Luke: You’re listening to a new episode of The Brave Technologist, and this one features Brie Tracy, who is the host of the Free the Money, A show focused on finance, cryptocurrency, and personal liberty as a model in golf. Influencer Brie Bridge’s lifestyle and financial education, making complex topics accessible to a wider audience.

In this episode, we discussed where mainstream crypto conversation still misses the point and why we can’t have a free society without cash and distributed systems. The hidden risks of platform dependence for creators, including stories of censorship, shadow banning, and accounts being deleted altogether, and how she thinks about empowering more women to become investors and participate in crypto.

And now for this week’s episode of The Brave Technologist.

Brie, welcome to the Brave Technologist. How are you doing today?

Bri: Hi, Luke. It’s great to be here. I’m so happy that we were able to connect again.

Luke: I know, me too. This time you’re on our [00:01:00] show, so thank you for having us on your show we love to have you here and I’m excited for the conversation today.

Bri: Yeah, me too. No, it’s an honor to be on your show.

Luke: Yeah, no. So I mean, you’ve been in the, in this creator space and influencing space for quite a long time. And you know, I’m kinda curious, like, it doesn’t seem like all of it was around crypto, right? So what kind of originally pulled you into crypto and when did it become more than just kind of a financial interest to you?

Bri: Yeah, so. Being a crypto influencer is relatively new for me. I think I’ve been doing this for about the past year, but crypto and sound money has not been new to me. I’ve been in crypto for going on seven years, and I’ve been interested in gold and silver since I was a little girl. I grew up in a really good family where I was taught the importance of gold and silver at a, a young age and the importance of sound money.

So I really had that foundation and it really made sense. To kind of transition into crypto when I started learning more about crypto through friends and family and [00:02:00] just how, you know, it was decentralized, it was censorship resistant, and obviously there’s a fixed supply.

Luke: So what do most people kind of misunderstand about cryptocurrency from your point of view?

Especially when it comes to things like censorship resistant or resistance or like, individual sovereignty and those types of like areas.

Bri: Yeah, I think this is a really good question and on my show, free the money. I try and talk about this a lot. I’m really into privacy coins. I think because of this.

Just having more power over your money, it being untraceable. But I think a lot of people that are either relatively new to crypto or just, you know, hear about crypto online, they don’t really understand the fact that if you don’t hold your keys, you don’t own. Your crypto, like you don’t have power and control over your crypto.

And, and you know, that’s obviously what it was intended for. It was so that you didn’t have to have any middleman. So I think people really forget that and a lot of users probably keep their money on exchanges and [00:03:00] aren’t even realizing the risk, obviously, that that puts them in. But also they don’t understand that they’re susceptible to obviously hacks.

But also even new laws in particular in California. Governor Gavin Newsom actually passed a law that went into effect on January 1st. It basically says that if you have cryptocurrencies on an exchange for three years and they aren’t being interacted with the state can actually take those into their own custody And yes, I’m sure these.

Users will end up getting their money back, but who knows if it will still be in the same state that it was if, you know, they’re, they’re returning them it it back into crypto or if they’re just liquidating it and giving them fiat. So I think people really do need to understand the importance of holding your own keys.

And I think the problem is there is a big learning curve with that and. I think obviously education is really important, but people having a little bit of a [00:04:00] better user experience I think is really necessary and that’s why I’m thankful for incredible people like you that are obviously teaching, but you, you’re also developing and kind of making these a little, these ideas and these ways a bit more mainstream to the average person.

Luke: Wow. That’s, that’s wild too about that law. that’s coming out. I’m gonna go check all my exchange accounts Now, being in, in California, well, and it’s, it’s so interesting because, you know, a bank wouldn’t do that, you know, like, or they wouldn’t do that with banks, right? Like, they wouldn’t just say, okay, you haven’t touch your bank account

Bri: with the stock market.

they are able to do that and they say it’s for your protection. But it seems like a lot different with cryptocurrencies, like especially Bitcoin. ‘cause it is like a bearer asset. Mm-hmm. So I, I think they try and oftentimes, like the state tries to say they’re doing something for your safety, but really they’re actually like removing your freedom entirely.

