:24:19] Mariangela: So let's see.. Shing, I have few questions for you. Tell me, what do you find most appealing in crypto and web3? Why not stocks?
[00:24:31] Shing: Ooh, that, in my opinion, I have probably have to break it down to few.
[00:24:37] For example, just like in investing, investing before I got into creating a DAO into building a DAO in web3, I'm just mainly investing in stocks first. Cause that's when you started learning how to buy a few stocks, just to get you an aquarium money. And then when crypto come to space, where, as I'm not sure everyone know about this, I personally, it's my opinion personally, feel that crypto is actually a lot more volatile than stocks, but that creates a little bit more excitement when you are into, a little bit more on like a sudden short-term investments. I'm not saying that you're not able to hold crypto in the longterm. It's just me saying that based on the volatility, if you look at the charts comparing to stocks, they are very different where first thing, crypto, you can trade 24 hours, stock it's really based on just the stock market. And Monday to Friday, I believe 9:30 to 4:00, somewhere there. And basically the weekend you are not allowed to trade. Whereas crypto it's very, obviously it's focusing on web3, it's very, very different than stocks. So that is probably the volatility excites me to take a little bit more risks than stocks. Some of the stocks are volatile, it depends on what stocks, so I can't go into specifics right here is just mainly my own opinion. Obviously investments, like you say, investments, the advice, it's just based on my opinion.
[00:26:14] So I say what excites me it's just because it's very, very new right now. Everyone has started learning about crypto. So that excites me to learn about all the cryptocurrencies [that] are out there, literally Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, everything you want to know what they're actually doing versus stocks, I would say it's a little bit more, I wouldn't want to use the word stable, but it's just very different. The volatility excites me in the crypto and the web3 space. And right now in the education wise, the technology wise, I would say, web3 it's very, very new and it excites me where, you know how you think about 20 years ago, there is no iPhone. And then it came out, iPhones all of a sudden the innovation just kind of blow up. So I personally feel that web3, we are just at the beginning really, really beginning to get started. So everyone is excited and nowadays nobody really knows what really web web3. Everyone is excited to learn about it and the technology, now everyone is building, all sorts of different ideas are coming out to build the technology. So I personally viewed it as some new ways to organize and communicate and also exchange the value itself.
[00:27:40] And what I'm saying, it's for example, in crypto, right? If let's say you're holding whatever tokens right now, the technology is so fast where comparing to bank and stuff, you can literally transfer something, transfer a Bitcoin or a stablecoin to someone in less than two minutes versus like being in the web2 space, you are maybe taking a few days in order to transfer certain amount of money. So that one kind of excites me a lot more where the new technology building right now and you also kind of say bye to like the middlemen. Now you're on basically owning yourself on your own. So that it's, you are able to control versus like going to, for example the bank. So that, it's what excites me right now. And I see it as a very, like a golden opportunity to just to learn about web3. So it really is sort of a really exciting opportunity.
[00:28:40] Mariangela: Cool. So yeah, you're saying, you know, crypto is growing a lot, like it's the beginning right now. And now they're adding Bitcoin to your 401k. Obviously if you want. What do you think about that? Like, is that where we're moving towards, where do you see it going in the future?
[00:29:03] Shing: Ooh that, obviously it's funny, I actually see a lot of companies believe me not, I should get an email, putting aside for 401k, a lot of companies accepting Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency to pay for their membership. So I definitely see a trend to going into the direction, to the cryptocurrency direction. Literally one of the bigger gyms in New York city are literally accepting cryptocurrency for their membership fee. So it's just very exciting to see how the world's moving it right now. And companies, all these banks, sorry, the 401k, it depends on your portfolio, some of them already offering you to invest in cryptocurrency. So my opinion, I know it's very new, for the first time, when I heard about Bitcoin 401k, I was very shocked years ago, most of the index funds, or anything that you invest in, it's a little bit more stable. Like you can see it grow long-term whereas crypto, you can see it's kind of going up and down, up and down, but obviously long-term, I believe it would definitely go because it's sort of innovation. I feel that it is probably moving towards that, but crypto is very volatile. So I would say as like a diversify. So don't hold 100% of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. So it's just really on how you diversify. But I do see that the future is definitely moving towards adding more cryptocurrency to your portfolio. So it's a way to diversify, just so you're not just holding a 100% on index fund or stocks, and you might be able to put like 10 to 20%, whatever your portfolio is and whatever your risk taking ability is to put it into cryptocurrency. I definitely do see that as slowly moving to a trend.
