Episode 28

full
Published on:

14th Jun 2022

28. What is a DAO Anyway?

Joining me this week is May Mahboob, Co-Founder of MBD Financials, a photo-realistic metaverse banking solution aimed at helping people all over the world engage in financial activities on blockchain based technologies. May describes what banking in the metaverse looks like, how it can help people in developing countries, and what it means for international development. As an international policy nerd, this episode really spoke to what's happening in developing countries and how blockchain may help solve problems. Also, if you've been wondering what a DAO is, this is the podcast for you!

Episode Resources:

https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/sites/globalfindex/files/chapters/2017%20Findex%20full%20report_chapter2.pdf

http://mbdfinancials.com/

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/meta-bank-defi-described-as-worlds-first-decentralized-360-solution-bank-in-the-metaverse-2022-03-02

Transcript
Unknown:

Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the

Unknown:

issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

Unknown:

development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

Unknown:

internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

Unknown:

female talent and business executives operating in the

Unknown:

gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey the

Unknown:

boss POS, the meta woman podcast starts now.

Lindsay Poss:

Hello, and welcome to the middle woman podcast part

Lindsay Poss:

of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host Lindsay

Lindsay Poss:

the boss POS and from struggle to success. We're covering it

Lindsay Poss:

all returning listeners, thank you so much for supporting the

Lindsay Poss:

show and for all the new listeners. Welcome. I hope you

Lindsay Poss:

enjoy. I'm really excited for today's conversation because for

Lindsay Poss:

me, it harkens back to my days in graduate school. I spent a

Lindsay Poss:

lot of time in grad school working on international

Lindsay Poss:

relations international development projects, including

Lindsay Poss:

one project that was a proposal to use blockchain technology to

Lindsay Poss:

identify and provide aid to Syrian refugees. A lot of really

Lindsay Poss:

fun international aid kind of work. That was many moons ago,

Lindsay Poss:

but I'm really comfortable today's discussion with name

Lindsay Poss:

Abobe, co founder and president and Nbd financials, among many

Lindsay Poss:

other titles, about her work at Nbd financials and in the tech

Lindsay Poss:

and AI space. They is working on some really awesome blockchain

Lindsay Poss:

technology projects. We're gonna dive into today, but it may if

Lindsay Poss:

you please introduce yourself and tell the audience more about

Lindsay Poss:

what you do.

Unknown:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the

Unknown:

show. Lindsay. Super excited to be here. Like it said, my name

Unknown:

is Neva boob. I am the co founder and president of MVD

Unknown:

financials. We are creating a completely photorealistic the

Unknown:

centralized Metaverse business district. The goal is to be able

Unknown:

to provide solutions specifically in the financial

Unknown:

industry for individual across the globe, especially for those

Unknown:

that are unbanked. So super excited to talk a little bit

Unknown:

more about innovation and the metaverse and how the different

Unknown:

types of solution that's out there.

Lindsay Poss:

So cool. To set the stage a little bit, I've

Lindsay Poss:

pulled the 2017 Index report, which pulls from the global

Lindsay Poss:

FINDEX database. genets own words is the world's most

Lindsay Poss:

comprehensive dataset on how adults save, borrow, make

Lindsay Poss:

payments and manage risk. This is kind of to talk about the

Lindsay Poss:

particularly the unbanked population, but some of those

Lindsay Poss:

populations that I know that you're working to serve. So some

Lindsay Poss:

some basic stats. 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked. I firmly

Lindsay Poss:

suspect that there's fluctuations in that number.

Lindsay Poss:

Like I said, this is a 2017 report that they typically put

Lindsay Poss:

out every three years. Third year was 2020. We all know how

Lindsay Poss:

that went. So I think that there's been I've been waiting

Lindsay Poss:

for the newer report to come but until then 1.7 billion adults

Lindsay Poss:

remain unbanked as of 2017. China has the world's largest

Lindsay Poss:

unbanked population, a 225 million, followed by India 190

Lindsay Poss:

million, Pakistan at 100 million in Indonesia 95 million. It's

Lindsay Poss:

kind of a concentration in Asia there. Women are over

Lindsay Poss:

represented among the world's unbanked and unbanked adults are

Lindsay Poss:

disproportionately young. So globally, 30% of unbanked adults

Lindsay Poss:

are between 15 and 24 years old. That kind of gives an idea of

Lindsay Poss:

what the picture is like for unbanked folks. But may I would

Lindsay Poss:

love to ask you more about how and why you're trying to create

Lindsay Poss:

not only a banking but a financial solution. I think it's

Lindsay Poss:

important to note that banks are also loans and credit cards and

Lindsay Poss:

mortgages and car payments and all kinds of access to things

Lindsay Poss:

that people don't think of when you just think of a bank is

Lindsay Poss:

where you kind of put your money. There's so much more to

Lindsay Poss:

that. So really a financial solution that helps reach the

Lindsay Poss:

unbanked but also helps people at all levels with a

Lindsay Poss:

decentralized banking platform. So the first question I have is

Lindsay Poss:

what made you want to create a banking system for people who

Lindsay Poss:

may be outside current financial systems?

Unknown:

Absolutely. So just to even think about financial

Unknown:

solutions in general, I like to do a little bit of a comparison

Unknown:

because if you take yourself back to when you first started

Unknown:

working, I started working at Baby Gap when I was 16 years old

Unknown:

weekend fitting room and the typical retail job. And when I

Unknown:

used to get my paycheck, the last thing I wanted to do is

Unknown:

deposited into a bank account and wait for it to clear which

Unknown:

sometimes took two to three days, business days and then I

Unknown:

wouldn't have money to spend over the weekdays because it was

Unknown:

more going to school and such. So what I would do is on my way

Unknown:

home I would go to a check cashing location I would cash it

Unknown:

just so I had Fiat straight in my hands, and I could go

Unknown:

shopping on a Sunday and spend it ever or else even unschool.

