Hi everybody, welcome to Orange Hatter. Today you'll be listening to part three of my conversation with Jacqui.

...disappear, it won't fall down, so to speak. It, again, my opinion, because of the fact that it's not, it's not centralized, it's decentralized, it's all over the world, these rigs... and you know, so yeah, some rigs might stop, they might be turned off, but that doesn't mean that the mining verification doesn't continue... other... that, that's part of the technical term of "mining difficulty". So, you know, they know that they want to have only so many transactions done every, in a certain timeframe. So they, so there's a mathematical precision and calculation that's attached to that. To make it easier for people, again, I wrote a series of fairytales, "the Bitcoin Cinderella", and the second of my book, "the Bitcoin Cinderella, and the Seven Dwarves", explains what Bitcoin is, explains what mining is, explains what soft and hard forks is through a Snow White fairytale with... integrated with Cinderella. And it happens in El Salvador, which is a country that actually has adopted Bitcoin as its currency. You know? So for those that are listening, I definitely suggest that they go over to Amazon and look for "the Bitcoin Cinderella" and "the Bitcoin Cinderella and the Seven Dwarves", which is the second book, because they're fun reads for family, but it also gives you the technical background that you might wanna know. And it also has QR codes that kind of push you out to other resources. And that's the whole purpose of this series is to kind of help everyone, uh, adults and kids, understand more about the Bitcoin platform and what's going on on the blockchain, so a lot of information.

So would, would it be fair to say that your conviction grew as you researched and learned more about Bitcoin and the protocol, um, while you're considering entering the Bitcoin mining space?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, when I was doing research for the books, I was learning. And I, you know, I was again, blown away by the history of Bitcoin and how... the other thing, it's open source. And for, for those that don't know what that means, is... there... other coders can go on, and they can add things. They can tweak things that are, that are there that might need to be tweaked. And one of the things that community realizes that as more people are using Bitcoin, the transaction times were slowing down. And so they needed to figure out a different way to help the transaction. So like, if you were in Starbucks buying coffee, you don't wanna wait 10 minutes. You wanna have... be able to pay. So they are, they created all these other things that were necessary... the lightning protocol... so that way you could have transactions that were, again, not to get too technical, but were off of the protocol or the platform, but still could be accounted for. Because they're always looking from the accounting perspective, how do you verify transactions? How do you account for them? How do you pay for it? So it's very strategic in terms of what the, what is the problem and what is the solution. So again, lot of, lot of great, great things that, you know, that I was learning, and it just, it made me realize the strength of what Bitcoin is. You know? And, and it also made me realize, not that the other tokens are weak, 'cause I don't wanna say anything negative about that, but it made me realize the security of... was created by Satoshi, by the white paper and by, you know, the, the, the whole community in terms of where it is now. So that's, you know, it... so my belief, you know, just got more reinforced.

So as you're researching Bitcoin and becoming more and more involved, did you meet any resistance from your close friend/family group? Did they think you were crazy?

I wouldn't, I wouldn't say crazy, but they kind of raised their eyebrows as to why. And you know, again, it was kind of funny, as I kept talking about things, you know, I could see the, the questions in their mind, but then they started to come around. And, but as I was learning, then I was giving them more advice. So, for example, a friend of mine purchased a lot of Bitcoin. He wanted to leave it for his granddaughter, but I asked him, okay... and then he wanted to move it over to a cold wallet. So for those that don't know, cold wallets are not online. So it's a little bit more secure. But again, like everything else, you have to protect where your cold wallet is. But so, he said he had purchased it and I said, I said, that's great. I said, where did you buy it? And he told me, and it was a place I hadn't heard, but that's fine. There's a lot of places that I don't know about. I said, how do you access it? He said, well, on my phone, with my face. You know, with... and I said, okay, you've gotta, you've gotta change your biometrics there. Because if you pass away and you wanna leave it for your granddaughter, how is she gonna open up your wallet? And he thought, oh yeah. You know? So again, when we're creating some things for others... we're also creating it for ourselves... we understand about security, but we have to think through the process of what is, what's gonna happen if we're not around. And that's why I bring up the will again. You know, it just, it's the idea that we're not just doing it for ourselves, we're doing it for our family. So we, we definitely have to have it be secure. But some of these, these nuances on our phones and other things, they're not easily accessible if the person's not around. So you just have to think twice about fingerprint, the eyes, the face, you know, that type of thing.