[00:31:02] Definitely I'm also considering having Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency in my 401k as well. So who knows? It's just my opinion. I believe that it's actually moving towards that trend, that people are more and more open to having cryptocurrency in their investment funds and especially in their retirement as well.
[00:31:27] Mariangela: Yeah. I mean, it's definitely volatile. But yeah, I mean, it's good that they give you all these options and then you can choose if you want Bitcoin or if you just want actual dollars, you know, just the option of that, that's cool.
[00:31:48] Shing: I also feel that this is personal opinion because this is very, very new. Obviously some people are afraid because all Bitcoin, web3, they're all very, very new. It's just the education. Whereas stock and index fund is already there for years. So people feel more comfortable in putting their money towards that. So that kind of goes back to the questions before, stocks.
[00:32:13] People are more comfortable in investing stocks and index funds just because it's [been] out there for a while and people are already investing in it. And so something new coming in and because of the volatility, people are afraid of putting their funds in. So we can start up like putting small, obviously, whatever you risk, what's the word called, risk appetite. Yeah. So it depends on how much are you willing to take the risk? So maybe invest maybe 5% of your portfolio into cryptocurrency first to kind of diversify as well. So I viewed it as diversification on your portfolio. So I think it's definitely a good thing to have offer cryptocurrency in your 401k. That's just my opinion.
[00:32:56] Mariangela: Yeah, thank you for that. I mean, yeah. More risk, more reward, but the key word right there is risk.
[00:33:03] Shing: I like that yeah. I like that the more risk, more reward definitely. The more risk you're willing to take. Obviously you might be able to get more reward, but sometimes, sometimes it depends on the market and maybe goes downhill a lot more.
[00:33:15] So some people get really afraid of that. All of a sudden your profit would just go down like 20 or 30%. Whereas stocks probably won't happen overnight in.. Right now. So unless something happens in the financial world or crisis , knock on wood, but usually stocks are a little bit more stable. It's just looking at that, you won't just all of a sudden go down 20 or 30% whereas crypto, maybe it might. So it really depends on your risk appetite are you willing to take.
[00:33:47] Mariangela: Right, right. Okay. Thank you. Let's see Amy, I'm going to throw a few facts there and then a question. So, Mexican Senator, Endira Campos, put the first ATM in the Senate, the first Bitcoin ATM, just to be clear, in the Senate. Central African Republic official currency is now Bitcoin. Buenos Aires allows citizens to pay taxes with cryptocurrency. And Brazil's first crypto law to regulate cryptocurrencies is now out there. So what do you think these mean for the government, for the future and for all currencies?
[00:34:26] Amy: I'm happy to hear that that governments are now starting to adopt it because it's one of those things like you either adopt or die and you know, whether they like it or not they won't be able to ban web3 or I guess ban cryptocurrencies because cryptocurrency is decentralized. And I personally am really excited to see this happening because we're now in a revolution. Until today, we have never seen a stronger force or a competitor that can be powerful enough to truly challenge centralized entities or in this case, the government.
[00:35:00] So now that governments are adopting cryptocurrency, it's one of those things, like if you ban it, it's going to happen anyway, and you're just going to be undercut. So now that they're recognizing it. For example, India, same thing. They, I think, was it a few months ago they initially banned cryptocurrency or they tried to, and probably when they dug into it, they realized they couldn't. And now what they're thinking of doing is setting a 1% tax on all onramp from Fiat to cryptocurrency. So that way, they know that it's happening anyway, so why not make it legitimate and then take some sort of income for the country.
