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Take on the best of others when you meet them for the first time. Let it be your default. It's amazing how people will rise to the occasion.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie So, a founder of Geeq Corporation, a blockchain infrastructure start-up. He believes that blockchain technology will be more disruptive than the Internet and will be adopted, on a larger scale, even faster. Stephanie is determined to build a platform to ensure that everyone has access to low-cost blockchain services without having to worry if their data could be exposed, corrupted or accessed without their consent.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to follow this career path? What lessons can others learn from your story?
Thank you for choosing me! I am happy to have been invited to this question.
The first thing I would like to share is that this is mine second career path. I'm old, chronologically. When I took French in middle school, we learned the phrase "a woman of a certain age". I have always found that fascinating expression and now I relate to it. My children are young adults and wonderful humans, my husband John and I have been married for a long time and we get on very well. So, I have the extreme luxury of entering the technology sector in these conditions. I think it's important to be honest about where I am in life.
I was teaching economics in Vanderbilt when I started to learn about the blockchain. It was an area where the terms were thrown without much consistency, so it was hard to find a point of support. Such barriers really annoy me. The bottom line that continued to show, however, was that the blockchain could change societies in ways that were completely aligned with my values. I think the ultimate purposes of technology should be to empower ordinary people, improve all lives, support civilization. There was an optimism and idealism in the blockchain space (and cryptocurrency) that I had never seen from anywhere else; at least, wherever plausibly rooted in reality. If you think of the logical implications of technology, the blockchain has the potential to lift the dynamics of power in the markets, create opportunities for those who do not and allow people to protect their privacy.
John had looked at the limitations of existing protocols. John's initial project was to consult on blockchain for IoT. His client was Ric Asselstine, Terepac's managing director. (Ric is now also CEO of Geeq.) Terepac's IoT has inherently required a public blockchain with complete security, capacity for huge throughput, low latency and low cost. It was a high order. Both John and I work at home, so we ended up talking about it a lot.
Geeq's attention has always been on security, which is a complicated problem. There are many types of attacks and potential failures. However, if you want a blockchain without permission to carry high value data in complete safety, you need to consider every possibility. John and Ric had a moment when they realized they had an ultra safe and interoperable blockchain ecosystem suitable for fintech and business applications. My view of the world is different. What may seem too insignificant to include in those applications could be the most valuable transaction of another person. There are many people whose lives will never intersect with the interests of fintech or businesses. I did not get excited until John calculated that the same system could support micropayments for less than 1/100 of a cent.
Here it is: the secure, high volume, public and transformative blockchain I had wanted. The low cost of Geeq guarantees access to any individual to participate in any role in blockchain. Imagine the possibilities! I did not make such an important choice to change career as I had already realized through the next steps. John and Ric would start Geeq as a business with or without me. I asked for a seat at the table because I knew that my perspective was important to include from the start and here I am.
This is a long and rounded story, but I think that's why it's worth sharing. For me, a long and indirect path has been invaluable, which is not the way most young people are taught to think. The traditional model of a career-oriented person was that you put yourself on a ladder and then tried to climb as far as possible. Yet the labor market continues to reorganize itself to pull up the stairs. Children feel a lot of pressure to compete for a straight and narrow path that may not exist and it could be a bad situation even if they found it. I think it's an extremely unhealthy mentality. We do a bad service when our attitudes and our expectations do not change with the times but their circumstances. A lot of people need to take a look at the new reality.
In all of life, there is a component of luck. I do not take the bad luck and try to make the most of good luck. I think of work as a series of trades and my career as a freehand puzzle. If I'm seriously interested in something, I'll learn it. If I meet something or someone new, I assume I could learn then too. That's how I acquire new pieces of the puzzle. I often rearrange my puzzle pieces to see if I could make a better exchange. Economics students will recognize the pieces of the puzzle as pieces of human capital. I have added to my warehouse politics, health, economy and technological innovation throughout my life. Could I have foreseen that I would be able to put them together for blockchain? Absolutely not. But, as it happens, I'm ready.
Can you talk to me about the most interesting projects you're working on now?
I'm focusing on use cases where huge volumes of microtransactions can be processed securely and economically via blockchain. The use cases take the following form roughly.
Suppose you can send micropayments for the data you transmit and only for the data you transmit. For practical reasons, you may need to create an account in advance, but since we are talking about micropayments, let's assume you only need to have a few dollars in your account at a time. No one must necessarily know your personal information for a generic blockchain transaction. (Which probably will not hold up under quotation, but suppose it's not a problem.) Encode your personal information every time a transaction is sent to the blockchain, and that encryption remains intact while the transaction is verified by the blockchain. Geeq's task, as a blockchain platform, is to verify that your payments are correct and that they should go where they should go. Thus, transactions (still encrypted) are stored in a distributed ledger, which means that the transaction history is not contained in a single identifiable place that is easily attacked by hackers.
Let's go back to micropayments. YouTube will not allow content creators to monetize their channels until they reach the minimum in subscribers and views. In other words, content creators have to commit themselves long before they can hope to get paid. Geeq will provide an alternative and decentralized platform. What would happen if every viewer could buy video or audio streaming, in real time, sending micropayments directly to the creators of content? Micropayments, by their nature, can increase the efficiency of the markets.
Here is another example. One of the reasons why subscription services are offered is because it currently costs a lot to process individual payments. Let's say Netflix has to pay $ 0.25 for each $ 2.99 credit card charge. I'm doing those numbers: the point is that they can not offer you current episodes for $ 0.25 each. We did the math. Geeq can process a simple payment transaction for 1/100 of a cent. This opens up opportunities for both sides of a content market.
