Episode 144: Build and manage your entire DeFi portfolio in one place
Rebecca Mqamelo with Zerion joins us to discuss the easiest way to build and manage your entire DeFi portfolio in one place.
Rebecca is Head of Growth at Zerion, a leading investment interface for decentralized finance (DeFi). Her passion lies in redesigning money for the 21st century – which means leveraging alternative currencies to facilitate more inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. Concurrent to her work at Zerion, she’s completing her degree in Economics and Data Science at Minerva as well as leading the world’s first randomized control trial on community currencies together with the Grassroots Economics Foundation. When she isn’t working, researching, studying, or kicking herself for trying to do all three, she writes on her experiences as a global African at www.rebeccamqamelo.com.
Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rebecca_Mqamelo
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/rebeccamqamelo/
*Disclaimer. None of this information is financial advice.
The following transcript was created using artificial intelligence. There will be some grammatical errors below.
00:00:03:01 – 00:00:17:23
Richard Carthon: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Crypto Current, your host here, Richard Carthon, and today I got a really special guest working on all kinds of amazing projects, already learning some really cool things about her. We got Rebecca with Zerion, how are you doing today?
00:00:19:07 – 00:00:21:28
Rebecca Mqamelo: Hey, I’m doing very, very well. It’s great to be here.
00:00:22:13 – 00:00:40:03
Richard Carthon: Thank you. Well, excited to learn more about you and your journey and everything that you have going on. A lot of exciting stuff, especially in the Crypto and even the development world yourself. I mean, you wear a lot of hats just based on a conversation before hopping on. But before we dive into all of that, let’s start with you. Like, tell us a little bit about yourself.
00:00:41:12 – 00:00:58:11
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah, so I don’t know if you can hear from the accent, but I’m from South Africa originally. I’m currently sitting in San Francisco, though. And like you said, I do a lot of hats. So, I’m currently finishing my senior year at Minerva, which is a very unconventional undergrad program where we basically travel the world as we study.
00:00:58:20 – 00:01:32:21
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, I would say that in terms of just my academic focus, that’s usually econ and data science, but I am also looking at Zerion, which is a popular DeFi interface that people use. And I also do research as well with grassroots economics in Kenya doing alternative currency systems. On top of that, I travel as I study. I’m involved in way too many things, but I’ve been in Crypto since about 2017. And it’s I think you know, similar to everyone in this industry, it’s just kind of like a rabbit hole you get stuck in and enjoy way too much.
00:01:32:23 – 00:01:43:24
Richard Carthon: Tell me about that first experience. Like how did you first learn about it? Who put it on the radar? And then just like you said, once you got into the rabbit hole, kind of explain once you got into it, like your journey to where you are today.
00:01:45:02 – 00:02:09:04
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah. So, I would say it started in 2017. I was actually living in San Francisco here as a freshman. This is the time of like, the first bubble and so, it was quite impossible not to be bombarded with Crypto everywhere you went. I mean, there were hackathons, there were conferences, there were meetups. And so, you know, being a college student in San Francisco, I just did a lot of these things. I mostly went for the free food, to be honest.
00:02:09:27 – 00:02:10:12
Richard Carthon: Yeah.
00:02:10:14 – 00:02:10:29
Rebecca Mqamelo: And perks.
00:02:11:01 – 00:02:11:16
Richard Carthon: That’s real.
00:02:12:03 – 00:02:43:12
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah, that’s what got me into Crypto was the free food, actually. But from there, I did work for a Japanese Crypto exchange. I was just always really, really interested in new forms of money. And I also think that you know, when you’re young and you’re curious, you’re not thinking about like, Oh, but is it regulated? And you know, is this a safe industry to go into in terms of the job market? It’s just like, Hey, this is really cool, people are building really cool things. So, I think it’s very much just a combination of timing and coincidence that I was in the right place.
