Cryptocurrency - A "disruption" to the way we pay

Cryptocurrency is still a pretty new and emerging technology. We're trying to shed a little light on the crypto landscape with guest Henry Hays. Kim and Henry, a businessman and consultant that specializes in market disruption, discuss everything cryptocurrency in this episode. From its creation to what might be coming in the future, if you're looking to learn more about the world of crypto and how or if you should get involved, look no further than this episode.

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-generated.

00;00;01;19 - 00;00;12;27

Emcee

Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have. Make the money you need, and save the money you want. Now, here is your host, Miss Kim Chapman.

00;00;13;28 - 00;00;30;19

Host Kim Chapman

Welcome to another edition of Money Matters. I'm your host, Kim Chapman, and I want to thank you for joining me as we continue to explore this thing we call money. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. Because we have so much more we want to talk about when it comes to money matters. All right. Here's my quote for the day.

00;00;31;06 - 00;00;55;09

Host Kim Chapman

Bitcoin will do for banks what email did for the postal system. Not my usual type of quote, but once upon a time mail was the primary resource to transfer documents to it to and from one another. You know, purchasing stamps, using the postal system, it was commonplace. And then email came along. Email really curbed the need for what we now call snail mail.

00;00;55;25 - 00;01;17;08

Host Kim Chapman

You won't find any millennials or Joneses or even alphas, you know, carrying stamps around. It's kind of obsolete. But speaking of wallets, how many of you are still carrying cash in your wallets? How much truth is there? To the quote I read, is bitcoin the future or is it a fad? Well, my guest today is Mr. Henry Hayes.

00;01;17;17 - 00;01;32;20

Host Kim Chapman

He is a local accomplished businessman and speaker. And he's going to help us further look into cryptocurrency to see how is it really going to impact us? What has the impact been so far? And basically, what can we expect in the future? Welcome, Henry. How are you today? It is a.

00;01;32;20 - 00;01;35;15

Henry Hays

Pleasure to be here. Kim, I'm excited to talk to you about this.

00;01;35;24 - 00;01;45;15

Host Kim Chapman

And I know this is one of his favorite subjects, so we're going to get a lot of good content. So let's just kind of dove right in and talk about where do cryptocurrency come from?

00;01;45;29 - 00;02;19;22

Henry Hays

Sure. So this is July 20, 22. So we are right in the midst of cryptocurrency being a headline. It's a fun, exciting topic to talk about. Frankly, the media, I think, has gotten a lot of the reporting about crypto wrong because it's sizzle right it it it's up. It's down and it is down right now. But I think if you if you dove in deeper you can find some themes that from a disruptive and that's my side of the sandbox is disruptive innovation so that's an emerging technology match with a new business model and you have disruption.

00;02;19;25 - 00;02;41;21

Henry Hays

That's what allowed Airbnb to make a significant dent into hotel rooms. It's what allowed, you know, Uber to flip the taxicab unions, Netflix over Blockbuster. There's a lot of examples of this. And crypto is states exhibit A for currency. So I think the first thing we need to do is go back in time and figure out what is currency.

00;02;41;28 - 00;03;05;25

Henry Hays

Because you mentioned a minute ago, how many of your listeners carry cash? Well, let's go back. You know, there was a time when we traded seashells and bushels of wheat for what we thought was value. Right. And then in the the Mesopotamians kind of had some some improvements in currency. And then in about 1851, the United States printed the first dollar.

00;03;05;25 - 00;03;25;28

Henry Hays

If you will. And I've always thought that be an industry term. Let's say Kim and I are in a restaurant the day before, and then the next day we see each other go, Yeah, I got a dollar. And you go, What? You got what a dollar. It had to be such a strange time for those people to think that a piece of paper was black and green ink was now worth what the British called a pound.