Unknown:

So those individuals are still considered unbaked. So just to

Unknown:

kind of give you a description, and bank doesn't necessarily

Unknown:

mean individuals that are in poverty level, regular

Unknown:

individuals, specifically ones that do not want to leave all of

Unknown:

their funds abating typically or get paid in cash for several

Unknown:

services, typically are usually unbanked as well. And less and

Unknown:

less are becoming unbanked in the United States as more

Unknown:

FinTech solutions and financial industry kind of comes out. But

Unknown:

as you've kind of mentioned, you're looking at the

Unknown:

individuals that are traditionally unbanked, and it

Unknown:

happens to be in Asia. And being from Asian Southeast Asian

Unknown:

descent, I was originally born in Bangladesh, which is right

Unknown:

next to India, one of the highest populated countries in

Unknown:

the world. And the numbers are quite high up there as well for

Unknown:

individuals that are invited. And the reason tends to be even

Unknown:

when especially especially females, in general, it's

Unknown:

because people don't want in order to have a bank account, it

Unknown:

requires quite a bit of different server licenses, and

Unknown:

even to have your birth certificates. A lot of

Unknown:

individuals don't even have part certificates in those countries,

Unknown:

their home births. And in order to get a birth certificate, it

Unknown:

requires a lot of financial monetary, you have to pay for

Unknown:

birth certificates. And a lot of times they don't even have the

Unknown:

funding to be able to do that. So it people just go burning in

Unknown:

cash and just paying for services for businesses just

Unknown:

accept cash in general. And when you look at women, women usually

Unknown:

are the ones that run the household. They don't go out and

Unknown:

work, they don't have financial, financial knowledge in general

Unknown:

where to invest money, it's usually the husband, that tape

Unknown:

goes out and earns takes care of all of the bills, the women take

Unknown:

care of children cook and take care of the household, which is

Unknown:

why women are really underrepresented in this

Unknown:

industry. So but as we advance a lot of the solutions that you'll

Unknown:

see women are becoming more educated or there's a high rate

Unknown:

of single or single moms and individuals who are looking at

Unknown:

you know, how do I really secure my financial and have that

Unknown:

financial stability and create that ecosystem where I'm

Unknown:

financially stable. And that's where a lot of the education

Unknown:

comes in, in addition to financial solutions and within

Unknown:

the FinTech industry. And if you really look at like, companies

Unknown:

like Ave and compound, they currently provide decentralized

Unknown:

borrowing and lending services that don't require care KYC or

Unknown:

any type of credit score's as well. So it's the system's

Unknown:

instead automated through the user of with the use of smart

Unknown:

contracts and only requires certain collateral sensations.

Unknown:

So that's where a lot of you'll see a lot of innovation come

Unknown:

from that as well.

Lindsay Poss:

Gotcha. Why did you and you started speaking to

Lindsay Poss:

this already, and part of it is is access to things like

Lindsay Poss:

documentation, um, that people may not have. But why did you

Lindsay Poss:

choose blockchain technology is the underpinning of the solution

Lindsay Poss:

that you're creating.

Unknown:

Of course, you know, one of the main solutions and

Unknown:

blockchains because blockchain is a disruptive force to the

Unknown:

financial sector. You'll notice a lot of even traditional

Unknown:

banking banking organizations like JP Morgan, or you see HSBC,

Unknown:

they're utilizing blockchain technology for Ledger's and

Unknown:

transparency, especially with the functions of payments and

Unknown:

banking. However, banks and decentralized blockchains are

Unknown:

really vastly different. So, for example, one of the solutions

Unknown:

that Nbd that we've implemented and will utilize is the

Unknown:

blockchain to provide solutions such as opening an account with

Unknown:

the data sharing features. So you have a digital ID regardless

Unknown:

of having a driver's license or a Bucha ticket to prove your

Unknown:

identity. And it's automated with the help of blockchain

Unknown:

technology or being able to do a digital online payments across

Unknown:

the globe. Especially if you look at other countries where

Unknown:

individuals, for example, in South America, a lot of the

Unknown:

family head of the household, if they work in the United States,

Unknown:

and they're sending family money home provides that instant

Unknown:

transfer of money of those finances and digital payments

Unknown:

across the globe. And 24/7 You don't have to wait for a certain

Unknown:

amount of time. And it doesn't require pending transactions

Unknown:

verifications and such. You're able to make investments on the

Unknown:

blockchain and investors will profit with receiving higher

Unknown:

returns. So I think blockchain would traditionally change the

Unknown:

way we do things and offer much higher solutions than

Unknown:

traditional banking. Generally.

Lindsay Poss:

I'll absolutely like the white paper where

Lindsay Poss:

you've, you've talked about a lot of these things in depth.

Lindsay Poss:

And but I do want to talk a little bit more about the

Lindsay Poss:

accessibility portion of, of MVD financials, one of the things

Lindsay Poss:

you've already mentioned is that you don't need paperwork to

Lindsay Poss:

create a digital ID, which is a huge deal for, for people for

Lindsay Poss:

many different reasons. I'm taking directly from the paper

Lindsay Poss:

also about accessibility. Accessibility is one of the

Lindsay Poss:

prime factors NPD financials is focusing on. For an average

Lindsay Poss:

person getting access to a well functioning Digital finance

Lindsay Poss:

system is simply too time consuming metabank defi

Lindsay Poss:

completely overcomes this problem by giving users an easy

Lindsay Poss:

to use system that allows them to go about their daily lives

Lindsay Poss:

and make any transactions they require. So we talked about

Lindsay Poss:

instantaneous transactions, and about, about not needing

Lindsay Poss:

paperwork or being able to easily create a an ID, but what

Lindsay Poss:

is what else makes the technology accessible? I know

Lindsay Poss:

that you've talked about making it photorealistic, like, is it

Lindsay Poss:

available on smartphones? Is it like how do people get to it in

Lindsay Poss:

an easier way? That is? Or how are you thinking about really

Lindsay Poss:

rolling this out to make it super easy to adopt?