00:02:44:28 – 00:03:09:19
Richard Carthon: Real quick, so like on that, something I wanted to talk about with it is that, you know, we talk about sparking your curiosity, right? And we are all about empowering people to follow their curiosity, find something that they’re passionate about and kind of like, moving it forward. And it’s exciting to hear you talk about that. You’re not necessarily looking at all the downsides of it, you’re just looking at, Oh, this is interesting, let me look into it and let me see how I can apply this into my own livelihood.
00:03:11:08 – 00:03:52:08
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I think this kind of goes into the second experience that I had, because after working for the Japanese Crypto exchange, which is very much on like, the for profit side of things, very much a corporate environment, I learned about this organization called Grassroots Economics. And they were basically taking the same kind of high tech technology and applying it in really low infrastructure communities in Kenya. And so, it was great because I think from early on I had this exposure to Crypto kind of on both sides of the spectrum of for profit and nonprofit and kind of looking at how people are using the same concepts, but in really, really different ways. So, it gave me a feel of what’s possible and I think that’s kind of what had me hooked.
00:03:53:07 – 00:04:12:28
Richard Carthon: That’s awesome. And the fact that you got into this very early and for everyone listening, of course, you can listen to this, but you also can watch this on YouTube for everyone that’s listening. If you haven’t checked that out, please go check us out and subscribe. But another good thing about what you just said is we also recently started this thing called Crypto Current Network.
00:04:13:00 – 00:05:02:28
Richard Carthon: So, we’re working with various universities across the U.S. to educate them and to expose them to different financial opportunities like FinTech, Crypto, Blockchain, all of these different economic tools that are more relevant to I mean, our generation from the millennials, Gen Zers, everything else, like the dynamic of economies and how the money transfer in the world is changing. And if you can learn this stuff early and be at the forefront of this, the windows and the doors of opportunity are limitless. And it’s really, really cool to hear how once this curiosity got sparked, then you kind of dove into it. And so, you know, as you were kind of studying all this, I know that you somehow got a part of Zerion. So, kind of tell us about that transition of how did that start and how did you become a part of it?
00:05:03:27 – 00:05:18:00
Rebecca Mqamelo: I think it’s maybe a bit of a common story that you’ll find in startups that are started by just really young people. The founder of Zerion, Evgeny Yurtaev, used to be a Minerva student.
00:05:18:11 – 00:05:18:26
Richard Carthon: Nice.
00:05:18:28 – 00:05:42:12
Rebecca Mqamelo: And so, it was very much just a community thing. They were looking for a couple of hires in their growth division. You know, I was one of the few people in my class who is really, really heavily involved in Crypto and so, it was very much just like mutual friends saying, Hey, you should check out this company. I know that they’re hiring. Yeah, I guess I was very lucky in that sense because it was from my kind of, my community that I found out about it.
00:05:43:00 – 00:05:53:15
Richard Carthon: Which is awesome. And so, kind of tell us about what is it, what’s your role in it, where are you at right now as a company and what’s going on.
00:05:54:20 – 00:06:08:28
Rebecca Mqamelo: My role is Head of Growth. Zerion is a very, very early stage startup, although they have kind of been operating as a team since roughly 2016. So, I guess you could say that’s old in the DeFi space, considering their last project was like you know, two weeks old.
00:06:09:00 – 00:06:09:18
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:06:09:20 – 00:06:36:13
Rebecca Mqamelo: At least that’s what it feels like. Yeah, part of my day to day job is really just your standard growth roll activities. So, things like managing social media content, but also a lot of it that’s really interesting is just user research. I think DeFi is such a nascent field. And in terms of how people interact with it, like at Zerion, you know, we’re a platform that in many ways pioneers the kinds of features that people come to expect.
00:06:36:22 – 00:07:23:16
Rebecca Mqamelo: And so, it’s really nice because you have the sense of, Oh, you know, like this product that I’m designing or this user research that I’m looking at is something that someone is going to end up using, so it’s very meaningful and fulfilling in that sense. And then, of course, is also just like generally keeping up with the DeFi market, knowing what kind of protocols and tokens are people interested in, how do people want to categorize and view their portfolio? I think inherently across the DeFi space, it’s a very different business model, right? So, it’s not like we charge people to use our services. It very much feels like, kind of boots on the ground because the people that use your product are the people that you have to interact with on a daily basis if you want to design something that works for them.
