A Tale of Two Americas: Marina's Bicultural Experiences and Exploration of Bitcoin - 3

Tali: 00:00:00

Hi everyone.

Tali: 00:00:01

Welcome to Orange Hatter.

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Today you're listening to part three of my conversation with Marina.

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...and with time, how would become more and more valuable.

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And so that's a lesson that, that isn't, or, or an, um, a piece of, of what is

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Bitcoin, why Bitcoin is valuable, that did not really, does not resonate in the news.

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Like they always tell you about the all the bad stuff, like

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when it drops to 2K, right?

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Or, or, or something like that.

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But they don't tell you about the fact that it is anti

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inflationary and that they, there is no possibility to print more.

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Which is the difference with other cryptocurrencies, you can print more.

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And I think that's the other part of why I, I've chosen to focus on Bitcoin.

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Definitely a very important concept to make our, hopefully preco women

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become aware is that the limited amount, the limited supply, like people

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always want the unique thing, right?

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If there's, if there's like a mass produced some kind of gadget, people would

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buy it, but then they would realize that a million other people would have it.

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So you can't really charge a whole lot of price for it, because, it's not unique.

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You know, people tend to want unique things, but if you, if if an

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artist made one artifact and it's the one, only one that will ever be

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made, suddenly the value goes up.

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If people, you know, like it, they bid up the price because there's only one.

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It's, it's a limited supply.

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Limited supply raises value, and so if there's only ever going to

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be 21 million, everybody in the world couldn't own a whole Bitcoin.

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There's only ever going to be 21 million and right there, because

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human beings naturally understand that scarcity brings up the value.

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That's, that's such an important fact.

Marina: 00:01:47

Well, I mean, so this is the interesting thing about human beings.

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Naturally we are not natural.

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We are a Homer Simpson in our brains.

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Sometimes there's something called behavioral economics and it, it

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was a really interesting focus in the world because economics

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was matched with psychology.

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And for the first time, an psychologist won the noble laureate in economics.

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And the whole proof was that our system kind of behaves in two ways, right?

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That, that there's this fast version of how we make decisions that we call

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gut decisions, and then the slow.

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Process of making a decision and how our brains function.

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And so in the fight or flight you have to make very quick decisions.

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And so how sometimes our brain, like we should use, say that we

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use money in a certain way and we should understand scarcity.

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But until sometimes we're in the situation, we don't act.

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And I, I think let's act, let's understand it.

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Let's do it.

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Let's play with it.

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Play with it.

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Download a wallet.

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See how it goes.

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Go buy a hamburger, go buy a beer with it, exchange it with a friend, and, and like,

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I just, I downloaded it for my daughters and they have a, a little bit, you know,

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I gave them $50 and I just say, okay, what's the price of your Bitcoin today?

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What's the price of your, like how much?

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How, you know, how's it going?

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And it goes up and it goes down.

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But I think mentally they're starting to understand.

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What it means and how does it work?

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And they see me go to, you know, buy fish or buy a hamburger or you know,

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how their money is going up in value.

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Different things like that.

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That only until you use it do you start to not be afraid.

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You know, understand that, okay, right now it's at this price, so I should buy more.

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Those sort of things, right?

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But obviously the other angle that's really important is understanding how

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to safe safely guard your money and make sure that it's, um, not your Bitcoin.

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If you're not paying attention, like yeah, maybe you buy it in an exchange,

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but also potentially keep it for yourself.

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Make sure it's safe.

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Make sure you understand what you're doing because if you lose

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it, you really lose it, right?

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There's no 1-800 number to call to say, where's my Bitcoin?

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So you really have to understand.

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Your ownership of it.

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And that's why we have to play, learn, download the wallet and understand

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it first, you know, and then when it goes down, you can buy more.

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If you, you'll, you'll have learned that.

Tali: 00:04:11

Yeah, for sure.

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Just take baby steps.

Tali: 00:04:14

Yeah.

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And the first baby step can be as simple as downloading a wallet and there

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are lots of resources to guide you.

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There's a lady who, who did a, a bit a talk about Bitcoin in Venezuela,

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and she's one of the ladies that I interviewed and she says she spoke with

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like 10 women and they were sitting there and she helped them, you know,

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talk about it and explain it to them.

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And they're like, and one of the ladies go, oh, okay, great.

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I'm gonna go give this to my husband and ask him to download a wallet.

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And she goes, no lady.

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No, don't tell your husband anything.

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Download your wallet and tell him.

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And it, it's an app to, to track your period.

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Like Teach.

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Teach, and I think it does teach financial independence.

