A Tale of Two Americas: Marina's Bicultural Experiences and Exploration of Bitcoin - 5

Tali: 00:00:00

Hi everyone.

Tali: 00:00:01

Welcome to Orange Hatter.

Tali: 00:00:02

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

... Marina: 00:00:06

trying to struggle to survive.

... Marina: 00:00:08

Right?

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So I think it's really important and that's why the other part of my

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life is working in in hackathons.

... Marina: 00:00:15

So one of the big things that I'm working with ... and Bolt Fun.

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Bolt Fun is we do global virtual hackathons.

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So usually they last a month, which is very different from the typical

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event here and there, where in three days you have to show something cool.

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Right?

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But it's cool, but what?

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Like it really isn't a business.

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It really isn't something that is to be able to be out in the world.

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And so the goal with the Bolt Fun hackathons is that you have a full

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month to build them public, on the website, based on different topics.

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So there was one about lightning, there was one about Nostr, uh,

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we're doing right now, one with AI, which is super, super cool.

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It ends at the end of the month, so if people want to join, it's still possible.

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But I think we also try to encourage new communities to come in.

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So there's a really big focus on design because the, the builder who

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created Bolt Fun is a designer in his previous life, and so we try to recruit

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people who are making sure that that wallet actually works for you and that

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you're not, like, where is that button and what the ... does, hodl mean?

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Or what the ... does, you know, transfer?

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And where is it transferring to?

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You're that you have all these questions that you don't understand If the wallet

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is clean, if the wallet is well designed, then people can more easily access

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it and more easily understand what they're doing and not be afraid, right?

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If, if the UX is horrible, you're afraid, you're afraid.

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That there is an important part of it.

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And then the AI angle is super interesting and in fact it's being that

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that particular hackathon is being led by Fedi, who's in Africa and global,

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and the Nostr Hackathon, which as you know, Nostr has been very strong option

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that is what is being called the next Twitter, but it is way more than that.

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Because it, it's more like your phone number, right?

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Your phone number that goes with you, wherever you go, because people can reach

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you no matter if you're with Verizon, no matter if you have an Apple phone

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or an Android, it's your phone number.

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And I think that that is what Noster is gonna do.

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That's different.

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So you can get a DM, you can get a, an email, you can get whatever you can use.

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Your noster ID or npub is what now identifies you in the

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world and you can get message.

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No matter if you get cut off from AT&T and have to move to Verizon or whatnot.

... Marina: 00:02:34

Right.

... Marina: 00:02:35

Which is if the analogy, if you will, in the, in the world

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that we currently live in.

Tali: 00:02:40

Yeah.

Tali: 00:02:40

That's, uh, super fun.

Tali: 00:02:42

So what kind of people should consider joining the hackathon that you're hosting?

Tali: 00:02:47

Do they have to have coding experience or can anybody who's interested figure

Tali: 00:02:53

out how to join and learn from it?

Marina: 00:02:55

Obviously truly there are about 70% or more are developers in

Marina: 00:03:00

the hackathons, but I've been to a couple and what I've realized and I

Marina: 00:03:04

think is interesting to add value, even if you're not a developer, is,

Marina: 00:03:09

for example, I studied public policy.

Marina: 00:03:11

I remember joining one hackathon where people were building a solution for Kenya.

Marina: 00:03:16

Right.

Marina: 00:03:16

And they didn't even know if it was, if it was agricultural,

Marina: 00:03:20

if it had a refinery of oil.

Marina: 00:03:22

Like what the, what the country lived off of right.

Marina: 00:03:26

What was their internet access?

Marina: 00:03:28

What was their access to water?

Marina: 00:03:29

There were a lot of things that, that weren't being researched.

Marina: 00:03:32

We were just plug and play a solution that could, that.

Marina: 00:03:35

And so what was really important as far as how I could add value in that occasion was

Marina: 00:03:40

say, okay, I'll take care of the research.

Marina: 00:03:42

I'll make sure that this solution really works for Kenya, for example.

Marina: 00:03:46

And so that was one way that I contributed to one hackathon.