The same logic applies to simple micropayments in a blockchain-based Internet of Things.
The beauty of building a platform is that I do not have to understand every use case. What interests me is the creation of an infrastructure to safeguard data, reducing transaction costs to make the blockchain accessible to everyone. The developers are the ones who will build DApps. We are creating some unique aspects in the architecture of the platform, but we need input from the developers who will build on it. An important part of my work is to create a support environment for independent developers, so they will want to build in our ecosystem and link their projects to ours.
None of us is able to achieve success without help along the way. C & # 39; is a person in particular that you are grateful to those who helped you take you where you are? Can you share a story about it?
Something in the way you asked this question – the person I'd like to thank is my high school math teacher, Richard Glahn, at New Providence High School in New Jersey. He was an excellent teacher. I had for the pre-calc. There are two things I remember from that class. How much I hated the epsilon-delta limit tests and how much I loved that class anyway.
Mr. Glahn did not call attention to himself. He was very calm. Unperturbed. If I were to visit the classroom for 10 minutes, it might seem like a rather boring math lesson because it was all math, always. What made that lesson great, though, was that I always had the feeling that Mr. Glahn knew exactly how much I understood at a given moment. I would be willing to bet that many of us felt that way.
I do not remember ever having to raise my hand when I was confused. Mr. Glahn would know it. He simply knew it. He stopped, look at me and wait. If I asked a question, he would answer as if the whole class had asked. If my brain had arrived and I did not want to ask anything, it would have gone on without comment. Rarely used our names, did not rule out anyone for praise or criticism. Mr. Glahn's math class did not concern the ego or the competition. It was about math.
I am very grateful to Mr. Glahn for creating such a pure, safe and intellectual environment. By reflecting now, I think it has had a profound effect on all the good things I have done.
What are the 5 things that you love about blockchain and crypto? Why?
I. Both blockchain and crypto offer opportunities for people to take control of their data. For example, one of the blockchain promises is that it will create a permanent and privately available audit trail. If you have a safe, accurate, and low-cost way to keep track of what's happening to your personal information, you can check to see if others are doing what they were supposed to do and you'll have proof that they're not.
Companies have great control over our data now because we do not have a way to make them accountable. More fundamentally, we do not even know what they are doing. I think it's time to move power from companies and the individual. I feel a tremendous sense of urgency to overturn that dynamic power before it is too late.
ii. Like most people in this space, I think we are not far from being able to create large-scale peer-to-peer financial markets. It is amazing to imagine all the good it will do to provide billions of people with access to microloans. Blockchain and crypt can be used to circumvent bureaucracy, institutional inertia and government corruption. These markets will accelerate development, create opportunities and redistribute wealth throughout the world.
iii. I want to block governments' ability to collect our data without our consent. Once technology is developed to protect individual rights, we can have a credible and serious discussion of regulation, standards and mitigation for the use of our data by governments.
iv. One of the reasons why the future of the blockchain is so bright is because it provides people with the opportunity to create value and engage in healthy market competition. It will be nice to see situations where producers are not fighting for a stagnant or declining market. When a surplus is created, it is possible for everyone to win.
v. Blockchain can increase security for critical infrastructure. The world is a scary place. It is possible for blockchain to help us reduce threats and understand which problems need to be resolved first.
What are the 5 things that worry you most about the blockchain and the crypt? Why?
I. It is safe to say that many resources have been wasted on wrong projects. While a certain amount of experimentation and bankruptcy is needed, it makes me uncomfortable to see resources wasted on proposals that will never make sense.
ii. It will take time to learn the appropriate uses of these technologies. There are some situations in which they may never be useful. There are many noisy and misleading opinions out there that muddy those waters. This is not useful. I worry about the backlash.
Iii. I can think of many nightmare scenarios where people rely on blockchain or crypto to be safe when they are not. I will feel much better when we can have guardrails on site and people will begin to understand what they are getting.
iv. I worry about the projects disappearing and bankrupting people. I support a sort of regulation to be implemented for investors.
v. I am concerned that organizations with a lot of market power are able to extend their market power to the blockchain and crypto sectors. This would make it much more difficult to give back energy to people.
How did you use your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?
I feel very satisfied when I convince others to worry more deeply about people who have not had the opportunity to express their pain. It is difficult to choose a single story. It's something that has always been important to me.
As you know, there are not many women in your industry. Can you share 3 things you would recommend to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?
I. Take on the best of others when you meet them for the first time. Let it be your default. It's amazing how people will rise to the occasion.
ii. Give priority. I had the pressure to be perfect in all areas of my life at the same time. Recognizing that I have limits has been so liberating. It's a good feeling to do your best on what matters most to you.
Iii. If you're working on something that needs all your positive energy, do not stay close to negative people. Seriously.
Can you recommend what is needed to involve more women in the blockchain industry?
Initial development.
What is your favorite "Life Lesson Quote"? Can you share a story of how this was relevant to your life?
I can not remember if I read this or if it was told, unfortunately. The advice was of a woman. He said: "You may not be able to get everything you want in your life at the same time, but you may be able to get everything you want at any given time." I lived for that.
You are a person of great influence. If I could start a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to most people, what would it be? You never know what can trigger your idea. 🙂
Pay it forward.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I do not do many social media. I will try to write the occasional blog post on geeq.io. I have a virtually invisible Twitter account, where mostly retweets random interest fragments, with the handle @ComplicatedIsOK.
This was very stimulating. Thank you so much for joining us!
The pleasure was entirely mine. Thank you.
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