00;03;26;03 - 00;03;59;00

Henry Hays

And the British called it a pound because literally it weighed the equivalency of the value. It weighed a pound. So that makes sense. But I sell that to say, I think the fact that we ascribe so much value to the paper dollars today is a little misleading because it's going to change. It's going to morph. And this is where I, I get so passionate about talking about alternate or cryptocurrencies because at the if you go to the root basis of what they really are, they really help people especially the unbanked and what I call the UN smartphones.

00;03;59;18 - 00;04;21;00

Henry Hays

So there's about 3 billion people primarily in Africa and Asia today that don't either carry a smartphone. They don't have access to the Internet, and they're not they're not of a banking relationship. So if you go to just those people, it's a lot of people, it's almost half the world's population. Those people would want to transact person to person be.

00;04;21;08 - 00;04;47;23

Henry Hays

And the idea to them that the somewhere in the middle that would take a piece of that transaction doesn't make any sense. So the thought is the the company or the person that can make that seamless wins. Right. Because that just makes sense. And then, look, if you are banked and you do have a smartphone, our kids, you know, a 22 year olds of the world, they're saying, hey, just Venmo me as opposed to here's a 20 Kim.

00;04;47;29 - 00;04;48;16

Host Kim Chapman

Exactly.

00;04;48;19 - 00;05;11;28

Henry Hays

I have a 22 year old and she would rather you Venmo her than actually give her cash. And people think that's cute and funny. But if you dig into a deeper that's systemic of what's coming, i.e. this kind of unimpeded transaction from A to B in cryptocurrency, simply a cog in that machine. So I would encourage your listeners don't get so hung up on crypto.

00;05;11;29 - 00;05;36;18

Henry Hays

You mentioned Bitcoin a minute ago. Bitcoin is is one of alternate currencies. They'll be many, many, many more in the future. Some that that haven't even been dreamed up yet but it's all rooted in the base of Kim wants to pay Henry and they agree upon that payment and they don't want anybody in between and they want to do it in seconds or in some cases a second.

00;05;36;21 - 00;06;06;26

Henry Hays

Right. Think about how how wire transfers have been dealt with when you and I were coming up. That's days, if not weeks. And the thought you mentioned email a minute ago, the thought of not sending an email in lieu of me writing a letter is is patently ridiculous. The the example I use in my talks is taking a picture of a check on your phone as opposed to getting in your car, driving to a branch, uploading it into the vacuum tube, waiting for the receipt and driving home.

00;06;07;08 - 00;06;10;06

Henry Hays

Come on. You're going to you're going to use your phone because it takes 9 seconds.

00;06;10;17 - 00;06;16;01

Host Kim Chapman

Exactly. And many of our listeners, that's a foreign concept. Go to the bank. People don't like to go to the bank anymore.

00;06;16;03 - 00;06;36;28

Henry Hays

Exactly. So when the new technological innovation meets a new business model, you're going to have some significant disruption and they'll be big winners and then there's going to be big losers. So back to crypto, to your question. So your listeners who have no clue what it is, can simply think of this as digital currency. So what does that.

00;06;37;00 - 00;06;46;00

Henry Hays

Well, again, think about how if you buy from Amazon today, how do you do it online? But specifically, you typically have, what, one click, right?

00;06;46;01 - 00;06;46;27

Host Kim Chapman

Yes, one click.

00;06;47;04 - 00;07;10;27

Henry Hays

They innovated the buy it now button a Bezos knew that if we could forget three steps, how about one step? Buy it now and it takes you straight to the transaction page. Now, in that instance, when you're buying size ten, Nike's for your nephew, there's no interchange of Kim going, wait a minute, those are $68. So I need to the the cash isn't in play.

00;07;10;27 - 00;07;31;28

Henry Hays

It's literally the seller has said this is what it costs and you agree to that and you press a button, right? So you're already kind of in a digital currency world. Right. Another example, this is when you step out of an Uber, there's no, you know, passing of a $20 bill to the driver because they have your your your credit card stored and there's an agreed upon transaction price.