Luke: you have big following that are non crypto natives, right? Yeah. Like, and, and you’ve seen people that have kind of become crypto native with an interest in it initially, and then you’ve seen people that have like not known anything about crypto kind of get into [00:05:00] it.

Do you find that the problems, like the learning curve is similar between both of those groups, or are there certain things that seem to be harder for that broader audience to understand?

Bri: Yeah, absolutely. that’s a great question. So my background is in modeling and golf, so I definitely have a wide variety of people that follow me and people that really probably only knew about crypto because of Bitcoin.

And maybe they didn’t even own Bitcoin or maybe they were buying the ETF. Mm-hmm. So I think a lot of the problems new people in crypto are having is. They’re holding their crypto on custodial platforms. They’re not doing self custody. They’re not using maybe cold storage or soft wallets. So I would say like their issues are a lot of the times hacks.

I hear every single day people falling, and I, I shouldn’t be laughing about this, it’s not funny, but people falling for hacks, especially on Coinbase. So I think a lot of the newbies are really fearful [00:06:00] about being hacked because like, who would want to be investing in Bitcoin and maybe have like a full Bitcoin and then that money just disappearing.

Versus people that are more like well versed in crypto. I think their problems are a little bit more like. Regarding privacy, and maybe they’re using mixers or maybe they’re trying to use certain like techniques to be able to kind of diminish their, their footprint. I think so. There are different issues, but at the end of the day.

Both issues are really important and I think you, you and brave do a really good job about really talking about this. If you want everyone to be using something, it needs to be really easy for the average person, I think, isn’t it? In order to have something that’s extremely competitive, don’t you have to have like a hundred million users?

Luke: Something like that. Yeah, I, I think, I think it’s gotta, you know, it, it’s one of those things where, I mean, there are so many things that are, outside of crypto that are just kind of common sense. And I think to your point, right, like this is [00:07:00] where a lot of people get taken advantage of. Where like, I know that.

On any given day, I get two or three calls that say Coinbase on the caller ID that I know are not Coinbase. Right. Like, but you might expect Wells Fargo to call you if there’s a problem. Right? And so I think that those things that have made it convenient for that cohort but it convenience with a trade off of.

Having your own assets, right? Like also kind of set people up for being more vulnerable in a way to these types of things that they would not think twice about their bank calling them. Right? but yeah, I think that’s a really interesting point there, but Yeah. Yeah. To your, to, to your question yeah, I think, you know, a hundred million is a good, a benchmark on that.

Bri: Yeah. And also I think everyone needs to really be aware about you know, receiving calls from Coinbase or Wells Fargo. And I have quite a few friends that are hackers and they work actually with these big institutions and they’re working to help basically. Prevent hacks from happening. And nowadays, [00:08:00] like with spoofing, isn’t it called when you spoof a call or like you spoof a number?

That’s like a real problem. So people really need to be well versed in what to do in situations like that. And I know a lot of companies hire these people to be able to educate the company and to also like be able to even do like these little test runs to make sure that they pass and that they’re not disclosing really important information.

Luke: Yeah, no, this is great. where do you think that the mainstream conversation still kind of gets it wrong on, on the crypto side?

Bri: Yeah. I think ultimately, and maybe this is a little bit of the cipher punk in me, but I think the mainstream totally gets it wrong when they’re not realizing that crypto isn’t about getting rich.

And I know everyone wants more money, but crypto is about. Getting rid of the banks. It’s about us having the freedom to be able to transact however we want. And nowadays with obviously the governments being more involved in crypto and regulations, and we can debate all day long if these regulations are good or bad, but it seems like the [00:09:00] argument has been completely skewed and we have completely lost the direction that crypto was originally going in.

And I think, that is like creating a lot of problems where people don’t really realize like what crypto was intended to be like. The average person probably has no idea because they’re using Coinbase and they’re probably just storing their crypto on Coinbase.

Luke: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, to that point too.

