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For years, cryptocurrency has been a hot topic with everyone from investors, to celebrities, to coworkers, and even down the street neighbors talking about which coins they do and don’t own. But, as the volatility of the market continues to shift, has crypto become less of a viable option for investors? And with people of color (such as Black people at 23% and Hispanic people at 17%) outpacing white people (11%) in crypto adoption, should crypto still be viewed as a vehicle for closing the racial wealth gap?
On the latest episode of Chief’s podcast, “The New Rules of Business,” Co-Founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan talk to blockchain engineer and data scientist Tavonia Evans about the accessibility of crypto today and why she believes digital currency is still a trusted source for diverse investors.
“It's just giving us another vehicle to [invest],” she says of women and people of color. “Things are looking pretty dire, right? And we don't want our money connected to the decisions our government is making. We don't want our money connected to a volatile future… I think the pandemic has taught us that we just can't bet on the future, that we have to look at our options, we have to create the future, or create a new future.”
Evans, who created a cryptocurrency specifically designed for the Black community called Guapcoin, argues that many people thought that “our financial system was impenetrable.” But since the Great Recession, the pandemic, and the possibility of another recession on the way, she says more people are open to new opportunities to build wealth. And for people of color, she says crypto can be the new path that becomes a more trusted financial entity than traditional banks.
“The underlying technology with crypto is blockchain, and the key driver with blockchain is transparency,” Evans says. The transparency of the decentralized blockchain leads to greater trust since there are no hidden regulations by big institutions. For communities of color, this lack of control by one big entity is beneficial considering the long-standing practices of bias and discrimination by big banks. “And it's not just local communities in America. We're talking about global communities of the diaspora that are going to benefit from that.”
Listen to the latest episode of “The New Rules of Business” to learn more about the state of crypto today and why Evans believes it’s still a viable option for diverse investors looking to build wealth. Be sure to follow wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
