LEIGH: 'Pandora's Box, but for Freedom': Author Isaiah Jackson on Bitcoin's Impact
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Coindesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by Isaiah Jackson, author of “Bitcoin and Black America '' and co-founder of KRBE Digital Assets group, to talk about financial discrimination in the United States and the unique value bitcoin can offer minority communities.
According to a survey of 5,126 Americans conducted by Coinbase and Qriously, “twice as many Black Americans have been negatively impacted by the current financial system” compared to their white peers. As such, the survey suggested, they are much more likely to be curious about bitcoin.
This finding is supported by broader evidence. For example, The National Bureau of Economic Research also found in 2019 that black mortgage borrowers were charged higher interest rates than white borrowers and were denied mortgages that would have been approved for white applicants.
Later, we'll discuss the cultural aspects of bitcoin and how someone’s background impacts his unique experience in the bitcoin community.
Want more? Leigh also has an article about how black entrepreneurs use cryptocurrency to fundraise.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've seen the ups, the downs, the bad news, China banning it over and over. |
| 0:06.0 | I've seen Mount Gok shut down. |
| 0:08.0 | I've seen a lot of stuff. |
| 0:10.0 | So I'm very patient, very patient, man. |
| 0:12.0 | And Bitcoin helps. |
| 0:16.0 | Bitcoin, before Bitcoin was created, you could do everything sovereign. |
| 0:19.0 | You can have your own food, you can have your own water supply. |
| 0:21.8 | You can do all that. |
| 0:22.4 | But where would your money come from? |
| 0:23.7 | It would always come from there. |
| 0:24.8 | And Bitcoin has sort of open Pandora's box for freedom, so I say. |
| 0:34.0 | Hello, I'm CoinDisc reporter Lee Quinn here with Isaiah Jackson, author of Bitcoin in Black America, |
| 0:40.0 | and co-founder of KRBE Digital Assets Group. |
| 0:43.6 | Thanks for joining us today, Isaiah. |
| 0:45.3 | Oh, thank you for having me, Lee. Glad to be here. |
| 0:47.7 | Can you start us off by telling us a little bit about how you first learned about Bitcoin |
| 0:51.6 | and what inspired your tumble down the rabbit hole? |
| 0:54.9 | Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you described it that way because it was definitely a |
| 0:58.2 | tumble down the rabbit hole. But I discovered Bitcoin in 2013. Oddly enough, it came from a |
| 1:04.2 | friend who worked for a bank. He kind of mentioned it just in passing, and I was teaching a high |
| 1:10.0 | school engineering class at the time. So I sort of got the tech, and I was teaching a high school engineering class at the time. |
| 1:11.3 | So I sort of got the tech, and I got the reason for it. |
... |
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