Unknown:

Of course, um, one of the main things we looked at is

Unknown:

while providing those financial solutions concurrently, we'll be

Unknown:

offering financial education. So I think that's really, really

Unknown:

important for individuals to know how to use the service, not

Unknown:

just how to use the services and the steps and the solutions that

Unknown:

it provides. But the benefits of it are new ways. How can you

Unknown:

implement other solutions with what you're offered to create

Unknown:

this entire smooth transition over from traditional banking

Unknown:

services to that, for individuals that are looking

Unknown:

whether you we're putting in $10, in a digital currency

Unknown:

world, or 10 million, there are ways that you can really

Unknown:

generate revenue or increase your earning via via staking or

Unknown:

via lending protocols that are out there and be able to

Unknown:

increase your financial security. So when it comes to

Unknown:

accessibility, it's completely accessibility agnostic. So many

Unknown:

actually have cell phones or most individuals have cell

Unknown:

phones, where they can receive that accessibility. So our goal

Unknown:

is to be able to simplify accessibility and top of making

Unknown:

it agnostic. So education via whether it's Pictionary level,

Unknown:

or it would be based off of the level of understanding of that

Unknown:

individual. So it teaches you based off of how you actually

Unknown:

learn with AI integration into the solution as well. So it will

Unknown:

feed you information based off of your level of understanding.

Unknown:

So if you're if you're not an expert, we don't want to bombard

Unknown:

you with the amount of information that's out there. So

Unknown:

I don't know about you, Lindsey. I remember when I first got into

Unknown:

cryptocurrency, and I wanted to kind of learn just in general,

Unknown:

it was only YouTube that was available and even reading it

Unknown:

was like, Wait, what is mining and I didn't want to go straight

Unknown:

from zero to mining, right? And even like with mining, you think

Unknown:

about okay, what are they mining? It's like data and it

Unknown:

was it's overwhelming. And it's like even how to purchase

Unknown:

cryptocurrency. I remember when I first got into it, it was

Unknown:

like, Okay, you take it from here, you trade it on pancake

Unknown:

swap. And then there's sushi swap. And there's all of these

Unknown:

others Sunday swap and you have to make sure it's this

Unknown:

blockchain and it did we didn't have cross cross chain

Unknown:

compatibility and as many solutions as we have now. So no

Unknown:

one really knew if you if your currency was safe, even though

Unknown:

blockchain is the safest form of technology for any financial

Unknown:

solution. So those are things that we take into account too.

Lindsay Poss:

I love that I just pulled up my favorite one of my

Lindsay Poss:

favorite tweets about cryptocurrency is someone said I

Lindsay Poss:

still don't get bitcoin and the reply was, imagine if if keeping

Lindsay Poss:

your car idling. 24/7 produces uchoose You could trade for

Lindsay Poss:

heroin. I do always think Imagine if you keep your car

Lindsay Poss:

idling 24/7 The producing selves to do coups in they've got you

Lindsay Poss:

money? I do I want to ask it a little further because agnostic

Lindsay Poss:

is a term that shows up in your, in your paper a lot. And it's a

Lindsay Poss:

term I'm familiar with in a lot of a lot of contexts that aren't

Lindsay Poss:

cryptocurrencies, or that aren't banking or financial systems.

Lindsay Poss:

But what does agnostic mean to you? Does that mean cross

Lindsay Poss:

platform cross device? Like what? What makes your platform

Lindsay Poss:

agnostic?

Unknown:

Absolutely, it is. So what are the it's based off of

Unknown:

technology and the way you access those that technology. So

Unknown:

the solution is cross chain, to start with. So cross chain

Unknown:

meaning you're able to convert from any blockchain. So if you

Unknown:

have assets on finance, you're able to take it over to

Unknown:

Aetherium, you're able to take a theory of and, and bring it over

Unknown:

to finance its blockchain. Blockchain compatibility, as

Unknown:

well as solution compatibility based off of the worlds that

Unknown:

you'll be able to have access to, what we're creating isn't

Unknown:

just a platform of business district or world where

Unknown:

individuals where we'll just have our solution, it's more so

Unknown:

like a marketplace. So we're looking at other projects and

Unknown:

businesses and have locations there. And they'll be able to

Unknown:

offer services, whether it's financial services, or even e

Unknown:

commerce, to digital services. And if T's will be there, you'll

Unknown:

be able to play, we have implemented live language

Unknown:

translation for communication purposes. So you'll be able to

Unknown:

converse with someone, let's say in Africa, and you don't speak

Unknown:

the language, but if it translates it instantly voice to

Unknown:

text or voice to voice in their native language. So

Unknown:

communications completely clear and precise, as well as making

Unknown:

that accessibility as far as whether you're using a VR

Unknown:

headset. So you receive the ultimate experience where you're

Unknown:

able to walk through the business district and you're

Unknown:

completely immersed in the environment. Or you can use a

Unknown:

laptop or a tablet, or even your cell phone for the simplified

Unknown:

services that you want.

Lindsay Poss:

Okay, so agnostic really means just completely

Lindsay Poss:

portable, completely compatible across platform. So across

Lindsay Poss:

software and hardware. Absolutely. Okay. Oh, very cool.

Lindsay Poss:

Okay. That's kind of what I thought, but that that is, um,

Lindsay Poss:

that's really complicated technology. Surely she can't

Lindsay Poss:

meet across everything?

Unknown:

Well, that's the main goal, because that's how we're

Unknown:

going to there's so many blockchains that are out there.

Unknown:

There's so many platforms. And the key is one of the reasons

Unknown:

were building on by Nance smart chain is to make it accessible

Unknown:

for individuals across the globe where they can't really afford

Unknown:

the high gas fees on the theory of free and most projects to

Unknown:

build on Aetherium. So you want to so make sure that it's EVM

Unknown:

compatible. So if you are, if you are on the Ethereum

Unknown:

blockchain and or on the Ethereum virtual machine that

Unknown:

we're able to bring over your assets on ours as well.

Lindsay Poss:

Gotcha. And just for any listeners out there that

Lindsay Poss:

may be less familiar with blockchain and cryptocurrency

Lindsay Poss:

transactions. Ethereum uses gas as a basically essentially a way

Lindsay Poss:

to power different transactions. So in order to create to make an

Lindsay Poss:

Aetherium transaction, you have to buy gas. Same way in order to

Lindsay Poss:

travel anywhere to car you have to buy gas. Yeah, easily named

Lindsay Poss:

for understanding. So zooming out, a key principle of MBD is

Lindsay Poss:

to put power back in the hands of users by utilizing blockchain

Lindsay Poss:

technology. And all these ways we've talked about by making it

Lindsay Poss:

agnostic making it accessible by creating a banking system that

Lindsay Poss:

doesn't require a birth certificate. How disruptive Do

Lindsay Poss:

you think this kind of application and other

Lindsay Poss:

applications will be to traditional services?