[00:35:44] And as governments begin to adopt cryptocurrency, this is good for all of us, because then we have a clearer message or I guess, pathways of what is good and what is not good because when you sensor something, then more people will be scammed. A lot of people that don't know anything about cryptocurrency, get scammed easily from YouTube giveaways or fake people messaging you on apps or links that are fake and all this would go rampant if the government or officials don't step in. So I think this is, this is really good.
[00:36:23] Mariangela: Right. So it's ride the boat or drown basically, in conclusion.
[00:36:28] Amy: Yes.
[00:36:30] Jason: I mean, I think that's like most cases for a lot of countries, but China took a, they flip-flopped quite a few times. But last year they finally put their foot down and that was a hard ban.
[00:36:43] And in the case of decentralization, we're also seeing governments pick up, so there are different approaches that different country governments are taking, but I agree that governments putting out regulations are a good notion for crypto adoption in general. I co-founded a KYC AML company myself to kind of address that demand. So that government and banks could feel like, "Hey, this could be regulated," and institutions can come in and play a role in web3.
[00:37:19] Mariangela: Another question. So, there have been recent trends about VCs turning down their investment in the space with all the rounds that were raised earlier this year. Do you think this is a good sign to stabilize the industry and focus on growth with existing startups rather than targeting untapped markets?
[00:37:39] Amy: So, I guess I want to clarify, when you say VCs are turning down their investments in this space. Which industry are you referring to?
[00:37:48] Mariangela: So this is all industries, but talking about FinTech and crypto and web3.
[00:37:53] Amy: So that's interesting to know because that's not the experience I'm observing on the ground. I've been to three conferences now back to back, and I'm learning that in the web3 space, there's a lot of money. A lot of VCs now are starting to get in a lot of family offices and even institutions, you know, smart money, they're all getting into web3 now. And I met this person from a VC one night in one of those parties and he was like, "I'm done pitching now." And I was like, "oh, wait, isn't it the other way around?" And he said, "oh, in web3 it's the opposite." There's not enough projects, not enough talent to invest in. So money is plentiful in this space. So I'm surprised by that statistics.
[00:38:40] Jason: Very interesting take. I think there are definitely a good number of projects, but not a good number of them are good projects, but I agree that there are a lot of money in this space that are still actively investing.
[00:38:54] Like in the past weekend I went to this reality show by Mad Realities called Proof of Love. And it's a web3-centric. Oh, were you there?
[00:39:03] Amy: No, no.
[00:39:03] Jason: You sound like you've heard of it.
[00:39:05] Amy: I've heard of it.
[00:39:06] Jason: Okay. Okay. I mean, it's just like a four or five, like one month thing. I didn't watch the previous eps, but I was there, I guess, for the finale. And it was like an in-person event. Paradigm who's a tier one crypto VC put, that's what I heard, I haven't found the news on this yet, but $6 million on this. I mean, it was surprising and entertaining, but I don't know how they're going to get their money back so far. So far. Maybe there are other things on the roadmap that I'm not closely following, but yes, there's a lot of money in this space.
[00:39:39] At the same event, I met someone, Shannon, I think she was part of buildspace, backed by YC and A16Z for just onboarding developers into web3. And I think she also started something called W3 crypto, that also focuses on kind of bringing women into web3.
[00:40:00] So maybe there's some synergies there. Ah, I hate that word, but opportunities to work together. Yeah. So I'll intro you two.
[00:40:09] Amy: Yeah, that'd be great.
[00:40:10] Jason: Yeah.
[00:40:11] Mariangela: Another question for you, Amy. What specific area in the crypto industry do you think will legitimately onboard the everyday user to make it mainstream?