00;07;31;28 - 00;07;54;00

Henry Hays

Now, in that in that instance, Uber is still the middleman. And so at its essence, crypto is trying to get that middleman out of the equation unless they provide value, which we would all say today, Uber probably does. So crypto's so appealing because it at the end of the day to the consumer, it makes sense. It gets people out of their wallets and it's quick.

00;07;54;10 - 00;08;24;16

Henry Hays

Now, the downside of all what I just said, and this is where a lot of this is making headlines today, are it's so new and frankly, government's a bit behind on new technologies, which means it's not regulated and there's no there's no backbone to this. So if people have invested in any alternate currencies, they probably have lost. Because when there's no one, when there's no backbone or there's no regulation, bad actors tend to find the stage and they have.

00;08;25;00 - 00;08;49;00

Henry Hays

And so that's an interesting debate that's going back and forth in the alternate currency universe, which is to what level do we need government intervention? But think about this. If you're the United States government, how do you what's your jurisdiction over any cryptocurrency or any transaction outside the bounds of the United States? So these are big questions that are fair, and they need to be worked out.

00;08;49;14 - 00;09;10;24

Henry Hays

But don't forget, when that when the end user is genuinely satisfied, it's not a matter of if, but when the technology is going to take over. It's the same reason. Back to our banking and check example that you wouldn't choose to go do that because there's a much simpler way that makes your life easier. So that's a long missive on the state of it.

00;09;10;24 - 00;09;15;13

Henry Hays

I can go into a lot of the detail, but that's that's kind of those are my thoughts initially on it.

00;09;16;01 - 00;09;36;17

Host Kim Chapman

And so you mentioned regulation. There's not regulation because my first thought would be, okay, we're taking out the middleman. If we're taking out the financial institutions. Where's our safety and security? So where do you think we're going to go in terms of regulations? So if somebody wants to say, okay, yeah, I like this idea, we're instant gratification generation, we want to be able to do it real fast, real quick.

00;09;36;22 - 00;09;38;01

Host Kim Chapman

But then where's my security?

00;09;38;16 - 00;10;13;23

Henry Hays

That's a really, really good question. So that's balanced by the convenience you're given as a consumer, if the convenience is higher than they're thought of. Look, there's going to be some grift, some level of mistrust. Then we're going to be okay. If those scales get unbalanced, then I think you have a real problem. There are more issues to me here at play, i.e., look, we're already a global economy, so, you know, we see the issues with we production in Russia and Ukraine right now that will not make it to really any other country for a while.

00;10;13;27 - 00;10;37;27

Henry Hays

And that's going to have a huge ripple effect in food production around the world. So the way the way economies are now so intertwined and that to me, that's only going to get more so, not less. Current cryptocurrencies, the head of that line because if I want to pay Kim who lives in London, England x x payment, that's $100 for something she's done for me on Upwork.

00;10;38;26 - 00;10;56;12

Henry Hays

I don't really care where she lives in the world and I want to get it to her as quickly as possible. Nor do you care. But those governments, typically, they want to be able to tax it if they can, and to be fair, they want to regulate. So it's a tricky situation because, again, the United States government has a policy.

00;10;56;13 - 00;11;32;29

Henry Hays

What about the Brits or what about the Indians or what about the Chinese? The Japanese? So these are questions that are not easily solved, but they're going to have to adapt to the technology because again, like I said, you cannot put that genie back in the bottle. You can't say to people who have new abilities and new access to things like bank accounts and microloans and smart phones that they get a taste of what a true end to end unfiltered transaction would look feel like, and then say, Oh, by the way, today I'm going to put some square in the middle who takes a piece and you see no value.

00;11;32;29 - 00;11;49;22

Henry Hays

And that's a really tough thing to do. So I think a lot of it's incumbent upon the players in space. So that's companies that have the right approach. And like I said a minute ago, we've already seen a lot of bad actors come to the dance because, you know, they're in it to make money and they don't care about people.

