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Thanks for coming and welcome to Stacker News!
How far is the general Cornellian from "getting it"? (Interpret that as broadly or narrowly as you like)
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My pleasure; thank you for having me!
One thing I've really loved about Cornell is the incredible backgrounds of people that are here, so "general" is a bit tough. However, I am optimistic! In < 1 year we grew the Cornell Bitcoin Club from 0 - ~130. There have also been 2 positive research pieces done by a Cornell Engineering professor. One MBA student has done a presentation & working paper on Bitcoin (2 projects). And, we are doing the largest Bitcoin adoption study of its kind at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute. My Bitcoin-focused study was also approved last year! Also, fun fact, Ithaca is home to the longest-running time-based community currency (inactive now) called the Ithaca HOUR. Ezra Cornell received funding for the school as a founder of Western Union, and AD White (the other founder) lectured about the perils of fiat money, so the ethos of Bitcoin is in the school's DNA. I also recently had a positive discussion about Bitcoin payments with a school representative. All that to say, I think things are moving in the right direction!
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I'll also add that I think if people can be presented to information in an un-biased way and really see how bitcoin is a tool for their life, they are likely to "get it." Often, it's just not knowing the right question to ask, so I hope the TEDxTalk will be supportive of their journeys!
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That's great! Sounds like you're making some serious inroads.
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Team effort!
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 10h
What's the most surprising thing you've learned orange pilling gen z?
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Hmmm good question! It's actually not about bitcoin - it's about what comes after and what bitcoin as a tool can open up for & protect in your life.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 10h
What's something you believe about bitcoin that no one, including other bitcoiners, agrees with you on?
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Well, it's not quite fair for me to say this because I don't think it's true in heart. However, in practice, it's been really difficult to fundraise for BSN initiatives recently. Companies often don't see the "ROI" of students (& I've been told this), which I wish wasn't the case, because it's the younger generations that are the future. I wish we could in practice/ in action could show more that we really see and care about students.
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My coworker’s son is starting his studies at Cornell this coming fall. Any advice you can share that I can pass on?
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Congratulations! I'm happy to be a resource for him! (Outside of Bitcoin, I've loved being an Admissions Ambassador, so it'd be my pleasure!)
  1. I would say, I got here and immediately felt "behind." That's natural. Trust what you feel called to pursue and don't feel obliged to follow what everyone else is doing. 2) Don't worry if you haven't met "your people" right away - you likely won't until after fall break. Be the first person to say hi to someone you sit next to in class, see in office hours, or meet in a club meeting. It's how I've met all my closest friends and people are truly very friendly in my experience. (I thought that wouldn't be the case but to share an anecdote, one of my first weeks, someone I met in a club, invited me as their "stranger" to their "stranger dinner." Essentially, a group of people get together to have dinner with people they don't think anyone else knows, and everyone leaves with new connections. That's been my experience the whole 3 years! Very warm community. 3) Talk to and get to know your professors! They are wonderful and want to get to know you.
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Welcome.
My son is gen Z (high school age). I thought the younger folks would get Bitcoin easier than older folks but doesn't seem to be the case. None of his friends are into or understand Bitcoin. Might just be the age. They are into gaming and girls.
What has your experience been trying to orange pill Gen Z.
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For me, and my own journey, I think you have to make the cost feel more tangible. For starters, young people are never taught about "what is money?"/ money in general, or often talked to about it. I'd recommend doing what my parents did when I was ~13 and make a spreadsheet of the cost of their future life. We plotted my average salary, taxes, rent, trash bill - everything. Then, assuming I would stop working at age 67, how much would I have left? (assuming save 20% of my salary/year and invest (with conservative estimates)). I could only afford to live to age 79. And, each year, my expenses way exceed my income. They told me when I turned 22 I was on my own (which I interpreted as a sign of confidence in me), so I had to figure it out.
Here's 2 pieces that might be interesting:
  1. a report on why Bitcoin matters for GenZ (written for wealth managers while I was at Galaxy): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1esiQtvfD1NJDvesii_TfOlT7egEM4Syy?usp=drive_link
Happy to chat more!
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 9h
Great ideas. It is not so much about my son. I have been teaching him about money and Bitcoin since he was 7 years old. I was just surprised it is not something that comes up in his social circles. I was hoping the younger generation who are heavily online would learn more naturally about Bitcoin and saving.
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Your son is very lucky to have you!
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Do you think it's easier to orange-pill, or purple-pill Gen Z folks?
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Sitting at Nostriga last year, I felt overwhelmingly purple-pill! Actually, the easiest way (since I'm in NY state) to introduce sending sats to club members, is to on-board them to primal and start sending zaps!
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Pizza or tacos?
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Tacos - always!
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👏🙌
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What are your goals for Gen-Z adoption projects for the rest of this year, and the next 5 years?