[00:40:22] Amy: So I am catching a trend and maybe more so, because I used to be in HR consulting. But like Coinbase, for example, they pay their employees in crypto, kind of like how you can elect how much you want to go into your 401k plan. They allow you to elect how much you want to be paid in crypto. And I know that's becoming more mainstream now.
[00:40:44] So if you think about how crypto is just another form of investment, as more companies look to onboard or allow their employees to get paid in crypto, that could be one way to legitimately onboard everyday users.
[00:40:58] Mariangela: Cool. I like that. So one last question for you in a male dominated industry, such as crypto, what advice would you give to female participants to engage with the community and any advice to young female founders?
[00:41:14] Amy: Shing, do you want to go first?
[00:41:21] Shing: So I think my advice I'm giving to female out there to participate in this community is just really start from scratch. Just like walk right in and start with a fresh mind because just at the beginning, we'd say from this podcast, we always want to educate yourself and just join in all the conferences that you're able to attend. And just for example, like Blu3 DAO, they're focusing on, you know, enrolling more women, and non-binary, and allies to be in your product community. So I know it can be a little scary, but I strongly believe that, you know, when women come together, great things happen. So we can, we should all probably join forces together and just definitely not be afraid of asking and being, just being a fresh mind, just coming and educate yourself. And because there are people out there that want to help you. So as long as you're open mind to come into this space, just join the community that you feel very strongly tied to any DAO that you were really, really excited to be part of it, just join them and start learning first.
[00:42:29] And all of us in web3 are, the space are just so open and welcoming that people just really, really want to help each other. So don't be afraid of joining. And if you're ever interested in starting a DAO, there are really so many resources out there that are willing to help you. And yeah, I think just long story short and summary, I would say just not being afraid of just coming into the space because there are a lot of people that are willing to help you here. And if you're ever feeling alone, don't be because we are really, Blu3 DAO, Cryptolingo, we are all mainly few governors, mainly women focus, obviously there's still, like what Amy said before, we strongly believe that we were not just enrolling women, there is definitely, we also have a few allies and males that are helping us as well. So definitely don't be afraid of stepping into this uncomfortable position if you are interested, ever interested in learning web3.
[00:43:31] Mariangela: Thank you, Shing. What about you, Amy?
[00:43:34] Amy: Shing. I love you. Thanks for the shout outs again for Blu3 DAO. We love having you in Blu3 DAO too, and we're so, so proud Shing for you and your co-founders to kick off Cryptolingo, super excited for Cryptolingo DAO and your learn app. To answer your question, in a male dominated industry, such as crypto, what advice would I give to female participants or young female founders, you know, I'd say I like to kind of talk about my mother.
[00:44:04] My mother was the inspiration for my sister and I to kickoff Blu3 DAO and our mom, you know, she was an alpha female before being like before feminism was even a thing. She groomed us and raised us, and you know, she never made us feel like we couldn't do anything. It wasn't even in our purview, it wasn't even in our belief set. And I, and I think that's the reason why my sister and I today, we've never been afraid to pursue our dreams. And that's basically what she taught us. Just whatever you want to do. Just pursue it.
[00:44:39] If you feel like, "oh, you know, this is a male dominated industry, I'm a woman I can't do it." That's just a belief you're putting in your head, right? Everything in life is psychology. Your reality is based on your beliefs in this world. So why would you put that limit on yourself? I like to use this quote, "The only limits that you have are the limits that you set for yourself."
[00:45:04] And so for all of the women coming into this space, there's no reason why you can't do it. In fact, it's how you look at it, right? Potato, potato. Do you want to feel like, "oh, I am the only woman in this room" or do you want to feel like, "I am so special, that makes me stand out more. The fact that I'm the only woman in this room," but, and it's not just that, now that you have made it into that boardroom, now that you have made it to that core team, how can you enable and empower other women to join you in that room. And that's why we create Blu3 DAO. We have a community of kickass, badass, powerful women. I can't wait for you to join us, Mariangela and Jason, you're welcome to, as an ally, we have so many amazing, incredible women leaders in the space. And when we come together, we truly become a force of power to shake things up in the web3 space.