Marina: 00:03:50

The other hackathon that I joined recently was BTC++ in Austin, and I

Marina: 00:03:55

was, I joined the team, but I, it was because I saw that they were working on

Marina: 00:04:00

a solution for El Salvador and I thought, okay, well this sounds interesting.

Marina: 00:04:04

Maybe potentially it could be a good team for me to join.

Marina: 00:04:07

They were super nice, really, really happy to like, include me even though I

Marina: 00:04:11

couldn't code and I, I wasn't really very valuable in, in certain aspects of it.

Marina: 00:04:17

There was a point where it came to pitching and I asked

Marina: 00:04:20

them, well, like what is this?

Marina: 00:04:22

What is the problem we're trying to solve?

Marina: 00:04:23

Why is this product or service useful?

Marina: 00:04:26

Like, what are we gonna tell the judges because I'm very

Marina: 00:04:28

competitive so I wanna win, right?

Marina: 00:04:31

And so I remember, with the team.

Marina: 00:04:33

I'm like, oh, well it's cool.

Marina: 00:04:34

Like it's a, it's an invoice system.

Marina: 00:04:36

And, and I said, well, but there are already invoices systems.

Marina: 00:04:40

Like what is the difference about this one?

Marina: 00:04:42

Why is it better?

Marina: 00:04:44

Oh, well, because now you don't have to work with Chivo.

Marina: 00:04:46

You are working with these other products.

Marina: 00:04:49

And I realized that, you know, they think like developers, they think in

Marina: 00:04:53

a different level or playing like a plane, a different plane of thought.

Marina: 00:04:59

And only somebody who is not a developer can ask certain questions that really may

Marina: 00:05:05

hopefully help us win at the pitch, right?

Marina: 00:05:07

Because only a, like if you only speak to developers, they're gonna

Marina: 00:05:11

be speaking about one thing when you really are also trying to solve.

Marina: 00:05:16

Problems for regular people, you know, at a regular situation.

Marina: 00:05:20

And so I think that I realized that with my team and I said to Nifty, who was

Marina: 00:05:24

running the hackathon, like, would you like me to go to the different teams

Marina: 00:05:29

and tell them, hey, practice your pitch with me and go through that process?

Marina: 00:05:34

Because obviously when they're building stuff and you ask

Marina: 00:05:37

them, well, what are you doing?

Marina: 00:05:38

Oh, it's cool.

Marina: 00:05:39

It's cool.

Marina: 00:05:40

I'm like, well, cool.

Marina: 00:05:41

What?

Marina: 00:05:41

Well, to them it's brilliant.

Marina: 00:05:43

It's fabulous.

Marina: 00:05:44

They're really solving, you know, something incredibly important

Marina: 00:05:48

that doesn't currently exist with Bitcoin and Lightning.

Marina: 00:05:51

But it's also super important to be able to express it to a non-technical audience.

Marina: 00:05:58

Given that I had that background, I had worked with, um, startups before.

Marina: 00:06:03

I was able to add that value, right?

Marina: 00:06:05

Like how to speak to a non-technical audience about the value of your project.

Marina: 00:06:10

And so then we were like, dismantling, what does cool mean?

Marina: 00:06:13

What is it solving?

Marina: 00:06:15

Why does it help people?

Marina: 00:06:17

And in fact, one of the teams won second prize and it was really cool to see that.

Marina: 00:06:21

And really interesting to.

Marina: 00:06:23

For them to understand what somebody like me, who is not a developer, who could add

Marina: 00:06:28

to the team or add to the the project.

Marina: 00:06:31

So I think that you can join like that.

Marina: 00:06:33

Or if you're a designer, you're making the UX clean, you're making the, the

Marina: 00:06:38

experience of the user very intuitive.

Marina: 00:06:41

Those are several different ways where you can add value

Marina: 00:06:45

when you're joining a hackathon.

Marina: 00:06:46

You don't have to just be a developer.

Tali: 00:06:49

It almost seems like you are a translator between the two parties.

Tali: 00:06:55

Yeah.

Tali: 00:06:57

Yeah.

Tali: 00:06:57

'cause my experience when I go to Bitcoin park, when the tech people

Tali: 00:07:00

start talking tech, my eyes just kind of glaze over, like mm-hmm.

