She was working in the Obama administration when she heard about the virtual currency. She was excited from the start. She would leave politics and enter the new financial world with a mission to make the new financial world a better place for people of color and women than the traditional market of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
Mesidor has written a memoir about her journey from growing up in Haiti to falling down the rabbit hole in the world of politics and cryptocurrencies.
She is the founder of the National Policy Network of Women of Color in Blockchain and is now the executive director of The Blockchain Foundation.
Mesidor was interviewed by CNBC about how to prevent the new space from being like the old world of finance. After that conversation, the price of the digital currency dropped to its lowest level in more than a year.
The exchange has been edited to make it clearer.
Annie Nova: Before you moved tocryptocurrencies, you had a career in politics? What does that experience tell you about the work you are doing now?
I moved back to New York when I left Washington. Everyone lost their minds when the IRS asked if the people were paying their taxes. I was leaning back on my Washington background because of the regulatory discussion. The policy was not keeping up with adoption. I publish a weekly newsletter for my public policy network.
What do people think is the most incorrect thing about cryptocurrencies?
Black and Latino communities are leading the adoption of Cryptocurrencies in the U.S. White males aren't it. The middle class is already in.
Black and Latino communities are leading the way in the adoption of digital currency.
It depends on your relationship with money. Money in the traditional system will always work for you. Why take the chance of a new path? If traditional finance didn't work for you, the alternatives look good. Even if you are unbanked or a professional like me, you are treated the same in America. Wealth managers don't care about you, banks don't care about you, and Wall Street doesn't care about you.
What is different about cripto Traditional finance problems can be seen here.
CM: What is different about cryptocurrencies? There are obstacles to entry for every other asset class. The asset class is accessible to everyone. It's not the case for stocks or bonds. Traditional finance is the riskiest place for Black and Latino people to invest in. The director of Black Panther went into a bank to withdraw money and they called the police on him.
There is still a huge gender discrepancy in the space. What are the main reasons for this?
The numbers of women are still not good. Women are often the heads of households and responsible for the livelihoods of their children and their parents, which makes them less tolerant of risk.
How do you increase the number of women?
Women need to be given more information about the internet. We will get more women if we talk to people aboutfractionalization. The value proposition has to be more than just about investing. Opportunities for entrepreneurship, innovative career paths with remote work options, the ability to make a social impact, and also highlight resources and education about how to reduce risk are some of the things we need to emphasize.
What do you think is the future of cripto
CM: If we cut through the noise of cryptocurrencies, and a lot of it is noise, we can give people more control over their own data and make processes more efficient. We won't even notice that the world will be powered byBlockchain andCryptocurrencies.
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