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Because I, I am married to a PhD in finance, so obviously like,

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I was like, okay, I have you.

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You do.

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And for the first time in my life, I'm paying attention to

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things that are related to finance that are related to the Fed.

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Again, I was studying public policy, not monetary policy, public policy,

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but it's the first time that I'm paying attention to the things that really

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matter for women to have power, to feel confident with their decisions.

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With savings, with investing, you know, me, my decision to invest or

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you know, or save a little bit here.

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It really was a huge empowerment that I did not do before understanding

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or getting into Bitcoin.

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I, I just didn't, it was always a decision that somebody else made.

Tali: 00:05:40

Yeah.

Tali: 00:05:40

And talking about women empowerment, you had shared with me some stories at

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our previous conversation at Bitcoin Park about women who are in compromised

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situations, whether it's domestic abuse or something else, prostitution or something.

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Can you talk a little bit more about how Bitcoin could help empower those women?

Marina: 00:05:58

I think financial education is so far behind in every country.

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We just don't teach that.

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We don't really understand it.

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And culturally speaking, so so the podcast that really hit me, and I really,

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really loved, Laura Shin, did a story about the lady who ran a developer team

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that did web development in Afghanistan.

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And so she would pay them, but she couldn't because

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the, they had to have a mail.

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Whether it was their brother or their father co-signed with them at

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the bank and so she couldn't pay the ladies because a lot of them didn't

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have access to a bank account, right?

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And so having your own Bitcoin, having your own wallet, having your

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own money and being able to pay or do things with that really, really

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made a difference in their lives.

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And in fact, I think her sister paid her master's with Bitcoin.

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Because she had been saving in Bitcoin.

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She had been doing things that empowered her in a country and in a

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system that was very male dominated.

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So I think that understanding money and being able to, to, to have

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power over your wallet, over your savings, over what you do with that.

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Even if it's not like culturally like a situation in like in Afghanistan,

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maybe it's just like me, where I had just delegated that decision in general.

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And, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing.

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It's, I'm just saying I, I switched my mindset completely with understanding.

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Okay, now I.

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I have to think about this.

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I want to invest differently.

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I want to think about my future differently.

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So there's different levels of how it can empower women, whether it's precarious

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because of abuse or precarious because you live in a country that's abusing you.

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I think that that it's the same idea that if you have.

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On understanding of your ability to save and, and be safe and, and transact for

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yourself instead of depending on somebody else who may or may not want to manage

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the money the way that you need it.

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I think it's a complete, complete shift in, in, in the world, thankfully.

Tali: 00:08:00

Yeah, and especially when you talk about empowerment, we need to also

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talk about the fact that empowerment comes from you taking charge, right?

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So you have to make that decision.

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To educate yourself.

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And if you have access to the internet immediately, the whole world opens

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up to you with knowledge, right?

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So there are so many resources out there.

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Reach out and ask questions.

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And every Bitcoiner is more than happy to share what they know.

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That's the beauty.

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Like I really do feel that, that the community is super interested

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in, in helping you if you want to go through that journey.

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It's like, oh, there she goes again.

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She's gonna talk about Bitcoin.

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So, I mean, but, so I'm happy to talk about it.

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I'm happy to, to help you download a wallet.

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I'm happy to show you how it works, understanding what is

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lightning, which is how you can pay much faster and cheaper fees.

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Understanding the different wallets and how that works.

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You know, I have a friend who says I have more wallets than purses.

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Right?

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And that's kind of cool 'cause you're testing, you know, which one, what

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are the fees, which one is like, your own wallet, your own Bitcoin

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versus a third party and how, how the Bitcoin is transferred or not.

Marina: 00:09:14

It, it really is a journey of knowledge and education, but you

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first have to just play with it, test it, understand it, and, and, you

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know, be a part of the new history.

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I think that, I think that that's the coolest part.

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I like being a part of history.

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So if nothing else, just be part of our history.

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Be part of this history, be part of how money is gonna change

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whether the world wants it or not.

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So just be part of history.

Tali: 00:09:41

Yeah, and being a part of history doesn't mean that you have

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to have a million dollars either.

Tali: 00:09:45

You can play when you play with the wallets, it can be as little as 25 cents.

Marina: 00:09:50

That's another thing that people don't understand, that you

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don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin.

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You can just buy a fraction, which are called SATs, right?

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Satoshis...

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who invented Bitcoin...

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Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today.

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If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would

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like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the

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Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club.

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The meetup link is in the show notes.

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Also, if there are women in your life whom you think will both enjoy and

Tali: 00:10:21

benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them.