00:07:24:02 – 00:08:08:00
Richard Carthon: Right. What you’re working on in your particular aspect of growth is super interesting to me because when DeFi first came out and I had a couple of guests on last year about this, I call it the loop of like what you need for a successful entire user experience. And a lot of what has been spun up was like, Oh, we have all of these different use cases. Oh, we could use it to solve this problem or we could solve this, but then they didn’t take the use case of like, Okay, now we built this thing, how do we get users to actually use it, understand it, know it’s a real thing and then also have it go back into the ecosystem so it like completes the circle? So, can you kind of speak to that a little bit of like, I know that’s a challenge that y’all are probably trying to tackle, but you know, what are some things that Zerion’s doing to help solve that issue?
00:08:09:00 – 00:08:36:01
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m really glad that you brought this up. It is spot on and people underestimate how much user experience and just user interface is so important, right? We use terms like DeFi, you know, decentralized finance, Crypto, Blockchain. At the end of the day, like these are technologies yes, but people are going to interact with them through specific products and services. So, in the case of DeFi it’s DApps, you know, decentralized apps.
00:08:36:03 – 00:08:36:18
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:08:36:20 – 00:09:16:03
Rebecca Mqamelo: Whether it’s Zerion that’s a portfolio tracker, whether it’s a specific exchange like Uniswap that a lot of people are familiar with, the way that that looks and feels is very much going to determine how much DeFi gets adopted. And so, this is something that Zerion has been trying to solve since day one, which is just really basically how do we present your portfolio to you, right? Something as simple as that in the world of decentralized protocol is actually not that simple because you’re pulling from different protocols, you’re pulling from different asset types, right? So, we’re not just talking about tokens, we’re also talking about things like NFTs, non fungible tokens.
00:09:16:05 – 00:09:16:20
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:09:16:22 – 00:09:40:09
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, this is not something that Zerion currently supports, but ideally, you want to see everything that you own on the Ethereum Blockchain in one place. You don’t want to have to open 10 tabs just to know what’s going on. And I think up until say, like a year ago, that was pretty much the user experience. And that’s why no one is going to their grandma saying, Hey, you should really get into DeFi.
00:09:40:11 – 00:09:40:26
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:09:40:28 – 00:09:58:13
Rebecca Mqamelo: Because it’s not ready for your grandma. You know, it’s just not easy enough. And so, I think it’s really, really good to see more projects and teams that are looking at, Okay, how do we just design a better user experience? Because without that, it doesn’t matter how cool your projects are, how much APY you can get on your yield farming.
00:09:58:15 – 00:09:59:00
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:09:59:12 – 00:09:59:27
Rebecca Mqamelo: Like, no one’s going to use it.
00:09:59:29 – 00:10:37:09
Richard Carthon: Exactly. Oh, my gosh. Like, you’re speaking my language because, like, I’ve had this conversation with multiple people on the show previously about the importance of how do we get this to become so easy that grandma can use it, just like you said. And when I look at the bell curve of where we are in the Crypto realm, like I think we’re on the cusp of first adopters, early adopters to like, first adopters. I think we’re hitting that stride just because of the last boom that’s basically happened at the end of 2020 going into 2021. But still, we’re still so early in this as mom and dad and grandma, whatever starting to ask, Hey, like what’s this whole Bitcoin thing again? Tell me more about it.
00:10:37:15 – 00:11:01:04
Richard Carthon: And now that that’s coming, as they start to learn about these other things like DeFi, which was another buzzword that’s thrown around. If they don’t know how they can like, get into it in an easy one, two or three steps, like, you can just hand this thing to somebody and they can set it up. That’s where the biggest issue is and the fact that y’all are taking the approach to solve that problem and spend a lot of time and talking to people and learning and refining like, that’s how you play the long game.
