“On the basis of bitcoin” — a recap of my 1st TEDx talk
Last week, on November 21st, I had the utmost pleasure to talk about transaction privacy in the 21st century at the premier TEDxHWZ event, where the theme was “The Future World”.
This adventure enabled me to address something, I am passionate about and believe in. Something that I am exposed to in my daily work, and something that a few years ago transformed my mindset.
In this post I will share a few thoughts about my talk, some learnings, pictures and eventually the link to the talk, so that you can listen to it.
My TEDx journey started this summer with a call from Luc, talking about this opportunity and inviting me to pitch my idea on what our future will look like, when it comes to money.
After considering what I was keen to share, I pitched the concept to the Executive MBA Digital Leadership class at the University of Applied Sciences Zurich. I gladly found out a few days later that I was accepted.
The following week our kick-off call took place. I was overwhelmed by the energy, dedication and first of all the people who I got to embark on this quest with - making #TEDxHWZ a reality.
This talk was shaped over several months, following research, suggestions and rehearsals until it evolved into its final form. It went from being too technical to something shorter and more comprehensive.
The objective of my speech was to shed light on what it means if we lose our privacy. The point of privacy is not that we have something to hide. If nothing we do is private, then everything we do is mineable for profit. Therefore I wanted to raise awareness on the fact that the most powerful asset in the digital age is data — and we should know how our data is being used.
I highlight in my talk that with money going towards purely digital and cash being cycled out of our system, -the restrictions one could impose on a person’s ability to participate in society are broad.
“ with money going towards purely digital, the restrictions one could impose on a person’s ability to participate in society are broad.”
However when it comes to money - cash and card payments are not our only option. We have an alternative, we have decentralized digital currencies and a payment system that works globally, we have bitcoin.
I started by familiarizing the audience with the fact that cash is expensive. Later I talked about the main benefits of bitcoin, keeping in mind that the listeners mostly consist of “no-coiners”, people who do not own cryptocurrencies. As next I moved on to depicting a future which I would like to see — more and more people adopting Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention.
I finished my talk similar to the way I opened, with two striking questions, which focus on encouraging you to think more about how much is our privacy worth.
Please check out the end result of my 2020 TEDx talk here and let me know what you think.
Looking back, I am beyond happy at how this event turned out and what a fantastic team effort it took to make it a reality. A heartfelt thank you to each and everyone of you who gave feedback and listened to the various versions of the talk from Buenos Aires to Denver, through Lisbon, Budapest and Tel Aviv. You know who you are and I am thankful for your guidance along the way leading up to this occasion!
Thank you to Luc Richner for inviting me and to the entire EMBA class of the HWZ. Thank you Lukas Pitsch for the fabulous pictures.
This experience has been truly magical and was a good practice warm-up for a future TEDx talk, where there will be a live audience!