00;11;49;22 - 00;12;05;05

Henry Hays

So that needs to be factored out. But I think the private markets I'm I'm 5149 more optimistic in the private markets than not. But I'm not naive also to say that, look, there's going to be a lot of bad actors in the space.

00;12;05;21 - 00;12;11;03

Host Kim Chapman

What are the greatest advancements that you've seen evolve since the start of cryptocurrency?

00;12;11;18 - 00;12;32;25

Henry Hays

Well, there's a lot of players in the space. You mentioned Bitcoin and that's one that's that's if you follow it, you kind of know this story. And Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a white paper in the late 2000. Let's do thousand nine. There's a bit of mystery around is he real? Is he a real person? Is essentially saying it's the case for cryptocurrency.

00;12;34;19 - 00;13;00;08

Henry Hays

I think there's there have been other players that have come to the to the dance. Wallets. Do you mention wallets at your open? There's a digital wallet, you know, the coin bases of the world. There's a lot of places to get that. So we're seeing these new enhancements come to the market now. I think what's aside aside a subset of it has been the question is, are these securities, are they commodities?

00;13;00;21 - 00;13;22;07

Henry Hays

And that's a it's a great question and it's not answer question. It means something because if it's a security, imagine if you wanted to go buy a stock of Facebook today. Well, it's they're registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And there's there's there's strenuous rules on how that that works. And, you know, that is the investor. Well, that's not the case today.

00;13;22;17 - 00;14;02;10

Henry Hays

If you wanted to go buy a Bitcoin, the price fluctuates as it does. It reached a high of almost 66,000. And today I think it's in the low twenties. So people have lost money there. I would also mention that it was one zero. So people have also made money. But I think that we're seeing a lot of the these new technologies, blockchain, which we have not mentioned yet in your podcast, if your listeners are really, really interested in any portion of cryptocurrencies, I would encourage them to set that aside and do research on the blockchain, because the blockchain is the backbone of what makes all cryptocurrency possible, and the blockchain, in its own fascinating way,

00;14;02;19 - 00;14;30;20

Henry Hays

has many, many other applications that we will see in society in short order. And it's really, really interesting, but the blockchain makes this all go. So there have been a lot of people that have come to the market as a blockchain player. And so any of my friends that ask, asking, should I invest my personal opinion, which is just an A one would be if you want to invest in that space, invest in the picks and shovels of the blockchain players because the currencies themselves will come and go.

00;14;30;20 - 00;14;56;03

Henry Hays

And we've seen a lot of that lately, but the backbone will not. The metaphor I use that most people get is if it's the 1850s and we're in California and you and I build the wood apparatus that sifts the dirt from the gold. Everybody needs those. Everybody doesn't need necessarily are going to find the gold itself, but they all are going to buy that wood apparatus.

00;14;56;10 - 00;15;17;12

Henry Hays

So that's investing in the picks and the shovels. That's the blockchain. So that's another thing that's come come to the market recently. I think there's also a an understanding, Kim, of the younger generation of this much, much quicker than older folks. And here's why it's important. The older folks, you know, whether you want to call them different generations, they're running these companies, making these decisions.

00;15;18;03 - 00;15;37;22

Henry Hays

There is an impasse when it comes to the understanding of the older generation and the younger generation and how they want to use this. And to me, those that do the best are the ones that challenge their own understanding of. I don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense. So I'm not going to I'm going to bury my head in the sand and hope that things change.

00;15;37;23 - 00;15;55;01

Henry Hays

Well, that's that's not a good strategy. So I think that's also an interesting if you take a look at what the younger folks are doing, don't judge it, but understand the behaviors, then you'll come a lot longer way and you kind of being ahead of the crowd when it comes to understanding how these new technologies will be used and how they work.