00:11:01:06 – 00:11:36:27
Richard Carthon: And it’s like if DeFi’s not going anywhere, which I don’t believe it is, it’s just a matter of how do you get to mass adoption and an interface that is easily accessible. Then like, I mean, it sounds like y’all are doing the right steps because like to me, that is the bread and butter of what makes a great product. I know outside of Zerion that you work on some other things as well in the Crypto space, I know that you also do some development and some other things as well. Can you kind of talk to how are you able to utilize all of the various tools that you’re learning in school and applying it to everything in the Crypto, Blockchain world?
00:11:37:29 – 00:12:09:24
Rebecca Mqamelo: When people think of Crypto or Blockchain, they tend to think of the financial use case, right? Because right now that’s the biggest one. So, people think about the profit that they can make on Bitcoin or they’ll think about apps like Coinbase or Zerion, but they tend to forget that you know, ultimately we’re just talking about a technology. And at its core, when you’re redesigning monetary systems, that has huge implications in terms of how people think about money, how people use money, how people have access to it.
00:12:10:03 – 00:12:42:23
Rebecca Mqamelo: And so, a lot of the research that I’ve done is just on the applications of alternative currency systems, pretty much in the places that you would least expect it. So, the majority of my work has been with Grassroots Economics, which is this NGO in Kenya that I talked about and they’ve been in operation for almost over 10 years at this point. So, they didn’t start off as a Blockchain based project, they started off with just paper vouchers. They would go into communities in Kenya and say, Hey, what would happen if we created our own currency, right? Because national currencies are incredibly volatile.
00:12:43:00 – 00:12:43:15
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:12:43:17 – 00:13:03:26
Rebecca Mqamelo: You know, if you’re a farmer and your currency loses a lot of its value overnight, like that’s it. And we’ve seen extreme use cases, rather extreme, just examples of this in places like Venezuela or Zimbabwe. Those are the popular countries that come up, but at the end of the day, so much of how we use money is just affected by things beyond our control.
00:13:03:28 – 00:13:04:13
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:13:04:15 – 00:13:49:05
Rebecca Mqamelo: Like the central bank or the state of your politics in your country. And so, the whole point of alternative currencies is to try and get local economies to be more resilient so that even if your economy crashes on a national scale, at a local scale, you know, people still need to be employed, people still have work to do, people still have groceries to sell, that doesn’t stop. What’s really important is that you have the money to do so. And this is a lot of what Grassroots Economics has done. So, all of my research has been around, well, you know what happens when you create these alternative currency systems? How does this affect the way that people trade with each other? How does this affect women’s access to money? So, all of these kinds of development questions and then, of course, all of this is based on a Cryptographic Blockchain.
00:13:49:28 – 00:14:20:26
Richard Carthon: Yeah. I mean, that’s amazing and something I want to talk a little bit further into. And one of the things that when I knew that Crypto was going to be massive, when you see the scale of how practical it is for other countries, when you hear about, just like you said, farmers who maybe shipped their products or produce to the U.S. or other places and they had to be paid in Crypto. Or you have just like you said, the volatility in some local governments where it’s a lot more stable, even though the capital markets are still volatile, it’s still more stable than a local government.
00:14:21:04 – 00:15:00:21
Richard Carthon: And with COVID going on around, you know, globally, it kind of shook up everything and kind of made the case for why a decentralized currency or a digital currency has a lot of use case or even from a practical standpoint of like how much cash do people actually walk around with? It doesn’t really happen. So, where do you see with, you know, with either grassroots or everything else that has affected this attention that’s being brought to the digital currency world, like, where do you think we’re headed in this next decade compared to where we were before COVID and everything else kind of happened?
00:15:01:18 – 00:15:10:07
Rebecca Mqamelo: Ideally and I think people are waking up to this, different currencies can serve different purposes.