Do you think freedom in the digital age is still possible without financial sovereignty?

Bri: So I think without cash you really can’t have a free society. I mean, we see it every day. I mean, we can even talk about the Epstein files in relation to that. With blackmail, people will do anything for money.

And true freedom really requires distributed systems where no one entity can control, like who is either accepted to. Be involved or who, who can’t be involved altogether. And I think if someone is not able to transact in a digital economy, then you’re taking away basically all their [00:10:00] freedoms.

Like say somebody says on Instagram or on Twitter. Something that the government doesn’t like, what does that mean? That all of a sudden we just cut off their ability to transact? Do they really have free speech after that? Because that gives these big powers, huge leverage over everyone. And like obviously we need money to be able to live.

Luke: Mm-hmm. No, I think that’s a great point. And I think it’s one of those things that people don’t really factor in or keep in mind is that, you know, right now the world has cash that I can, I can give you an envelope full of money and I don’t have to KYC or you don’t have to KYC, it’s just a, you know, easy transaction.

Bri: Yeah.

Luke: and if we don’t have. Analogous digital versions of that, right? Like then they really, I think your point is on it is really sound around around the free freedom and, and you know, if you’ve got people looking into your transactions, you’re not really free at all.

How do you see it, across your audience? got like, what, like a million followers, right? Yeah. So I mean, that’s like a, probably like the biggest, one of the biggest followings of [00:11:00] anybody influencing in crypto right now.

what is your audience mostly thinking about with this stuff?

Bri: So I think I’m very realistic when it comes to these important issues. And maybe I’m a bit of a doomsayer, but I, I think I see the reality pretty clearly and I think a lot of people think I’m paranoid.

I get called that a lot and who knows, maybe I am, but I think a lot of people are. Understanding the problems that arise when we don’t have power over our finances. And I mean, a great example of this would be the trucker convoy in Canada.

Luke: Yeah,

Bri: I was just, I was just gonna say that were frozen and you know, I mean, Even the trumps they faced being Deb banked and it’s a real threat. So I think people are seeing that. But the thing is, the media and the people in control are so good at distracting the masses. Anytime people get a little bit of light, they do something crazy and people all of a sudden would just lose their attention on the important issues and then are.

Face thinking about stupid [00:12:00] bs. And I think it’s really obvious, even with some of the stuff that’s going on now with the Epstein list, I think it’s a huge distraction from what’s going on in the markets. Even with like precious metals with what’s going on with silver, I think it was like $12 trillion was just removed from, from precious metals, and no one’s even talking about that.

They’re all fixated on it looks

Luke: like crypto. It was

Bri: just like, yeah, this Epstein list. Yeah. And then what? What happened with Bitcoin? So I think whenever people have. A little bit of information. Their attention spans can’t even like stay fixated on something because then the media just all of a sudden puts out all this other information to can use the masses.

Luke: And I think your point, like on the, trucker protest kind of ties in well with what you were talking about earlier too, right? Like, for all everyday user or the person, the trucker, protestor, right? the government is using. Using laws like emergency powers that were at least in a lot of these contexts were used for you know, under the guise of like terrorism or other types of things like that.

And, [00:13:00] those laws get overstretched to start falling into, into civil disobedience. Right. but those truckers, they, you know, I think they have like a GoFundMe too at first, right. And then they got, that got frozen and then,

Bri: and then they used give, send, go.

Luke: Yeah. and, for all they knew, they thought that they were, I mean, their mindset would’ve been one where they thought that they had the freedom that they do with self custody.

Mm-hmm. Right? Like, but then all of a sudden, you know, their crypto exchanges are, freezing their accounts and they’re just as vulnerable as they would’ve been at a banking institution. Right. Like, and it’s because of that gap I think you were talking about earlier where, you know that convenience gap of like, you’re not actually in control.

They’re doing is they, they, they can certainly like sanction your address, you know, if you’ve got a eeo, a wallet or something like that. But, but that’s a lot harder to kind of, do than to just call up the exchange and say, these people, you know, are on a list now. And yeah, I mean, I think it’s good.