00;15;55;17 - 00;16;26;09

Host Kim Chapman

And so since you mentioned the younger generations, they don't use the case, they are using the Vemos and the Zales. They are driving us, I guess, to where we are, a antique currency or paperless currency, you know, generation. How long do you think it will take before we get to that point to where that is the common place where you will no longer see people pulling out $20 bills or using change or coin, even businesses today, they blame it on COVID, but nobody wants to deal with the physical change or coin anymore.

00;16;26;14 - 00;16;46;22

Henry Hays

That's a really, really good question. I think it's going to be faster than we think because to your point, what COVID 19 did was it accelerated cashless payment systems. We had the technology before. In other words, you can take your visa and literally tap the monitor to pay for your bagel. But people didn't do it because either they weren't informed on it or they didn't think it would work.

00;16;46;27 - 00;17;15;19

Henry Hays

It did. And so now to your point, nobody wants to touch a dirty quarter or a $10 bill that they have no idea where that's being or how long, how old it is and etc.. So I do think if you're a merchant today and you don't have a cashless payment system, you're behind the times. And so because people just don't want it that way, the ability to Venmo or Zelle, again, it's in nanoseconds and it's a transfer that's well understood.

00;17;15;29 - 00;17;45;24

Henry Hays

So I think that that will continue to gain popularity. But there are enhancements to that coming that no one has seen yet that are going to make it even more customer centric and simple for the end user. And when they do that, they win. So if you're if you're pegging me to a to a to a time, your question is you have to bring in the fact that today the American dollar is the value of the American dollar is is plummeting.

00;17;46;08 - 00;18;06;25

Henry Hays

So all all currencies in the world are typically tied to the American dollar. And that's been it's been that way for a long time. But I'm not so sure we're seeing we're not seeing big sea changes in that. So that's important because that's when to me, the rise of cryptocurrencies, alternate currencies will come to the table. Again, it's back to the regulation question.

00;18;07;07 - 00;18;34;18

Henry Hays

So all this is intertwined. But again, despite all the problems, I tell people, pay attention to the end user of which we are all one. And so when it's simple to use and we trust it, they went. So when that comes, if today's 2022, you know, I'd say at the back half of this decade, you're going to really see you're going to start to see numbers that might surprise you, i.e. more transactions not involving a cash than they do.

00;18;35;01 - 00;18;38;06

Henry Hays

And so when that tips, then it's only a matter of time.

00;18;38;19 - 00;18;51;05

Host Kim Chapman

Before this, which you think will be the game changer of our desire to have that quick transaction, no longer wanting to do the snail mail, if you will, in terms of currency, wanting to have that quick 1 to 1 transaction.

00;18;51;05 - 00;19;18;01

Henry Hays

Yeah. Kim, I'll give you an example. I think you in your lifetime will be in an international airport and you'll be changing flights and you'll want to buy a cup of coffee and something to eat. And you will blink your eyes twice to pay for that because you'll be wearing some version of an intelligent someone called Google Glasses and it you'll have a retinal scan to you and you will have given it permission to pay for that transaction with two blinks of your eyes.

00;19;18;12 - 00;19;23;14

Host Kim Chapman

I don't want to sound too old, but that sounds like some Jetsons. Those of you that know the Jetsons.

00;19;24;16 - 00;19;43;02

Henry Hays

Well, I've seen the prototypes, and if you think about it, it makes sense. Ask yourself not to get off topic, but texting today. Texting is a huge way we communicate. Right? But if you think about me saying something to you, what is the slowest way that I can do that with my thumbs? And yet today we text a good bit.

00;19;43;02 - 00;20;10;11

Henry Hays

So voice search. That's another huge disruption that's coming to say, Hey, Kim, I'll be home in 10 minutes as opposed to thumbs up, you see. So again, it's all rooted in does the customer like it? Because when we experience it and we like it, I'll give you an example. Telehealth during the two year pretty much lockdown of COVID, many, many, many people experienced a telehealth appointment who had not done that before for a lot of reasons.