[00:46:01] So yeah, join us in Blu3 DAO. In fact, our symbol is a butterfly and what we stand for is to empower women to turn, you know, to move away from their web2 jobs and turn into web3 ladies, colorful ladies, like a butterfly, right? You go through your own metamorphosis, whatever that might look like, you're kind of like, think of yourself as a cocoon, right? You're in a cocoon and you have to go through this process of growth. You have to shut off the external layers of society, older identities, whatever you thought you were once before. Right. For me, that was, I was so proud of being an actuary in consulting. But, and it's sometimes painful to shed off older identities, but you have to go through that process to gain strength so that you can fly as a butterfly.
[00:46:50] And I'll end with this because this is actually one that Shing shared with me. I was going through a really, really hard time last year. Everything in my life was falling apart and then Shing shared the story with me. And she said, Amy, have you heard of this story where the man walked by this cocoon and I didn't. So here's how it goes. You know, one time a man, saw a cocoon struggling to get out of its cocoon. Right. A butterfly was struggling to get out of his cocoon and so the man wanted to help it and he tried cutting it, but because he cut that cocoon, the butterfly couldn't fly because it didn't complete its metamorphosis.
[00:47:30] So in life there will be pain, there'll be struggles, but just know that when you're going through it, you're building the strength to fly. And that is truly the founding story and inspiration for Blu3 DAO. It is the inspiration for Blu3 to fly campaign by Harmony One.
[00:47:47] And I know we're now on a podcast and I just want to say, thank you Shing for being my best friend, for always being there for me. If it weren't for you, I don't know where I'd be today. I love you.
[00:47:58] Shing: Oh, I wasn't expecting that.
[00:48:02] Jason: Very touching.
[00:48:05] Shing: I mean, Amy and I sort of went way back and she was supporting me. Going back to when I came here, English wasn't my first language. She was the one that actually helped me through, you know, being more confident in actually getting an interview just based on after college, you going to get a job or get an internship. She was the one at helping me find the confidence to believe that I could be in the United States as well. So yeah, giving back, sharing a little bit of love to end this podcast.
[00:48:38] Mariangela: Oh, I love that guys.
[00:48:39] Jason: That's awesome.
[00:48:39] Mariangela: I love that for you and we'll definitely join. I'm excited. So anything you need from me, let me know. Okay? I speak Spanish. So, you know, and a woman, so anything you need.
[00:48:49] Shing: Yeah. Oh, we definitely need Spanish speakers as well for Cryptolingo and definitely, well in Blu3 DAO with all women empowering. So definitely you should be, you'll be part of us as well. Yeah.
[00:49:01] Jason: Am I allowed to give advice?
[00:49:05] All 3 women: Yes!
[00:49:05] Jason: I think just realistically from our POV, web3 is definitely exploding really quickly, there's not always the right talent that we're looking to to hire.
[00:49:15] So this is like male, female is genderless, like just focus on an area of expertise, like find your niche. I met this girl, I mean, talking to her, I had to humble myself. Like she works with Cosmos. And, yeah, it was exhilarating meeting her. This was in Bitcoin Miami, but at a satellite event, yeah, we could just use more of that and diversity is a great thing.
[00:49:40] But we also just need talented people. So yeah, it's like Mariangela joked about having, you could contribute, like, if you could explain web3 in Spanish, fluently like that, that's definitely something we're missing right now. Just like find a corner and then start building and you'll find your place or people will find you and create something together. Yeah, other than that, go to the conferences and go to the after-parties, if you don't know where to go, I guess reach out to Amy, reach out to us on, on Twitter. I get invited to some of the most wild after parties at these conferences.