I’m glad that you’re mentioning this stuff because you know, more people need to be aware of it. it is not even just holding the asset, it’s kind of like how you’re holding it, right.

Bri: Yeah, and I think that’s one thing that I wanna [00:14:00] go a little bit harder on my show about because I think sometimes, when like I’m interviewing always like really smart people like you, for example, you’re obviously an intellectual and you have all of this information to share, but sometimes it’s like the average person needs to understand the basic things.

So I think I really wanna make it a priority on my show just to. Really also include super basic things like this. So thanks for even asking this question because these are the questions that need to be asked so people really understand. Another thing that is kind of interesting and, and also, I mean, it’s, it’s sort of different, but I’ve even seen Amazon, delete accounts because they realize that a person was de banked and maybe they’re using like gift cards or they’re finding some other way to purchase on Amazon. So I, I have a couple of friends whose Amazon accounts have been.

Luke: That’s wild. Shut down mean. Yeah. It’s like, it’s almost like if you can run something to check these things, people are kind of discriminating on all these things and not necessarily, it’s not even publicly known, right?

and you hire a bunch of people to [00:15:00] optimize things all the time. They’re gonna try and figure out every little like, nook and cranny that they can go after. You know, when it, this you’re talking about like more and more people becoming dependent on these services, right? especially now, given how much the content creation space has changed, we’re now in a place where you’ve got, you know, like the UK is, is starting to kind of really clamp down on content creation, but also on other.

Forcing, you know, the laws that they have around, what you post and things like that. Mm-hmm. Like, I mean, you create across a bunch of multiple platforms. You’re, you’re not just on X Right. You’re, you’re kind of all over the place. And each one’s got its own little rules and incentives, like

Bri: mm-hmm.

Luke: how, as a creator, how do you think about platform dependence as a creator today when you’ve got all these different things you gotta navigate?

Bri: Oh my gosh. it’s an everyday battle and algorithms are changing. The contracts are changing every day. You know, you could be wiped off a platform.

It’s, it feels like more so as a creator, you’re renting rather than owning your [00:16:00] content. Mm-hmm. I have an example. This happened. Oh, probably. I don’t know, five plus years ago I had a very, very large Snapchat account. It was all organic. I had when Snapchat first came out, I had about a hundred thousand eyeballs on my story every day, which is a lot for a normal person.

And one day they just decided to delete my account. That all that account was obviously very lucrative for me. And you know, it’s not like I could go ahead and take all of those users with me. I didn’t own any of the data. Mm-hmm. And I had all of that completely taken from me. And actually another thing that’s pretty sad about that, I had a lot of really sentimental videos of my grandparents on, on my Snapchat and all that footage is lost ‘cause it was all saved in the app.

But with that being said. You are being censored on all these platforms and you know, I don’t wanna get too into this because I don’t wanna put a target on my back, but Sure. I’ve had my fair share of censorship. I’m very, you know, even though I’m a model and that was my background. If I felt passionate about a cause I [00:17:00] always spoke up.

And let’s just put it this way, I definitely was punished over the years and there was a couple of stories you could probably Google and you can see my involvement in, that I absolutely was punished in Hollywood for and on these social networks. So it’s pretty bothersome. And then even just the way sometimes payouts work on these platforms, your account can be frozen, you lose funds.

These are things that I deal with on a daily basis and it really feels like your job is very up in the air and you don’t really know what’s gonna happen.

Luke: Yeah. Well, and I mean, and the platforms haven’t necessarily been either transparent or even honest, right? Like, I mean, you know, how many times have we heard these big tech platforms say things like, oh no, we don’t shadow ban, or we don’t do this or that, and then, oh, here comes the court papers that say, yeah, actually that discovery process showed a lot of things they were doing that they said they weren’t doing.

So I can only imagine it’s gotta be really tough. You know, having to kind of make sure, but also like, how is it like. Because given your following, right? Like, it is not like you’re [00:18:00] just you in every day. You know, you’ve got a, you’ve got a good following, like, yeah. And, how hard is it to get in touch with these platforms when issues do happen?