Unknown:

Of course, so I just want to kind of explain how

Unknown:

dallas fort to because I think even for individuals that have

Unknown:

kind of spoken to Okay, so I think it's really important to

Unknown:

understand the difference first. And to generally understand now,

Unknown:

you you have to understand the technology behind it. So most

Unknown:

owls rely on blockchain technology on smart contracts,

Unknown:

which are basically smart contracts are collections of

Unknown:

code that run on the blockchain, so that if that power smart

Unknown:

contracts are used in NFT use in various protocols and protocols

Unknown:

are basically the solution that you provide in a project. So for

Unknown:

doubts, the blockchain can act as basically the backbone to

Unknown:

keeps the structure and rules of each on chain. And now, to

Unknown:

compare it with traditional organizations, traditional

Unknown:

organizations, there's typically a hierarchy. So former Board of

Unknown:

Directors, executive CEOs, CEOs and upper management that

Unknown:

determine the structure and make the power of that have the power

Unknown:

to make changes. So for dowels, which is also what we are. And

Unknown:

we are also a, even our token in itself is a governance token,

Unknown:

and most of our governance tokens. So Dows, on the other

Unknown:

hand, are completely decentralized. You can also have

Unknown:

a decentralized platform, but not all decentralized are also

Unknown:

Dows. So that's something to kind of keep in mind as well to

Unknown:

see if, if the holders as well as investors have, are able to

Unknown:

make decisions. So basically, what decentralized as mean is

Unknown:

that they are governed by only one person or entity. So me

Unknown:

being the president and making a lot of these decisions, it's not

Unknown:

completely out our executive teams decisions or our boards

Unknown:

decisions, the rules and governance of each Dao is coded

Unknown:

in smart contracts on the blockchain, and they cannot be

Unknown:

changed unless voted upon by the dabs members, and usually 1000

Unknown:

members are that your entire token holders are investors of

Unknown:

the projects. So every wallet gets to vote on other things

Unknown:

that you can change. Or if we want to implement a new feature

Unknown:

or a new product, we will take a vote on what from our data

Unknown:

members. So instead of a few select individuals that have

Unknown:

majority See, all the members can vote on decisions together.

Unknown:

Just also

Lindsay Poss:

Dow stands for decentralized autonomous

Lindsay Poss:

organization. For folks listening, I don't know that we

Lindsay Poss:

actually went through that. But that makes that makes sense. And

Lindsay Poss:

I thought you worked out but I didn't want to assign that.

Lindsay Poss:

We're actually saying your goal

Unknown:

is to provide every individual's to make their own

Unknown:

decisions, especially.

Lindsay Poss:

Can we talk about an analogous real world

Lindsay Poss:

situation like, can we pick? I don't know just again, so that

Lindsay Poss:

people who are listening and getting more familiar with this

Lindsay Poss:

kind of technology can understand in like, a real world

Lindsay Poss:

context. So I don't know, I'm trying to think of like any

Lindsay Poss:

large company that we interact with, like, okay, let's I'm

Lindsay Poss:

trying to think of a strictly like, let's say, your Bank of

Lindsay Poss:

America, Bank of America. Okay. Yeah, we can stay in finances.

Lindsay Poss:

Okay. So yeah, if I was a Bank of America member today, and

Lindsay Poss:

instead, it was a doubt, what would that look like? You know,

Lindsay Poss:

like, I, again, I'm trying to, like, say, I'm a member, then

Lindsay Poss:

there wouldn't really be a C suite level exec, like, there

Lindsay Poss:

would be people who are running the organization, but they

Lindsay Poss:

wouldn't necessarily be the ones making the decisions. So if I

Lindsay Poss:

took all of my money and put it into Bank of America, that would

Lindsay Poss:

be essentially my token, correct? Like, I bought in in

Lindsay Poss:

some way.

Unknown:

Right? So the best way to really explain it is, for

Unknown:

example, or we could take any organization, so it's in the

Unknown:

stock market, and you purchase stocks. Right. So I like to kind

Unknown:

of call it the token. It's kind of like your stocks basically.

Unknown:

Okay, so Bank of America stocks go up and down and they released

Unknown:

their results q1, q2 q4, and your Li, earnings report. And

Unknown:

you just get to see okay, why did you all have the earnings

Unknown:

report will give you, you know, where they really made a lot of

Unknown:

revenue or where they lost money, you know, how the

Unknown:

company's doing in general. You don't get to make the decisions

Unknown:

on new products coming out. Or they won't ask all of the

Unknown:

stockholders that, hey, we're going to be launching this what

Unknown:

do you guys think about it, or we're changing the structure for

Unknown:

acquisitions, mergers, no one else gets to say have a say in

Unknown:

it except the board. So it's specific individuals that get to

Unknown:

make the decision on whether they want to remove the CEO or

Unknown:

whether you know they want to acquire another or Innovation is

Unknown:

part of the. So for example, Microsoft when they acquired a

Unknown:

when they won for Mehta for example, okay, Mehta is a good

Unknown:

one meta when they became meta even the name change in general

Unknown:

it was done a specific Ooh strictly by the board of the

Unknown:

board, as well as the CEO and the owner. So, when a dowel, for

Unknown:

example, every single stockholder, it would go out as

Unknown:

vote and stockholders will be able to vote on it based off of

Unknown:

amount of time that said,

Lindsay Poss:

gotcha, that makes sense. I wanted to make sure

Lindsay Poss:

that we could give a real world example, because I think that

Lindsay Poss:

Dow was a term that gets thrown around a lot these days. And I

Lindsay Poss:

don't know that everyone out there totally understands

Lindsay Poss:

exactly what it is. So yeah, I think that's a good like, if

Lindsay Poss:

stockholders were able to vote on every decision, and any rule

Lindsay Poss:

change was up to them. And also the rules were transparent, and

Lindsay Poss:

everyone knew what they were. I think that's an important thing

Lindsay Poss:

to know. Yeah, that the rules are actually visible themselves,

Lindsay Poss:

as well

Unknown:

as the fact that, you know, solutions in general, I

Unknown:

think, what the greatest thing about the solutions, especially

Unknown:

in fintechs, that are going to be available. When you look at

Unknown:

even finances, I have banked with Bank of America as long as

Unknown:

I can remember. And even for a traditional individual, a second

Unknown:

marriage, I like to call it like a marriage, right? You can't

Unknown:

just get divorced, there's so much tied to it. It's like, oh,

Unknown:

my Netflix account, even a debit card, when a debit card gets

Unknown:

cancelled. It's like, yeah, all these things pop up that you

Unknown:

can't charge that you didn't even know you have services for.