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Well, we very sadly had to cancel our Layer Zero internship program, which I was really excited and hopeful about. We have a lot of conference partnerships in the works, so I'm glad to be sharing the in-person education in that sense. Also, BSN is working on a "fellowship" type program to help students better foster their local community. I'm also working on the first Bitcoin Adoption study where we are gaining insight into exactly what is supporting/hindering adoption to better inform goals and projects (this will be out May'26). However, internships remain a huge priority for me. I hope that within the next 5 years, we see much more "Bitcoin (& Nostr/ BLEND (h/t Obi Nwosu)) industry recruiting - that students see all there is to contribute to. And to quote Jeff Booth, that we can all be more conscious of & able to "building the world we want to see."
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 9h
Ella, I don't have a question, just want to say you are awesome. Keep it up.
-Troy Cross
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Thank you, Troy!!
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @jimmysong 3h
Have you seen Emin Gun Sirer on campus and though he's not a professor there anymore, is he still influencing the CS program?
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Hi Jimmy! I haven't seen him on campus...I do know Avalanche is involved with the Blockchain Club.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @fishious 8h
I remember you mentioning on Jimmy Song's podcast that you wanted to challenge yourself and trained for and finished a marathon. Do you have any other personal challenges you plan to take on?
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @anon 9h
If money can be peer to peer, why can't other industries? Why do companies exist?
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Wrote a somewhat-related section on this for my thesis! You might find this paper interesting: https://kaushikbasu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Binmore_Basu-11a.pdf
May you clarify more what other industries?
Also, I like the framework in the book Resistance Money when the authors talk about money (& language) as a "social kind." In my opinion, companies are not necessarily what I would classify as a "social kind" in the same sense even though they are run by a group of "peers."
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @anon 9h
All the other industries! In a peer to peer exchange based market people "own the fruit of their labor", as it were, they buy inputs from someone and mix those inputs with time and labor and other means of production, and sell those outputs for someone. Free market, by its nature, is peer to peer. What's the rationale for some centralizing entities like company?
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 9h
What's the rationale for some centralizing entities like company?
I would guess it's efficiency, scale, divison of labour
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 1h
Everything you listed can be done, and I'd argue, can better be done by a per to peer exchange-based market. Market actors specialize based on comparative advantage, which is manifested by input costs and output revenues in the market. Within a company tasks are ascribed by the entrepreneurs, they're inherently inefficient. And it's interesting you mention scale cause it is precisely company that sets the limit, without it, the scale of an industry is the extent of the market, which can be viewed as all the companies in one industry combined.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 9h
What's the biggest and most common problem Gen Z is facing that isn't present in other generations?
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In short, no money. However, that's why products like Fold are so great!
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What are the best ways that Millennials like myself and above can help y'all in your Gen-Z Bitcoin education efforts?
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Reaching out to your local universities is very helpful! Great way to shared bitcoin education but also career mentoring!
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Any more specifics on how to reach out to local universities?
For instance - what types of groups would be interested? What might they be interested in, what would be a good initial offering?
I'd love to talk to university students, and walk them through it. But it's not an orange pilling book, it's more of hands-on self custody book.
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Wow!! Well the easiest is starting with the university you went to. Clubs are often looking for guest speakers and alumni are great! In terms of Clubs, truly any - everything from the film club (could screen God Bless Bitcoin, for instance) to the cooking club (could talk about fiat's impact outside of money) to policy, business, software clubs, etc. If possible, a great offering is internships or jobs - something skills based. Or, perhaps you could reach out to a local university and find what clubs they have...then, most clubs have their email addresses online. I think it might be hard for your initially meeting to pitch self-custody, given they likely don't know what bitcoin is. Happy to chat more/ be supportive where I can! My twitter is @21mmforthe21st or my email is ella@bitcoinstudentsnetwork.org. Thank you!
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Are there any Gen Z social media influencers you really want to see get into Bitcoin/Nostr?
Which ones (if you know any) do you think are the most primed to jump onto the orange ship?
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I'll be honest, the only social media I have is Linkedin and Twitter, and I kind of live under a rock in terms of "Gen Z influencers." Also, I think Bitcoin "clicks" when you hear about it from someone who can speak to your experience in life or who can put all that Bitcoin is into your perspective. In some ways, if people are brought in through influencers, I think it's less sustainable and you're not really understanding all that there is to "Bitcoin." So, maybe, none?
Nostr's a bit different though...because you want to go where your audience is and your audience wants to go where you are. Let's just take Taylor Swift since she has such a big and unique fan base. I wonder if she would only move over to Nostr once the bottom-up roots have been built and she knows her community is there? Or, would she find out about it and take her audience with her? Although would she do that because of less advertising and the risk of losing her community?
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Can you tell us about your experience presenting for TEDx at Cornell? How amenable did you find the organization were to Bitcoin-related topics?
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Yes! The TEDxCornell team was wonderful.
I have been applying since my sophomore year, but I don't think I was truly ready until this year. There's a few application rounds, and I found out I was accepted in December. From then until April I wrote maybe ~14 drafts (haha!). My speaker curation team was very supportive as I figured out the best way I could to craft the message!
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