00:15:10:12 – 00:15:10:27
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:15:10:29 – 00:15:28:16
Rebecca Mqamelo: And that’s okay. And I think from an institutional perspective, people are realizing that that is the case, right? So, why does a person prefer to be paid in U.S. dollars versus Indian rupees, right? It’s because like, we still live in a world where the dollar denominates global markets, right?
00:15:28:18 – 00:15:29:03
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:15:29:05 – 00:16:02:25
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, it’s seen to be more stable. And this is just a very basic intuitive answer, but I think the same as for things like Crypto. So, when you look at something like local currency systems, it’s not saying that we want to replace national currency systems, it’s just saying that maybe if we want to focus on development at a local scale and if we want to focus on keeping resources at a local scale, a different currency system would help us do that. So, I think where we’re headed and you know, we’re seeing this across the board, it’s not just in terms of money. Look at the way that people are looking at tokenization in the art world, right?
00:16:03:18 – 00:16:04:03
Richard Carthon: Yeah.
00:16:04:05 – 00:16:48:24
Rebecca Mqamelo: So the idea that, like in terms of managing the economic relationships that we have with artists and musicians and people who do things that, you know, so much of their creativity often gets lost in the, just the quantification that we exist under, like in a standard capitalist system. Tokenization models allow you to think outside the box. And so, I think to your question, like, where do we go from here over the next 10 years? I think we’re just going to start seeing more and more people using alternative currencies, whether that’s Crypto, whether it’s an NFT or a token, to like systems that we’re so used to seeing and systems that unfortunately, I think have been very restricted in terms of the way people interact with them because of just that economics convention.
00:16:49:17 – 00:17:11:10
Richard Carthon: A word that you said multiple times today, access. I think that we are living in a more accessible world. As long as you have access to the Internet, you now have a lot more access to different types of currency, right? You’re not just limited to a local currency or what have you. As long as you have access to some sort of wallet or exchange or what have you, pretty much.
00:17:11:12 – 00:17:14:06
Rebecca Mqamelo: Well, you don’t even need the Internet, actually.
00:17:14:14 – 00:17:14:29
Richard Carthon: Wow.
00:17:15:01 – 00:17:27:29
Rebecca Mqamelo: You don’t need the Internet. I mean, Grasp Economics, it’s not working on a smartphone, right? You can use things like USSD codes. You can still interact with the Blockchain if you’re using a Nokia brick phone from 2005, right?
00:17:28:01 – 00:17:28:16
Richard Carthon: Wow.
00:17:28:18 – 00:17:33:13
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, like there’s really no excuse. It’s possible, you just need more people building these things.
00:17:33:29 – 00:17:38:10
Richard Carthon: Can you talk to that a little bit more because that’s news to me. That sounds awesome, can you kind of?
00:17:39:18 – 00:18:02:06
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah. I mean, you know, so the model is really simple, right? In the same way that when you want to check your account balance on your phone plan, you’re interacting with your phone carrier and you use something called USSD codes. And this is basically you know, you send the message, it’s like press one, if you want to see your balance, press two if you want to do this. Well, you can actually connect those to higher tech stuff.
00:18:02:08 – 00:18:38:11
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, in the case of Grassroots Economics, although they’re running on a Blockchain, when people make a trade on their system, they’re just using their phones. And the majority of those people don’t have access to the Internet or don’t have smartphones, but when they’re placing a trade, the interaction they have with their phone is also an interaction with the Blockchain. And so, you know, it’s the movement of Cryptographic tokens. So, yeah, it’s really not that complicated. I think it’s just like sometimes we get really, I talked about earlier the user experience and I think we get really caught up in the user experience for specific kinds of users who have specific access.
00:18:38:13 – 00:18:39:04
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:18:39:06 – 00:18:48:12
Rebecca Mqamelo: But if you look at the majority of the unbanked, right? You actually want to have really low scale, low key stuff, but as long as it works, that’s what really matters.