Unknown:

So people tend to not switch bank accounts all of a sudden,

Unknown:

just because they you know, there's better or JP Morgan

Unknown:

might have some of the solutions that fits you best. So people

Unknown:

will have maybe multiple accounts, and then that, that

Unknown:

whole spending time putting it together and keeping a track of

Unknown:

it. So in FinTech, in a lot of these decentralized solutions,

Unknown:

you get to pick and choose even whether you want it all apart,

Unknown:

or a certain organization that provides you with that specific

Unknown:

solution. So everything is one place in one place where you

Unknown:

have the information, and you get to choose the solution that

Unknown:

works best for you and your family and your lifecycle.

Unknown:

Financial lifestyle. Gotcha.

Lindsay Poss:

That makes a lot of sense. I want to also talk

Lindsay Poss:

about the business park idea and creating that kind of immersive

Lindsay Poss:

experience. And and you've used the words kind of photorealistic

Lindsay Poss:

there's a lot talking about the visual portions in the white

Lindsay Poss:

paper of, of the products you're creating. But what does that

Lindsay Poss:

visual aspect mean to you? And what does it do in terms of

Lindsay Poss:

acquiring customers or getting people to adopt the technology?

Lindsay Poss:

Like, why the Why the focus? I know it's not the only focus,

Lindsay Poss:

but why is why is there a focus on creating these visuals as

Lindsay Poss:

well to go along with the financial systems course.

Unknown:

So the reason why we call it a Vicent SR is, of

Unknown:

course, you're scaling globally. And the main goal is to be able

Unknown:

to provide individuals with the opportunity to if they want to

Unknown:

open a business of their own in a virtual environment to be able

Unknown:

to do that. So imagine like a bizarre type of area where you

Unknown:

know, it's farmers market in the morning, and you go to these

Unknown:

little booths, and they have all of these produce or homemade

Unknown:

products that are available, or it could be a large retailer

Unknown:

that offers services there. So the idea is to bring individuals

Unknown:

together in one place to offer various solutions where people

Unknown:

can choose from. And the reason we make it photorealistic is

Unknown:

yes, there are plenty of platforms out there where you

Unknown:

could create fun avatars and, and have actual fun outfits to

Unknown:

go with it. But if you really think about it, when it comes to

Unknown:

financial solutions and business dealings, and the idea is for

Unknown:

offices to have a location there to to continue to build that

Unknown:

culture that work life culture, especially during remote work,

Unknown:

is the fact that at times, you want to be able to see what the

Unknown:

individual looks like when it comes to financial solutions. So

Unknown:

avatar offering you or telling you to invest your money into a

Unknown:

platform where your return where you're AP wise would be this

Unknown:

much percentage, and you want to be able to communicate in force.

Unknown:

We're also doing real time rendering, so live conversations

Unknown:

in a virtual environment. You want to be able to see that

Unknown:

individual have that interaction of what does this person really

Unknown:

look like? So that's really important as well as, as we

Unknown:

integrate with other technology. And as we scale, the goal is to

Unknown:

be able to provide digital identities for individual across

Unknown:

the globe based off of what you look like. So we're able, as

Unknown:

technology advances, were also able to integrate new technology

Unknown:

to expand on the services we provide. So we want individuals

Unknown:

to be able to look look as close to what they look like in real

Unknown:

life.

Lindsay Poss:

So cool, because I think when we talk about the

Lindsay Poss:

metaverse, and there's I mean, there's I don't know if you've

Lindsay Poss:

seen all the new meta slash Facebook commercials about meta

Lindsay Poss:

versus just for gaming. And it's like, no, you can take a tour of

Lindsay Poss:

the space station and you can do fitness classes, blah, blah. I

Lindsay Poss:

don't know that I've thought about the, I don't know more

Lindsay Poss:

basic structures of society. I guess. Being also in the

Lindsay Poss:

metaverse like having a business park in the metaverse is. Yeah,

Lindsay Poss:

like that's not something that I would think about. But it's

Lindsay Poss:

definitely it makes more sense as as we talk about

Lindsay Poss:

globalization and opening up and you can really interact with

Lindsay Poss:

anyone anywhere in the world and get a sense of who they are and

Lindsay Poss:

if they're the right fit for whatever project you might be

Lindsay Poss:

working on. But how important do you think it is to build an

Lindsay Poss:

iterate on these kind of virtual worlds? And to create these

Lindsay Poss:

Metaverse experiences? Like, how much? Do you see that impacting

Lindsay Poss:

the way we all kind of operate in the next maybe in the next

Lindsay Poss:

two years, and then in the next 20 years, like short and long

Lindsay Poss:

term?

Unknown:

Of course, I think in the next couple of years, you'll

Unknown:

still see a lot of innovation, and not the user base will be

Unknown:

not as high as we are really predicting here's why I think

Unknown:

what we're all focused on are individuals that are already in

Unknown:

the industry as most of the metaverse technology kind of

Unknown:

involves ones one sort of digital currency or currency

Unknown:

attached to most projects. So but at the same time, if you

Unknown:

really look at the number of people that are currently

Unknown:

utilizing, or really understand digital currency, it's very low.