Bri: Oh, I love that you asked that question very hard. Like, I’m having a problem right now with my Facebook payouts, and I can’t get in touch with them. So I have just money sitting on Facebook that I can’t really access and every day the day changes. Oh, we will give it to you on the ninth. Oh, we’ll give it to you on the 10th.

We’ll give it to you. It, it’s extremely hard, even when you’re verified, it’s extremely hard. But you know what, at the same time, like I am really thankful for these platforms. I wouldn’t have the life and the career I have without these platforms, so I don’t want people to think that I’m, I’m just hating on these platforms.

I, I am grateful, but I do, I am annoyed with these platforms at the same time, and especially when. They are censoring what people are saying, that that is really horrible. And we’ve seen that so many times, like again and again year after year. And I think really the only change is having some type of decentralized social network.

And I, I, I don’t [00:19:00] think any of them really have taken off, so I don’t really know the answer for how we even really resolve these problems.

Luke: part of it is just that people have kind of a, a mental model of how these things actually, you know, how they think these things work and then, you’re actually kind of like helping to say, well, actually it’s not necessarily what people might think.

Right. a lot of people might be listening that, that might be thinking, look, I. I want to start kind of creating content here and you know, I think that your point about like from that Snapchat beginning where you’re like, you totally lock in on one platform and then, it really makes you vulnerable when mm-hmm.

Something goes wrong there. You gotta kind of really, you know, start from zero, like. I think this stuff helps people to, to really consider, you know, having a broader reach and like, are these audiences very different from, from platform to platform? Yeah. are you, are you tailoring content that’s very different across these different platforms?

Bri: Yeah, like, audiences are really different and I, I try and put out slightly different content on every platform. But yeah, it’s even weird on Instagram. So Instagram has always been [00:20:00] my biggest platform and I’ve seen, you know, and I try not to let it hurt myself as. Team when all have months where content does so well and videos get millions of views, and then all of a sudden I post a video and I don’t think, I think it’s, I think it is totally related.

I’ll post a video that’s maybe exposing what’s going on or talking about Monero, and then all of a sudden my views go down to like 40,000 views for a video. When I used. To be getting millions a month ago. And it is like, my content hasn’t changed. But yeah, I think there’s different users on different platforms.

I would say on X seems to be more people that are interested in politics crypto, current events. That’s particularly my favorite platform. But Instagram, I think you also get news, but it’s a little bit more, you know, picture perfect curated content.

Luke: Yeah. No, that’s super interesting. I mean, I think it is tough.

It feels like it’s rolling the dice all the time, even with what we’re doing here. You know, like there are episodes where I’m like. Gosh, we got, this is gonna nail it and then it doesn’t do as well. And, but then some random thing does really well and you’re like, whoa, okay. Like, [00:21:00] alright, cool.

Like, I guess that’s what, what, favored or what’s hot and or whatever. And, yeah, I think that’s interesting. I mean, where do you see, I mean I know you kind of touched on the decentralized social network part, kind of being tricky, which I agree with, I think.

The network effects are really hard to take a pull from, like, on these platforms like Facebook and X and Instagram have all been around for a long time. It’s really hard to kind of mm-hmm. Disrupt there. but where do you think that this tech really helps creators, and beyond?

Where it’s falling short?

Bri: If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t see that it’s helping creators right now. Really? I mean, really? Yeah. You could get paid, you could get paid in like you’re talking about crypto or are you talking about privacy tech?

Luke: Oh, crypto. But it could, it could, we could apply it to both, right?

Yeah. Like, I mean either or. If you have different takes on either one, I’d love to hear both of ’em.

Bri: Okay. So with crypto, yes, it’s like giving me subjects to talk about and I’m able to now interview really interesting people and obviously create content around that.

I could have the opportunity to be paid in crypto or get tips in crypto. And I, I, I think with that you’re able to do that. Mm-hmm. So I think that’s amazing, [00:22:00] but I think there are so much more that should be done with Crypto for influencers, and I’m not really that impressed with what I’m seeing right now.