[00:50:15] Mariangela: Yeah, I'm down to join you.
[00:50:17] Amy: My question is where are you two going to be? Where's your next conference?
[00:50:22] Jason: I'm really gonna miss out on Permissionless. But Consensus will be the next one.
[00:50:27] Amy: Got it. Got it. So for the two of you at Blu3 DAO, we offer scholarships and we sponsor full travel scholarships to these conferences, just come add us on Twitter or telegram, or Discord, we're on across other different medium, @Blu3DAO, feel free to follow me @Amythesoon on Twitter hit me up and I'm happy to connect you with my team. And so is Shing.
[00:50:53] Jason: One clarification I think Shing mentioned earlier that Cryptolingo is branched out from Blu3 DAO. Would you consider it as like a subDAO?
[00:51:02] Amy: So we don't use the term subDAO because we like to remain flat and decentralized. So the way we structure ourselves with Blu3 DAO, mandate and milestones is to onboard 1,000 women scholars around the world, launch 1,000 DAOs, and 1,000 social tokens. At EthRio, with a collaboration of Harmony project, Y grants, we launched together collectively 14 new DAOs of which Cryptolingo was one of them and super excited for Cryptolingo. So they will be part of our 1,000 DAO alliance. We call it the Blu3 alliance, TBD on more information on that. We're also launching our very own, almost like a Blu accelerator program, so depending on how Cryptolingo does with their milestones, you know, we're looking to continue funding and providing support, including Blu3 advisors or all sorts of a support network to help them be successful. So we're not only launching DAOs in that accelerator program. We're also launching DEX, and I guess communities, right.
[00:52:10] But in addition to that, we also have a family of DAOs. So that's the 1,000 DAO alliance that Cryptolingo is part of. Then in a higher level, basically core functions of Blu3DAO, is called our family of DAOs. And that's where we have our Blu3 onboarding, we have Blu3 scholarship DAO, we have Blu3 DAO in social token incubation, we have Blu3 accelerator plus Blu3 recruiting in all of our regions. So those family of DAOs, would be what I would say their primary goal is to serve the Blu3 ecosystem. So I think Shing, you guys are still booting out your phase one right? And I think it depends on how well they go, they may be part of our family of DAOs. It really depends on the strategy going forward.
[00:53:01] Jason: Very cool. Yeah. Cause my follow-up question was going to be like, cause I was curious about the structure where, I'm earning LING, and then I'm also learning Blu3. So if I'm launching something through your launchpad, like, is that structure available for any DAOs that you qualify.
[00:53:18] Shing: So, we're thinking, yeah, we were thinking, you know, if you're partnering up with a friend, obviously DAO that you are able to select which tokens you want to earn. I mean, that's our idea now. So future, you know, when, if Blu3 is sending people to Cryptolingo to get some tokens before they are qualified to, for example, just to ask for certain scholarship, apply for certain scholarship, so they can select that they prefer to earn Blu3 tokens. Whereas Lingo tokens is obviously depends on what we're referring to, Lingo tokens can be used for voting, and also certain events that hopefully, eventually we're able to have certain events in certain spaces and conference.
[00:54:03] So we're still, that's like a little tokenomics thing that were still currently right now building. So hopefully we have a little bit more structure in the future.
[00:54:13] Jason: Sounds great.
[00:54:14] Shing: Yeah.
[00:54:14] Mariangela: Perfect. Great to know. Guys, we really appreciate you coming in this podcast. It was amazing. You guys are incredible. So thank you so much for your insights and giving us time.
[00:54:29] Shing: Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Mariangela.
[00:54:34] Amy: Yeah. Thank you so much, Mariangela and Jason.
[00:54:37] Mariangela: Thank you. We'll keep in touch for sure.
[00:54:41] Shing: Definitely.
[00:54:42] Amy: We'll see you at the next conference.
[00:54:45] Mariangela: Oh, of course. Can't wait to meet you. Bye.
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