Unknown:

Like I kind of mentioned, rarely do I even know, me being in the

Unknown:

industry, I know a lot more than the traditional individuals I

Unknown:

even speak with that I have, I always laugh I've assist a

Unknown:

really young sister, and she's a scientist. And every time we try

Unknown:

to have even conversations around cryptocurrency, she gets

Unknown:

super overwhelmed. And she's like, this is way over my head,

Unknown:

can we just change the subject. And she's not into

Unknown:

cryptocurrency, because even so it's not just about education,

Unknown:

it's about the proper information, and the proper

Unknown:

tools given to an individual to be able to learn these, learn

Unknown:

what the job party is, and how to really realize it in the real

Unknown:

world. So I think that's going to be super important. At some

Unknown:

point, we're going to have to slow down and let the rest of

Unknown:

the populations kind of catch up and really learn about it. And,

Unknown:

and that's one of our goals in the project. So we're we're

Unknown:

actually delivering our deliverables in pieces where

Unknown:

individuals are able to really learn what what the entire

Unknown:

project looks like, but start you utilizing several different

Unknown:

solutions until you get to when that business district when

Unknown:

where you know how to utilize all of the solutions. You know

Unknown:

how it works, and the user use case would be much higher. So

Unknown:

education is going to be super important as far as scalability.

Unknown:

And as we look at long term, you really look at what other

Unknown:

countries are doing. So the government and regulations will

Unknown:

play a huge role in adoption as well. You have countries such as

Unknown:

Dubai, Dubai, Singapore, you look at, you know, other

Unknown:

countries that are really making setting those set rules and

Unknown:

crypto regulations, where adoptability will be much higher

Unknown:

than other countries that aren't even looking at regulations.

Lindsay Poss:

Okay, so step one is education. And then what

Lindsay Poss:

about what do you think it's going to look like? That's the

Lindsay Poss:

two year picture. What do you think the 20 year picture is

Lindsay Poss:

going to look like? Like, this is really I mean, this is all

Lindsay Poss:

conjecture, because we have no idea what's going to happen. So

Unknown:

yeah, I think it's going to be very similar to if

Unknown:

you've ever watched Ready Player One way. We were doing a lot of

Unknown:

things in the metaverse and it becomes more simplified. And I'm

Unknown:

not saying that we're all going to live with virtual with VR

Unknown:

headset. So we're gonna, you know, I'm not saying it's going

Unknown:

to be that extreme, I think what's going to be really

Unknown:

important. And what we'll see is technology where it merges the

Unknown:

virtual world with the real world. And it bridges the gap

Unknown:

between the two. So where you'll be able to combine the virtual

Unknown:

aspect into the real world as you're seeing technology such as

Unknown:

that already exists, but I think that's going to be key. And the

Unknown:

fact that we can actually use technology for good may embrace,

Unknown:

especially around the social impact these two. So that's

Unknown:

going to be a huge factor as to you know, how we could really

Unknown:

change the world with what we have right now.

Lindsay Poss:

was being of that I want to talk about who you

Lindsay Poss:

know who you are, and how you got to here. And, of course,

Lindsay Poss:

we're already running out of time, like famous for never

Lindsay Poss:

having enough time for all my questions. But what is it been

Lindsay Poss:

like for you as, as a woman, as a minority woman, as a female

Lindsay Poss:

founder, as someone who is working with developing

Lindsay Poss:

countries and thinking about the challenges specific challenges

Lindsay Poss:

faced in developing economies? Like, what has your experience

Lindsay Poss:

been like in this space? And, yeah, I'm gonna stop there for

Lindsay Poss:

now. I have plenty more questions. Now.

Unknown:

Let's do that first. Yeah, absolutely. So um, you

Unknown:

know, I think females are underrepresented in the FinTech

Unknown:

industry, in general, in the workforce, as well as the user

Unknown:

rates. So there's a huge lack of role models in the field, I was

Unknown:

reading a survey where it said 42% have stated that there's,

Unknown:

you know, they don't have a role model in this field, then lack

Unknown:

of mentors, and among FinTech founders, women are less likely

Unknown:

to even receive investor funding than their male counterparts.

Unknown:

And then you kind of add into the financial aspect to it. And

Unknown:

a lot of tragic, most traditional banking, women are

Unknown:

not usually within the SI executive levels there, there's

Unknown:

a low percentage of it and tech and financial services at the

Unknown:

executive level are primarily male dominated. So it is a

Unknown:

difficult journey, because of the fact that not a, you kind of

Unknown:

hit all of the dots. So not only are you in the tech industry,

Unknown:

you're in finance. And at the same time FinTech and crypto

Unknown:

digital currency and trying to solve a major problem that's out

Unknown:

there. What really got me motivated, and what really

Unknown:

brought me into this industry is, like a kind of mentioned, I

Unknown:

was originally born in Bangladesh, we relocated to the

Unknown:

United States when I was very, very young. But I do a lot of

Unknown:

social impact work in specifically in Southeast Asia,

Unknown:

in Africa, around education for women and children. And what I

Unknown:

have realized is, we can sit and blame the government and people

Unknown:

not doing enough for the country and, and giving back and

Unknown:

poverty. But poverty is inherited. And the cycle will

Unknown:

continue unless there's some sort of a disrupter. So that's

Unknown:

why I decided to create this platform where it provides

Unknown:

accessibility and it becomes a disrupter in the cycle of

Unknown:

poverty. The goal of our project is to be able to, for

Unknown:

individuals to be able to provide first world resources to

Unknown:

these underdeveloped communities and countries where individuals

Unknown:

can teach. So if you've ever heard the saying, Give a man a

Unknown:

fish, you feed for a day, but empty fish feeds for a lifetime.

Unknown:

So that's the main foundation of our project is where individuals

Unknown:

can teach another person halfway across the world, how to have a

Unknown:

skill set that they're good in, and that individual, the person

Unknown:

learning is also earning. So we're gamifying the entire

Unknown:

educational process. And as they earn, they receive

Unknown:

certifications for their skill set. And once they're fully

Unknown:

certified, they can work for any organization within our whether

Unknown:

it's our world or anywhere else with their skill set and be able

Unknown:

to earn and break that cycle.

Lindsay Poss:

That is so cool. I didn't realize that the kind of

Lindsay Poss:

play or do you prefer play to earn or play and earn

Unknown:

we call it learn to earn but it's also play to learn

Unknown:

to learn to earn is even more than anything.

Lindsay Poss:

Yeah, I didn't realize that that was an aspect

Lindsay Poss:

of the education piece as well. That's, that's a neat little.