00;20;10;18 - 00;20;42;23

Henry Hays

I always ask him, how was it? And the pat answer I get is, You know what? It wasn't that bad. And there's some psychology of waiting on your couch. If he's late, it's it's not as onerous. You don't have to get in the car, fight traffic, wait in a dirty, dirty waiting room, get 4 minutes, be upset. There's so many benefits of that that people said, you know what, I would do that again, because they've tasted a much more sophisticated approach to doing something that was a legacy approach.

00;20;43;04 - 00;20;53;05

Henry Hays

So in payments, you're going to see a lot of this stuff really get fine tuned. That again is aimed at having the consumer. It just be easier.

00;20;53;05 - 00;21;10;00

Host Kim Chapman

Wow. You mentioned telehealth and it made me think about I had a telehealth visit long before COVID came along and I and, you know, it was kind of like kicking and screaming like, what is this technology? Whereas now you look at it two years later and it's like it's commonplace. And so any final thoughts in terms of cryptocurrency?

00;21;10;01 - 00;21;18;10

Host Kim Chapman

What should we be looking for in the news? What should be what should we be watching for and listening for in terms of cryptocurrency becoming more on the forefront?

00;21;18;20 - 00;21;41;17

Henry Hays

So great question. Several things. Number one, I would say just be careful of the headlines. Remember any media company, whether it's on your phone or your television or radio that are serving up crypto headlines are doing it for a reason. It's it's clickbait. And I'm not saying that they're not important. And there are some some substantive news stories.

00;21;41;26 - 00;22;06;23

Henry Hays

However, it's a cheap headline to me. It's not going anywhere. They're worth $3 trillion in the space. There's now 1 trillion. So we've lost a lot of value in the last 6 to 12 months that is fair. But what's not what you cannot ignore is, again, the customers that have used it and are not going away. So I would look for, again, this idea of how do we regulate it?

00;22;06;23 - 00;22;22;18

Henry Hays

That is that is a hot topic and it's one that we need to talk about as it was, you know, government here in the United States and worldwide. Because if if if it's going to be here, this ubiquitous technology will be a part of our lives. We've got to figure a way to make it safer for people. And that they trust it.

00;22;23;20 - 00;22;47;28

Henry Hays

Banks do not have that trust today, and they're the ones that to me are kind of square in the crosshairs of. They're going to be looked at as the bad guy if their processes are slower and take more. In terms of the transaction, I just it's not going to survive. So I think in the coming months, you're going to see a lot more about the price of Bitcoin fluctuating up down new entrants to the market.

00;22;48;07 - 00;23;11;01

Henry Hays

But because of some of the activity where it was unscrupulous, it's almost forced the federal government to open investigations. So you'll see you'll see some pretty dark stories about these are basically drifts. And I think that the caution I would give is, look, that that's in there any industry that people can make money surprise you're going to have bad people, right?

00;23;11;14 - 00;23;32;05

Henry Hays

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Cryptocurrency has its has its place in the world going forward. And again, it's because for the most part, it acts on behalf of the individual in a in a manner where this is better than what we've had before. And so I think I think there's a lot of ways to get educated.

00;23;32;05 - 00;23;50;24

Henry Hays

Podcast like the one we're doing now are awesome tool and vehicle to have your folks learn more about it. You know, obviously there's a ton of videos online that walk you through the basics, but those are a few of the questions. The big ones that I'm wrestling with are how are countries and how are governments going to deal with this?

00;23;50;24 - 00;24;12;04

Henry Hays

They're typically not the best at getting in front of innovative technology, so unfortunately they're going to look for ways to tax this, which is exactly the reason that it was made up in the first place not to be taxed. So there's a bumpy road ahead. But let me let me leave you with this, because I always talk about the fact that in 1908, Henry Ford rolled off his first automobile to the world.