00:18:48:29 – 00:19:39:18
Richard Carthon: That’s what I love about this space. And that is unique is that, like you said, there’s no excuse. There are ways that we can get this done and give access to people, we just got to keep building it, just like you said. We also have to know that it’s an option, right? Like for a lot of people just like me today, like didn’t even know that that was an option or a solution. So, if a creative person can now see like, Oh, wow, how can I then apply that in other places or in other elements? And that’s how you get the ball rolling, but I think that’s really unique. One more topic that I kind of want to bring up with you. It’s just, you know, with everything that you are observing in the entire ecosystem, that is Crypto and Blockchain, what are some things that are on your mind or things that you’re observing that you think other people should be looking out for as well?
00:19:41:18 – 00:20:04:10
Rebecca Mqamelo: I think, look, this previous bull run that we’ve had is just one of them, which is really like watch out for the changes that are happening. I think, with more and more institutions investing heavily in Bitcoin and Ethereum and other currencies as well, that’s pretty much an indicator that you can no longer just dismiss this as magic Internet money, right?
00:20:05:00 – 00:20:05:15
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:20:05:17 – 00:20:45:24
Rebecca Mqamelo: I hope, I sincerely hope people aren’t still doing that, but you know, they’re there. So, I think yeah, I just realized that like, at the end of the day, this is a technology and it’s not just about the money, right? It’s not just about the financial aspect. We’re talking about a technology that is going to disrupt every industry and it is already doing so. Whether it is for music, whether it is for the way we give aid in a development context, whether it’s for the way we invest our money or how we send money across borders to family members, these are really, really big disruptive changes. And if you’re in a position where you’re eager to learn and you’re curious about this now, there’s no such thing as too late, right?
00:20:45:26 – 00:20:46:11
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:20:46:13 – 00:21:04:10
Rebecca Mqamelo: Like, okay, you might not make the 400 percent profit that people are talking about in terms of Bitcoin, but you’re in a really good position to learn because I think there’s so many job opportunities as well. And we just need more people who are willing to think creatively and who are willing to build because that’s how we get there, that’s how we get to next.
00:21:05:01 – 00:21:49:12
Richard Carthon: Definitely. And I really like that answer. Beginning of the year or so at a time of this recording, we’re in 2021 early, I wrote this, this post and I’m happy to share it. I’ll put it in the show notes, but one of the first things I have on there is that if you would have had Bitcoin when it first came out in 2010, if you put $20 in, when it hit $30,000, you would have made $9,000,000. Now with Zerion, with what you’re doing with that, right? There are a lot of low cap, less than a dollar type of opportunities that are out there. Now, we’re not saying that all of them are going to be like Bitcoin hit $30,000, but even if it’s a tenth of what that was or whatever, like there is just so much opportunity.
00:21:49:14 – 00:22:05:14
Richard Carthon: You don’t have to have a lot of money to potentially see this kind of return on investment. Like that was 10 years, there’s not too many places in 10 years you can see that kind of ridiculous return. So, the whole point of what I’m saying and what I’m going to continue to encourage everyone listening is if you’re not involved, get involved.
00:22:05:16 – 00:22:36:28
Richard Carthon: You don’t have to spend a lot of money. You can spend $5, $10, $20, whatever makes sense to you. Educate yourself, find a project that makes sense, go to Zerion, check out some DeFi projects, something that you can get involved with and find a way to to get involved. And again, you don’t have to put a lot in, but it could literally change your life by just getting your foot in the door. So, I really do appreciate you spending some time with us today, Rebecca. I think you dropped a ton of good knowledge and nuggets for people to think on, but what is a final thought that you want to leave with all of our listeners here today?
00:22:38:27 – 00:23:07:14
Rebecca Mqamelo: I’m very biased when I say this because you know, I work Zerion, I’ve worked for a Crypto exchange, I’ve worked for a development organization. As much as what you just said is true, I want people to remember that even if you’re not doing it to get the extreme profits, even if you’re going to lose $100 that you put in, which is, let’s be honest, is the case.