Lindsay Poss:

And I think, I mean, I feel like at this point a lot of people

Lindsay Poss:

out there have read the stories about how Runescape is an

Lindsay Poss:

underpinning of a huge economic part of it is suela you,

Lindsay Poss:

literally Yeah, yeah. So I think there's, I think that there is a

Lindsay Poss:

better way to commodify that and expand it behind beyond just

Lindsay Poss:

because I feel like Runescape and Venezuela has been the

Lindsay Poss:

example for like six years now. It's like we all talk about

Lindsay Poss:

Runescape gold and Venezuela. There's Gostiny something else.

Lindsay Poss:

So I think that's cool that you have a learning earn. That's,

Lindsay Poss:

that's fine. And I think that that's, that might be a little

Lindsay Poss:

more realistic and play to earn. Just because then it's Yeah,

Lindsay Poss:

teaching a skill set kind of a job skills person

Unknown:

that to teach us the skill sets also earning what you

Unknown:

call karma tokens. And then that karma token can be traded for

Unknown:

whether its token, our native token, or for exclusive,

Unknown:

valuable NF T's or so you're also building that, you know, a

Unknown:

lot of individuals are really looking at what is the social

Unknown:

status? Or what is the end of how individuals will behave in

Unknown:

the metaverse so that kind of creates positive reinforcement

Unknown:

and, and positivity around being able to. And it's that

Unknown:

ecosystem, right? So it stays within that ecosystem, you're

Unknown:

teaching you're earning, they're earning for learning, and then

Unknown:

you're able to learn and further to grow those Finance,

Unknown:

Financial.

Lindsay Poss:

The finance that you earn. Hmm, that is so cool.

Lindsay Poss:

Yeah, I have spoken previously on the show, um, two web three

Lindsay Poss:

game developers who are creating a mechanism to basically

Lindsay Poss:

reinforce positive behavior through rewards as well. And

Lindsay Poss:

that was in the play side of things. But that's really cool.

Lindsay Poss:

That that's part of it, too. Oh, my gosh, I have so many more

Lindsay Poss:

questions that I didn't get to cut, get to cover at all, but it

Lindsay Poss:

has been such a joy having you. Before we get into the last

Lindsay Poss:

little segment, I'm going to try to summarize our discussion thus

Lindsay Poss:

far, it's going to be hard because I feel like we've

Lindsay Poss:

covered so much and I learned so much. So I'm definitely going to

Lindsay Poss:

have to go back and listen to this when it comes out.

Lindsay Poss:

We started with how Nbd financials is kind of framing

Lindsay Poss:

the discussion about how they're helping the unbanked, which can

Lindsay Poss:

mean a lot of different things. And opening a traditional

Lindsay Poss:

account requires a lot of documentation that people may

Lindsay Poss:

not have. Cash is just easier to maintain. It's also easier on

Lindsay Poss:

employers then send out cash it's immediate it there's a lot

Lindsay Poss:

of reasons why people are unbanked or women even fewer are

Lindsay Poss:

in the workforce and therefore earning kind of that cash and

Lindsay Poss:

more take on roles in the household which can lead to

Lindsay Poss:

their under representation and in traditional financial systems

Lindsay Poss:

as well. We kind of moved into why blockchain for MBD

Lindsay Poss:

financials. One is that blockchain Ledger's are good for

Lindsay Poss:

transparency, you can also create a digital ID without

Lindsay Poss:

needing to have those traditional documentations. So

Lindsay Poss:

you can create an ID easily and quickly, you can also transfer

Lindsay Poss:

instantly, which is huge. And then additionally, in addition

Lindsay Poss:

to just kind of storing any any earnings that you might have, or

Lindsay Poss:

any money that you might receive, you can also it's easy

Lindsay Poss:

to create investments and have access to investors and kind of

Lindsay Poss:

learn that portion of it. Um, we talked about Nbd financials and

Lindsay Poss:

how you're offering financial solutions solutions concurrently

Lindsay Poss:

with offering financial education. So you're teaching

Lindsay Poss:

people to use the tools and transition to decentralized

Lindsay Poss:

banking services. We got into it a little later. But part of that

Lindsay Poss:

teaching is through learning are and so teachers are learning or

Lindsay Poss:

teaching and earning students are learning and earning. And

Lindsay Poss:

it's kind of this reinforcement mechanism for keeping people in

Lindsay Poss:

the ecosystem, teaching them a skill set to then pass along.

Lindsay Poss:

And also just providing them with a way to earn something

Lindsay Poss:

along the way, which is really cool. We spend a lot of time on

Lindsay Poss:

accessibility. So simplifying accessibility first by making,

Lindsay Poss:

as we said, no documentation needed. And it's instantaneous.

Lindsay Poss:

But then also you can access on all kinds of devices, you can

Lindsay Poss:

access on all kinds of hardware, you can go in on your phone, or

Lindsay Poss:

you can go in on a VR headset. Either way, all of these

Lindsay Poss:

services will be available to you to use. You also may note

Lindsay Poss:

that this is agnostic, so it can convert or it can work across

Lindsay Poss:

any blockchain there's a lot of solution compatibility, there's

Lindsay Poss:

a lot of hardware compatibility. So now that you said that you're

Lindsay Poss:

you're mostly working on finance, but the that's because

Lindsay Poss:

the theory of gas prices are high, but that people who tend

Lindsay Poss:

to use Aetherium and can afford those gas prices are also can be

Lindsay Poss:

part of the ecosystem. So it's nice that it's it's portable

Lindsay Poss:

across coins and across tokens and that people can interact

Lindsay Poss:

with with the financial system in a lot of different ways. We

Lindsay Poss:

then got into discussion on Dows and what Dows are so

Lindsay Poss:

decentralized, autonomous organizations, that all

Lindsay Poss:

decentralized platforms are Dows. Some of the key things

Lindsay Poss:

about daps is that they are not governed by any one person or

Lindsay Poss:

entity. Governance of each Dao is fully available to all

Lindsay Poss:

members of set out fully transparent and immutable. On

Lindsay Poss:

the blockchain. Token holders are typically the members of a

Lindsay Poss:

Dow organization. And we sort of likened it to stockholders being

Lindsay Poss:

the ones who were in charge of making a lot of the decisions

Lindsay Poss:

instead of kind of having a C suite, an organizational

Lindsay Poss:

structure that way. So it's an autonomous decentralized

Lindsay Poss:

organization instead of a hierarchical, traditional

Lindsay Poss:

organization. And we also talked about the creation of the

Lindsay Poss:

business park that you have. So not only is is Nbd, trying to

Lindsay Poss:

create financial solutions for banking, but also as a place for

Lindsay Poss:

people to start businesses and to interact with other folks who

Lindsay Poss:

are starting businesses. So creating a fully virtual world

Lindsay Poss:

where people can go in and interact in this financial

Lindsay Poss:

system, or in this in this business park, and really do a

Lindsay Poss:

lot of different things, which I think is really cool. Then I

Lindsay Poss:

kind of asked you those big pie in the sky questions about

Lindsay Poss:

what's gonna happen in two years, what's going to happen in

Lindsay Poss:

20 years, and for the two years, it was all about education. As

Lindsay Poss:

you said, we need to slow down need to let other people catch

Lindsay Poss:

up, there's a lot out there, there's a lot happening, very

Lindsay Poss:

exciting. But it can be hard to remember that not everyone is

Lindsay Poss:

super comfortable or excited about it. And they can cause a

Lindsay Poss:

lot of anxiety. So slowly getting information out there,

Lindsay Poss:

like you said, not having one YouTube channel where you start

Lindsay Poss:

immediately on mining, and kind of getting people out there in

Lindsay Poss:

comfortable and familiar ways. But then in 20 years, you can

Lindsay Poss:

see a more Ready Player One like universe, not that it's going to

Lindsay Poss:

exactly be like that, we're going to live all the way on

Lindsay Poss:

line, that we're all going to have better access to technology

Lindsay Poss:

that kind of brings us into virtual worlds more regularly,

Lindsay Poss:

for all kinds of things. We ended with a discussion kind of

Lindsay Poss:

on women in FinTech, there's, I know that you notice that

Lindsay Poss:

there's a lack of mentors, there's a lack of investment,

Lindsay Poss:

and that comes from, I mean, it strikes really far upstream with

Lindsay Poss:

like, fewer women aren't even in traditional financial system. So

Lindsay Poss:

working into other technology into other FinTech can be a real

Lindsay Poss:

challenge to get a lot more women in there. And so I know

Lindsay Poss:

that one of the things that you noted is that through education,

Lindsay Poss:

you're trying to get more people comfortable in the space and

Lindsay Poss:

excited about the space in the space, which I think is really

Lindsay Poss:

great. more is always better. So the last segment, and I like to

Lindsay Poss:

do this with every show, I call it a moment of reflection, it's

Lindsay Poss:

just a chance for you to look back on your career. And the

Lindsay Poss:

thing that I like to ask is, what is one thing you would like

Lindsay Poss:

to tell your younger self about getting into the FinTech slash

Lindsay Poss:

emerging tech industry and being successful?

Unknown:

I would say, to be more open as a young individual, to

Unknown:

the new technology and the new types of investment that's out

Unknown:

there. Wish I would have made a choice such as that was during

Unknown:

Bitcoin days, right? So we all wish that, but it's very

Unknown:

important to have that open mind. Not it, there isn't really

Unknown:

that girls can't be engineers and girls can't be a tech

Unknown:

company, founders and that every single person. I mean, I call

Unknown:

myself, um, when people ask, Well, where did you you know,

Unknown:

where did you really learn all of this information? Sometimes I

Unknown:

PhD myself, I always say, Yeah, I have a PhD from Google.

Unknown:

Because web three, we don't work. I don't think there is

Unknown:

anywhere where you could really get a degree on web three. So

Unknown:

it's taking in all of the information and continue to

Unknown:

learn continue to have an open mind. I wish I did that when I

Unknown:

was younger, instead of focusing on one subject and kind of

Unknown:

keeping my focus and direction towards that. I study about two

Unknown:

hours a day even now, to keep up with the industry. And that's

Unknown:

someone that's already are in the industry. So I think that's

Unknown:

going to be super important and good to know.

Lindsay Poss:

Oh, that's so great to remember not to become

Lindsay Poss:

a curmudgeon about anything. Miguel, thank you so much for

Lindsay Poss:

coming on. Where can people find you follow you follow Mehta or

Lindsay Poss:

follow MBD financials, learn more. I've linked some things in

Lindsay Poss:

the show notes, plug everything.

Unknown:

MBD financials.com You can find us there. You can find

Unknown:

me on LinkedIn. It's made my boob happy to answer any

Unknown:

questions anything about the project. We're also super

Unknown:

excited were launching our token on the exchange on May 17 on and

Unknown:

we're super excited to be launching there as well as we

Unknown:

are also launching our NFT cross chain platform. Soon after that

Unknown:

within by the second week of June mightest. You'll be able to

Unknown:

look at our token and look at the project. We're launching on

Unknown:

booboo and learn more about it. Of course, the social impact is

Unknown:

very near and dear to my heart. So I always like to kind of

Unknown:

leave it off. We can all make a difference no matter the size,

Unknown:

because sometimes we wait for someone else to do something

Unknown:

about it. But regardless of how big the impact is, we can we can

Unknown:

wait around or we could just say that if it's not you, then who,

Unknown:

right?

Lindsay Poss:

Yes, love that. So everyone, go follow it. Go learn

Lindsay Poss:

more. This was such a cool episode. For all the listeners

Lindsay Poss:

out there. Be sure to leave those five star ratings and

Lindsay Poss:

reviews. Check out other holodeck media podcasts,

Lindsay Poss:

including men of business and business of esports. I'm on

Lindsay Poss:

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and Lindsey pass and you can

Lindsay Poss:

catch me Wednesday night on the business of esports live after

Lindsay Poss:

show. We'll see you next week. Thanks for

Unknown:

joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to subscribe to

Unknown:

this podcast everywhere you get your podcasts, leave a five star

Unknown:

review and tell your friends, family and colleagues all about

Unknown:

us. Also, make sure to follow metta TV on all socials to get

Unknown:

more of the best Metaverse content anywhere. Tune in every

Unknown:

week for another episode of meadow woman

Show artwork for META Woman

About the Podcast

META Woman
Weekly metaverse content - for women, by women
Meta Woman will focus on addressing the issues, opportunities, and challenges facing women in the development of the Metaverse. Top female executives and business people operating within the gaming and crypto industries bring a wide range of perspectives through regular guest appearances.