However, around privacy tech, I think there are strides being made, obviously brave. I love your guys’ browser. I think it’s incredible. That’s what I use every day. And I think even just having a mix net or A VPN or more privacy and how you communicate with your, with your community, even on Telegram, being able to set up channels and signal, et cetera.

So I think there’s a lot being done in that front, but I would like to see. Crypto being used more for influencers more, more than I’m already seeing.

Luke: No, that’s, that’s awesome. really curious too, I mean, you’ve been in the space, like, and, and now AI is becoming, you know, a big focus of everything.

And like, how do you think about ai, like as a content creator, both in, like, now you can actually create content with ai, but also as a tool for like helping you out as a creator. Are you using it in different ways or what, what’s your take on [00:23:00] it?

Bri: Yeah, so, no, that’s a good question. So I have like two perspectives on AI coming from the modeling world.

I’ve seen it replace models and I actually had a friend send me an article the other day. It was about a company that I, I’ve worked with for a long time and I guess they used AI for a campaign and my. To my friend who messaged me was like, well, AI is replacing the McDonald’s worker. Of course it’s also gonna replace models or other industries, and that just makes sense.

It’s more efficient. Obviously the companies are saving money, it’s faster, et cetera. So I see that as a threat, obviously, but it’s like you obviously have to roll with the times and adapt. That’s how it’s always been. So yeah, it’s sad, but that’s just unfortunately the reality of the world. Then you have to get other skills that aren’t gonna be replaced by ai.

But as a creator I love AI Personally. I use AI all the time for my podcast. I love using Riverside, and I know that’s the platform we’re filming on today. They have great AI tools that make editing way faster. I am a one woman team, so [00:24:00] AI has totally helped me. Even just with summaries, with research editing, photos, et cetera, thumbnails, it’s so easy.

I feel like I’ve been able to, like I would’ve had to study all of these to learn these techniques for many years. But I’m able to like, do things now in a matter of seconds. I do think it is also a threat though. Some people now are like lacking critical thinking. I think because of these tools, they’re lacking creativity.

So I think it’s important to make sure your, your mind is still staying sharp and you’re not relying on it. You should never use AI as a crutch. You should use it more as a tool.

Luke: No, that’s awesome. Yeah, I think that’s really, really on point. If you could pull one thing or, or two things, you know, when it comes to, you know, people and trust in crypto, like, what do you think needs to change?

But maybe it’s in, within the industry or, or maybe it’s with the technology or is there anything, like what, what would you think the biggest issue is?

Bri: I think the biggest issue, and I’ll go back to what I said earlier, I think it’s [00:25:00] education because mm-hmm. People unfortunately are just, it’s all about hype.

You know they hear about a meme coin, they’re all of a sudden putting all of their, their money into a meme coin rather than investing in you know, cryptocurrencies that have real world utility. And I think. That is where it should be. You should be investing in projects that are going to change the way money moves or projects that are gonna allow for more privacy.

And that’s why on my channel I talk a lot about particular projects. I’m a big fan, I think you are as well, like Zcash, Monero, mm-hmm. Zeno, like those are solving real world problems. So I think if people. Like took their time and energy and focused more on these coins. We wouldn’t like have all these random scam scams and speculation.

But you know, unfortunately, like these are pretty niche communities. I think like probably people in your world know about these, these currencies. But if you were to go walk down the street and be like, Hey, do you know what ZC is? Or Monero, they’d be like, what are you talking about? Or they would have [00:26:00] no idea how it’d even buy it.

So I think just. Educating and kind of getting rid of some of these scams. And that’s why even with like the Clarity Act and I, I’m really not for the Clarity Act, but I do think the Clarity Act is at least gonna get rid of some of these scam coins.

Luke: Mm-hmm. No, that’s a great point. And I think yeah, like how do you see this, tech in general, you know, it tends to be a really like male dominated space.

as somebody like with a big falling and trying to bring education and that as a woman in the space, like, a lot of women following your show? how is it like being a female creator in the space?