Tali: 00:07:03

That is cool.

Tali: 00:07:04

You're right.

Tali: 00:07:05

It is really cool.

Tali: 00:07:06

How do I apply that?

Tali: 00:07:08

So you help with that part of it.

Tali: 00:07:10

That's important.

Tali: 00:07:11

There are definitely so many aspects of pitching a project that are not

Tali: 00:07:15

necessarily coding and figuring out the why is so important.

Tali: 00:07:19

'cause that's the whole point, right?

Marina: 00:07:21

Yeah.

Marina: 00:07:21

That there's a phrase and I think, I hope that this summarizes, if there's no chair

Marina: 00:07:26

at the table, bring a folding chair.

Marina: 00:07:29

Just go in there and do it, because nobody is gonna give you permission.

Marina: 00:07:34

Nobody's gonna say, oh honey, come over here.

Marina: 00:07:37

Like, sit down with us and we want your opinion.

Marina: 00:07:40

No, like they're building, they're hacking.

Marina: 00:07:42

If you don't go and say, here's what I can bring to the table, you know, you're

Marina: 00:07:46

gonna sit there doing photocopies like I was when I was so young, working in my

Marina: 00:07:50

first job, you know, I didn't pull up a chair, and the folding chair at that time,

Marina: 00:07:55

it took me many, many years to understand that unless I go in there and get my hands

Marina: 00:08:01

dirty, nobody's gonna ask me to come over.

Marina: 00:08:03

Right.

Marina: 00:08:04

And that's the that most important lesson that you can

Marina: 00:08:07

learn about Bitcoin and in life.

Tali: 00:08:09

Yeah, for sure.

Tali: 00:08:10

You don't need permission.

Tali: 00:08:11

That is literally the most important part of this conversation.

Marina: 00:08:15

And don't ask for permission, just get in there.

Tali: 00:08:18

Don't ask for permission.

Tali: 00:08:19

You don't need permission.

Tali: 00:08:21

Hop in.

Tali: 00:08:22

Play around.

Tali: 00:08:23

Anybody who's interested, bring up a folding chair.

Tali: 00:08:26

You know, just offer what you can do.

Marina: 00:08:29

Yeah.

Marina: 00:08:30

Like see, see what's missing.

Marina: 00:08:31

Right?

Tali: 00:08:32

Exactly.

Marina: 00:08:32

And, and don't be afraid.

Marina: 00:08:33

Right?

Marina: 00:08:34

Just 'cause they're all brainiacs with incredible ideas that you

Marina: 00:08:38

don't really always, you know...

Marina: 00:08:40

yeah, you can translate, you can be that ambassador and do other

Marina: 00:08:44

things that really make it intuitive for regular plebs, like we say.

Tali: 00:08:49

Yes, exactly.

Tali: 00:08:50

Exactly.

Tali: 00:08:50

Any last recommendations or suggestions for women who are still sitting on

Tali: 00:08:54

the fence after hearing all of this?

Marina: 00:08:57

Just reach out and download a wallet.

Marina: 00:09:00

Start there.

Marina: 00:09:01

Bring that folding chair.

Marina: 00:09:02

Bring the folding chair.

Tali: 00:09:04

Well, thank you so much, Marina.

Tali: 00:09:05

I have really enjoyed our conversation.

Tali: 00:09:08

You're doing incredible work.

Tali: 00:09:09

I'm so excited to see what, how this, uh, fellowship will work

Tali: 00:09:13

out in El Salvador and how it will influence the rest of the world.

Marina: 00:09:16

Gracias, Tali.

Marina: 00:09:17

Thank you so much for including me and thinking of me.

Marina: 00:09:19

It's really a pleasure to see you again, even if it's online.

Tali: 00:09:22

Yes, same here.

Tali: 00:09:23

Thank you so much.

Tali: 00:09:24

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today.

Tali: 00:09:28

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

Tali: 00:09:31

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

Tali: 00:09:35

Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club.

Tali: 00:09:37

The meetup link is in the show notes.

Tali: 00:09:40

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

Tali: 00:09:44

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