00;24;12;20 - 00;24;37;25

Henry Hays

And everyone thinks, well, that was an incredible innovation. And it was. And we can't imagine today's world without automobiles, right? Absolutely. Well, if I took you back to 2000 excuse me, 1912, and let's say we were in the Midwest, where these things Detroit, where they rolled off a lot, what you and I would see would be muddy roads that had deep ruts where these little skinny tires on a model they had trouble getting through.

00;24;37;26 - 00;24;59;03

Henry Hays

In other words, just because Ford made his first model in oh eight did not mean that they had these beautiful, nice five lane paved freeways. There were still obstacles in in the way of that innovation getting to market. And so, in fact, a lot of people were still naysayers, even at that point would rather have horse and buggy, if you can believe it.

00;24;59;03 - 00;25;19;10

Henry Hays

The reason I bring that up is there's no different here. You're going to have hurdles and bumps and questions about alternate currencies that people scratch their head and go, Wait a minute, and those are fair. But it's just like Ford had to navigate a changing world with things like roads. It didn't fit its cars. It's going to eventually work itself out.

00;25;19;10 - 00;25;39;18

Henry Hays

So as the individual, we have the choice. You can either stick your head in the sand and say, Ah, it's not the way we did my day. Not going to work. Or You can write or you can say, I'm intellectually curious. I don't understand all of it, but boy, I see this train is coming, so, so I want to at least understand the principles behind it.

00;25;39;27 - 00;25;51;01

Henry Hays

If you do that, I don't care how old you are, you will be at the front or close to the front of the line. But don't do the first because can you imagine in 1912, 1314 saying the automobile is a passing fad.

00;25;51;29 - 00;25;57;03

Host Kim Chapman

And here we are today about to go into self-driving vehicles that's can't wait for that. I mean.

00;25;57;03 - 00;25;57;17

Henry Hays

You both.

00;25;58;06 - 00;26;08;28

Host Kim Chapman

Well, this has been some great information and you made it so simple. I can truly say I completely understand a whole lot more today, especially before we started this conversation. So any final thoughts before we wrap up?

00;26;09;07 - 00;26;32;01

Henry Hays

Just that I would say, you know, education is your friend in this day and age. Look, because these technologies are coming, it's not just cryptocurrencies is artificial intelligence and virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, 3D printing, etc. They're coming faster and faster, which to me it can be a little daunting, but it's also an incredible opportunity to educate yourself and a lot of it's for free.

00;26;32;10 - 00;26;51;26

Henry Hays

So it's just a choice. If you can if you can peel away a couple of hours a week and jump into this kind of stuff you'll be surprised at in smaller companies, much more nimble and the ability to move, it's all rested on. Can you make the customer's life easier and what problem are you solving for them? But there's never been a better time to do that.

00;26;51;26 - 00;26;53;22

Henry Hays

And today, tomorrow will be a little bit better.

00;26;54;05 - 00;27;18;09

Host Kim Chapman

And I like the sound of that. So I think that's a great place to end. And that's going to wrap up for another episode of Money Matters. One thing I know for sure is that change is constant and currency is no exception to the rule. From the days of gold and silver to Zale and Venmo, how we exchange currency and assets is going through yet another transformation.

 The Money Minute

00;27;18;20 - 00;27;44;03

Host Kim Chapman

Here are a few tips you should know about cryptocurrency. Do your own research. Don't rely on big media headlines as your primary resource for your information. And if you're still trying to figure out just the basics of cryptocurrency, experts say, start with the blockchain. It's the backbone of cryptocurrency. And wait, don't throw away your cash just yet. They're still going to be some merchants and vendors that only take cash.

00;27;44;15 - 00;28;14;08

Host Kim Chapman

But, you know, the demand for peer to peer transfers is growing fast. Sooner or later, you're going to encounter a situation where digital currency is going to be the only method. Accept it and finally check out neighbors FCU dot org fourth place financial education. To learn more on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money that.