Bri: Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a great question. For me, I think my following has al always been sort of male dominated coming from mm-hmm.

The modeling world. I wish I had more of a female audience and I really hope that my show will encourage young women to really take advantage of certain opportunities that are presented in front of them with investing in, you know, precious metals or cryptocurrencies. But right now, I think.

I think the, creators in the space and people in crypto tend to be men. [00:27:00] So as a woman, I think it’s given me an opportunity to hopefully attract more women to realize that they’re able to create content around crypto. But also I have found it to be. A bit difficult, you know, it’s a little intimidating when everyone is a man for the most part, but I’m, mm-hmm.

I’m taking it as a challenge. And I, like I said, I, I really wanna see more women kind of understand crypto and like, I have a lot of girlfriends that I’ve gotten to invest in cryptocurrencies over the years, but I hope that even more will take charge and not just be reliant on their boyfriends or husbands or even family and just realize like, hey.

I can also have my own money. I don’t need to have my partner investing for me. Like why can’t I just like make my own bag or have my own uh, freedom?

Luke: What do you think the biggest, you know, difficulty is with that?

Or, or it’s just that there’s just so many, such a male dominated. Thing?I’m super curious to get your take on that.

Bri: Yeah, so I think the, the reason is a lot of women [00:28:00] aren’t really interested in investing, and I don’t know the statistics on this, but I would assume probably more men are interested, like in the past, in the stock market than the women were. And I’m not saying that.

now, it’s exactly like that, but I would assume probably more men are, are interested in, in investing. Would you agree with that?

Luke: I probably where my head’s at right now.

I’m thinking about a lot of like, okay credit card programs, the rewards programs do really well, right? Across genders and that’s a different type of value, but you could have that with crypto, right? Like if it’s positioned the right way. So I think, I think there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying around It just when it’s strictly speculation or investment, like it is a different tempo, a different kind of mindset. Yeah.

Bri: Yeah. And I think you can look at probably even who’s in finance, it’s more male dominated and that’s unfortunately how it is. I hope that changes and women can take advantage of these opportunities.

I fortunately have an amazing mom who has always been really interested in investing, so I think that’s probably where. I, I get that love for investing in, [00:29:00] but I think we definitely need to really make this not intimidating for women and for them to realize they can kind of take back their power.

And obviously women now are working and they can do whatever they want and they can have families and do it all. But I think investing is something that they also should be focusing on. And I think it’s probably getting better every year, but hopefully mm-hmm. You know, through people like you and I, we can.

Try and inspire more young women to get into crypto. And that’s why I always try, even like with my girlfriends, I tell them to like, download a wallet and then I’ll be like, oh, I’ll send you some, you know, some crypto, a couple coins or something. And then they can at least see like how it, how it works.

But I think we just have to cater to them more.

Luke: Ah, that makes sense. I you know, I know you mentioned you used brave earlier and, and we’re big on user first technology. What does user first mean to you? Both as a creator and, and as a user in, in digital economy?

Bri: Yeah, so with User First, it’s not selling your data.

It’s full [00:30:00] transparency, and that’s why I choose to use Brave. I feel really comfortable using your browser because I know that, you know, you’re not just secretly selling my data. And I know that I can often to receiving ads. But it’s fully transparent and you’re not doing anything sketchy with any of my information.

And I know it’s like all encrypted and on my computer. So I would like to see in the future like a lot of other platforms actually being for the user because, you know, none of these platforms would exist if they didn’t have. Millions of users like us using them. And I feel like they owe it to us to not be exploiting us.

And that’s why I’m really like, I really love brave and I, I really, I see that BAT has a pretty strong future ahead of them. And I’m really excited to see what will happen. And even, I’m even, even am curious with it is such a great idea and I, I I don’t understand how like the market cap of bat is is not bigger than it is because it seems like it’s a huge market.

And that’s something I’m still trying to kind of wrap [00:31:00] my mind around

Luke: you and me both. I, I think it’s one of those things where, you know, the, we touched on it a couple times where, you know, the market hype is so, you know, it doesn’t know what it ate for breakfast, right? Like, by the end of the day.