Yeah. Those features are really convenient, until we think about what you just said. What if, I'm not there, and they need to access this, this information? For sure. What have you observed in the last four to five years in terms of Bitcoin adoption? And how, you know, possibly the people who are getting involved may have, maybe evolved from the more technical people to the less technical people? Especially when it comes to women, because I want to help women understand this technology just enough for them to wanna take a little baby step toward it. Right? So what have you observed in terms of changes, and what do you see as the greatest challenge that we have faced in terms of teaching people about Bitcoin... women about Bitcoin?

I think the biggest challenge is understanding that it's okay to take control of your own finances or your family's finances. Again, there are, there's, there's all natures, there's all different types of family blends, so... but I, we don't always, we don't... as an educator, we don't, we teach money in, in school, but we don't teach about investment or finances. We don't, and not into high school maybe, but, but not every school. You know, we don't teach about budgeting, we don't teach about the basics. And we might teach about checks, but we don't teach about electronic forms of payment. And we, we definitely, I don't think, teach about credit cards. And, and, and the risk of debt. And we, I, you know, I don't think we teach about, at the young stages, real estate investment. And you know, again, Bitcoin is no different than any other form of financial investment. We need to educate ourselves. There are a lot of resources that are out there now that make it very easy to understand. You know? But you still, despite what's on YouTube, you still have to discern, and you have to be careful about that. But it's, it's not that difficult to get started, and it's not that difficult to start with a small amount. You can start with $10. You don't have to start with a lot. If you are, if you're going to a coffee place, and you're spending $3.50 cents every day on a cup of coffee, you can take one of that days, and put it into an investment. Whether you want Bitcoin or something else, you can reallocate those budgetary funds to help with your, with your future. And I know, when I was in my twenties, I did not think about Aflac or IRAs or life insurance or things like that, you know? But doesn't matter what age you're at it, I think it's important just to slowly get started. You know? So it's very easy.

Yeah. And so in terms of guiding our young people, the young people in our lives, you know, as moms. Um, you mentioned that your daughter is 26. Like, if we were to be a fly on the wall, when you guys are sitting on the couch and just chatting, you know, over a, a weekend or something. What do you tell her about how to prepare for her future, really, in, in today's environment?

I think what I've learned from her is I can't tell her anything. I have to show her. I have to model. And the reason why I say that is... and sometimes it's scary... I've always told her, again, telling, but I've also done it, too, that if you're not happy with a job or a situation, follow your passion. Don't stick around. Well, and, and I've done that, 'cause I, I'm a serial entrepreneur having a lot of fun with all my different projects. So when she, um, started her own personal professional journey. She's had many jobs, and now she's in a job that she loves, in the environmental area. But before that, she had very, a lot of good jobs, but she also had situations where she wasn't happy, and then all of a sudden she said, mom, I just changed. Okay, you have bills to pay. What? What do you mean you just changed your job? But again, it's the same thing, with financial awareness. I, I don't think that, 'cause basically she was following her passion. She wasn't happy. She left, and she went to the next place. That made her happier, and I applaud her for that. But also she was following what I was just saying and what I was doing, and that's dangerous sometimes. But from the positive perspective, I'm showing her, because I'm investing and I'm doing things. I'm talking to her about what I'm doing. She might think I'm crazy at times, you know. But her friends now are talking to her about this, and now she's referring me... or her friends over to me, and we're having these conversations. So she's hearing this even if she physically hasn't admitted, whether or not she's opened up an account on her own. I don't, that's fine. She will at some point. But she's now helping me with some of the things that I'm doing, and as a result, she's getting more comfortable to navigate. And so, you know, again, I think it's like anything else. We have to model for our kids. And when we model for our kids, they see what we do, and then they'll start to ask questions.

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today. If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club. The meetup link is in the show notes. Also, if there are women in your life whom you think will both enjoy and benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them. Until next time, bye!