00:23:07:16 – 00:23:08:01
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:23:08:03 – 00:23:46:18
Rebecca Mqamelo: Like a lot of investors, they always say be willing to lose what you put in. Even if that is the case, it is still so, so valuable. And the best way to think about it is like think about the early days of the Internet, right? This is a technology that everyone’s going to be using, this is a technology that you’re better off knowing about now. And on top of that, there are so many resources out there. So, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I have no idea what DeFi is, I don’t even know where to get started, I mean, a simple Google search, Twitter search, whatever you want. There are tons of tutorials, right? If you’re into things like investing, there’s a lot of really good information out there. There’s also a lot of bad information.
00:23:47:01 – 00:23:47:16
Richard Carthon: Right.
00:23:47:18 – 00:23:52:16
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, you just got to get started somewhere, right? And then the discernment comes with the experience.
00:23:53:14 – 00:24:18:18
Richard Carthon: Awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate that. I think that’s a great final thought. For everyone listening, yes, there’s peaks and valleys. Just like she said, be willing to lose what you put in, but get involved, find a way like, it’s not necessarily all about the money. There’s a lot of educational pieces that come with it, there’s a lot of great people that you can meet. Again, through this podcast and experience, I’ve met so many smart people working on amazing projects that I would have never even considered had I had not just been in this space.
00:24:19:28 – 00:24:50:21
Richard Carthon: If you are in a group of your friends or whatever it is, the ones that aren’t your Crypto, Blockchain friends, start talking about Crypto, just talk about a thing here or there, eventually they’re going to listen. I think the turning point for one of my friends, all of a sudden he hit me up and bought his first Crypto, its like $5. He’s like, Oh my gosh, it is now worth like 750, I’ve never seen that kind of thing happen in a week or whatever, and like, you know, just little excitement. But like, the whole point is like once you just start getting involved, you’re more invested because you are invested.
00:24:50:23 – 00:25:07:29
Rebecca Mqamelo: Absolutely. As you were giving that example, just really quickly, I had a friend who I, you know, I walked through a Zerion demo with, I think it was like six months ago and I was like, Ah you know, just put in like $50, just see what happens. And I think he forgot about the fact that he has a wallet, so, you’ve actually reminded me I need to reach out to him because it’s now worth like 500 or something like that.
00:25:08:15 – 00:25:09:00
Richard Carthon: Exactly.
00:25:09:02 – 00:25:10:07
Rebecca Mqamelo: So, that’s going to be a really nice surprise for him.
00:25:10:25 – 00:25:15:03
Richard Carthon: Right. And that’s another thing you can set and forget. You know, put some stuff in there. Don’t forget your passwords, though.
00:25:15:05 – 00:25:15:20
Rebecca Mqamelo: Yeah, write down your password.
00:25:15:22 – 00:25:30:07
Richard Carthon: Don’t be like the guy who has 200,000,000 Bitcoin and lost it, don’t be that person. That’s a whole nother subject for another day, but again, Rebecca, thank you so much for sharing everything with us. What are ways that people can connect with you and learn more about what you have going on and more about Zerion?
00:25:31:08 – 00:25:40:23
Rebecca Mqamelo: You can reach me on Twitter, Rebecca_Mqamelo. Yeah. So, good luck trying to spell that out. Put that in the show notes so people can find it.
00:25:41:00 – 00:25:41:15
Richard Carthon: For sure.
00:25:41:17 – 00:25:58:02
Rebecca Mqamelo: I’m also on Instagram and I also have my personal website, www.RebeccaMqamelo.com. You can find out about all the stuff that I do, also non Crypto things. I’m very, very passionate about African startups, African identity. So yeah, you can go down the rabbit hole with me.
00:25:58:23 – 00:26:04:17
Richard Carthon: Awesome. Well, again, Rebecca, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. And for everyone listening, stay Crypto Current.
Crypto Current will be guiding all of you who are new to the cryptocurrency world to becoming a cryptocurrency and blockchain expert. Crypto Current was founded to give access to information to everyone on current events occurring in cryptocurrency and blockchain in a digestible way. Since its creation, we have created content that impacted thousands of people through its podcast, blog, and social media.