And I, I think that. A lot of times people like to talk up how these things have real world potential, but there’s just a lack of like understanding around the fundamentals among the speculators in the market. And you know, look at what it is really interesting for us because it’s been around for so long where you’ve got people that suggested you take a path that someone else is doing and now it cycles later and there those projects are gone and we’re still here.

So I think that. it’s a challenge for us. I think owe it to the users and to the holders to, to be pushing the envelope and taking things to the next level, not just getting stuck into one model, right? Mm-hmm. And so I think that’s where we’re focusing on too, because now we’re at a point where like we’ve done something that not very many projects have done to where like, we’re almost fully distributed.

Like it’s, it’s like a [00:32:00] really kind of a rare thing. and we’ve got a product that’s got a hundred million people using it. So I think that, just like with everything else. We’ve gotta keep delivering on, more interesting ways to use this and meet people where they are. That’s like my whole mantra this year.

But I think, yeah. Like it’s a mix of those things probably. But, you know, the folks that are holding our token are great and their long-term types of thinkers. And, you know, kind of speaking on that too, like, looking ahead the next three to five years, what gives you the most hope about technology, and what concerns you the most?

Bri: Yeah. No, I love that question. So. Before I started my show, I was feeling pretty low. I’m not gonna lie about the future. And then when I started talking to these really smart people like you, it really gave me hope in the future because I’m seeing all of these incredible people working in privacy.

So even Brave has a hundred million users. Like, that’s incredible. That is so competitive. I mean, that’s a, that’s a huge competitor to Google and. I’m feeling like with the future we have people that [00:33:00] are actually creating a parallel economy and that’s pretty incredible. I had the other day on my show Harry Helpin, who created Nim and just hearing how he’s basically trying to create a completely private internet.

It was really inspiring and you know, even just learning about different cryptocurrencies and the power we can really be taking back, there are so many incredible projects being worked on, and I think really ultimately to the everyday person, just learning more about. This technology, and I know it’s up to these developers to make it technology for the everyday person.

But I think at the same time, the average person does have the responsibility to also be learning and to be able to implement this, this tech into their everyday life. So I’m feeling, I’m feeling pretty good about the future. I just think, you know, these projects obviously need funding and in order to be competitive.

Luke: No, that’s, that’s a great point. Yeah. Nims great too. Like love what they’re doing. And

Bri: yeah,

Luke: Yeah, it it is so cool that you’re [00:34:00] kind of covering like a broad range of these projects too. And, you know, especially hearing that, you know, that this is like giving you hope around this. I mean, do you mind if I give a couple of rapid fire yeah.

Questions as we kinda wrap up? Yeah. I like you know, what tool or one tool or platform you couldn’t create with, without right now, or you couldn’t create without right now.

Bri: Riverside.

Luke: Riverside. Awesome. One tech trend you think is overhyped.

Bri: Centralized. VPNs.

Luke: Alright. One belief you’ve changed your mind about In the last year,

Bri: I think I never really realized just how corrupt the world was.

Luke: Wow. And one habit that helps you stay clearheaded online.

Bri: Having a relationship with God.

Luke: Alright, there you go. No. And also where can people find you online? Like where can they tune into your show? Is there anything we didn’t cover that you wanted to get out there?

Bri: Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me today. You guys couldn’t follow my show. It’s called Free the Money and it’s just youtube.com/brie tessi. And [00:35:00] I’m also Brie Tesi on x.

Luke: Awesome. Well, Brie thank you again for coming by today. It was a great conversation. I hope everybody checks out your show and thanks for putting out a range of content and, and, and caring about privacy.

It’s awesome.

Bri: Thank you. No, thank you so much.

Luke: Thanks for listening to the Brave Technologist Podcast. To never miss an episode, make sure you hit follow in your podcast app. If you haven’t already made the switch to the Brave Browser, you can download it for free today@brave.com and start using Brave Search, which enables you to search the web privately.

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