I started roaming through the slums of
Buenos Aires at the age of nine with my
mother that started for her as a journey
for personal discovery but when she saw
the inequalities of our society that
turned out into social activism and been
exposed to that in such an early age for
me was transformational since then since
then for me transforming society for
and I did I I worked many many years
going to the same slums I went with my
mother until my early 20s and I met
wonderful people along the way among
them I met with one one of the most
beautiful persons I met in my life a
name called Hannibal he was like a short
guy strong handed bright eyes he helped
everybody in the community he was also
very ingenious he was creating systems
to build better houses because the
construction in the slums it’s very poor
it’s very you know it’s not a good
shelter so so he was always thinking on
ways to improve his community so he had
all the qualities we could look into a
human being
he was hard worker solidarity he has
solidarity he was kind-hearted
nonetheless he couldn’t get out of
for me for me that injustice stuck and
still is with me and and when I’m saying
this I’m not saying this out of pity
because I don’t have pity for him
because although he was he was poor in
material aspects he was the richest man
in the world in every other aspect and
unluckily that you know activist era in
my life ended up in disenchantment
because I saw my fellow activists start
like chasing power instead of chasing
our original purpose a problem that I
think in our society is very general
that power corrupts or tend to corrupt
people but there was another track in my
life that was present since my early
days because at the age of 11 I started
programming I want to do a one-year
training course for programming in basic
for gordon language that’s kind of
ancient history and you know it was an
adult course so I was the only I was
like 11 and the following I was 24 so I
was kind of the pet in there yes and you
know I love technology because you feel
like you are like God you give life to
new things and then somebody else use it
and it seems very nice that you’re
creating it’s pure creation so so
technology technology was my passion as
well so I keep building software keep
building things for others all the way I
didn’t have feedback on the consequences
of what I was building because you know
software back then was isolated was in
the hands of the user and in computers
and that was like that until in my 20s I
was hired by the main newspaper in
Argentina called clarin and to build
them digital media area of of Clarion
and as part of that they they gave us a
lot of freedom so we started creating
the website this was 1995 so we created
a website for the main newspaper in
Argentina mostly as a game because I
didn’t have any idea of what I was doing
it was just fun to do it and when we
release this website into the word
something amazing happen we started
having emails from people Argentinians
all over the world saying it was
incredible
because they were being able to know
what was going on in Argentina in real
time I know you give that for granted as
well today but you know in the past that
was not like that I mean it was very
tough like if you were abroad you would
wait a day or two until you could know
what was going on in your country so
that was Bywater moment in my life as
well because suddenly I realized I could
put my two passions in one I could use
technology to transform society and I
did and I started like helping
entrepreneurs mentoring them to help
build their dreams I I created systems
to improve our educational system but
there was something that that Internet
of information couldn’t change although
we changed many areas of our society it
changed how we communicate with each
other it changed how we access to
knowledge how we have fun but it left
the excluded in our society almost
untouched the reach to them just arrived
very late in the game maybe in the last
years and giving them too little in
exchange because we couldn’t change how
we transfer value we couldn’t remove the
middleman in the transfer of value and
you know I didn’t see a solution to that
until in 2012 a good friend of mine call
me all sight out he lives in the Silicon
Valley
and he told me they eat oh you have to
see this this is awesome and say okay
what it is I mean come on what can be so
awesome I say okay open an account and
to give you some context in Argentina
back then it was almost impossible to
move money back and forth from from the
country we have strict capital controls
so no money was getting in out so he
told me open an account in this website
it would be a Bitcoin first time well it
was like the second time I heard about
it but it would be a Bitcoin account I
did that and ten minutes later the
amount equivalent to a small apartment
in Buenos Aires appear into that account
so I say what it’s like this is crazy
and but it looked like a game no so so I
send it back okay
yeah I know we all made mistakes you
know I say yep so the thing is I send it
back and he told me no but keep one so
you play around with it you get to know
it and and I did and I say okay but this
is like how true open financial system
an inclusive financial financial system
would look because I didn’t have to ask
permission to anybody to open the
account I could interact with others
without asking permission that was the
same essence of the internet of
information we were chasing in the 90s
openness neutrality access for everybody
so then I decided that I was going to
devote my life into it and I was like 15
days non-sleeping
reading about it because I think I’d
still don’t get it right but you know
it’s a it’s like you know it’s very
tough because it’s microeconomics this
technology is well in my view is social
scaling is
it’s other things that go way beyond
even the basic things that everybody
sees in Bitcoin or blockchain and these
technologies so as part of doing
everything I started meeting in cafes of
when Osiris to buy and sell Bitcoin very
scary thing but well not for me because
I’m accustomed to it but you know it was
like a little bit risky and then I had a
gaming computer and started producing
bitcoins with that that was fun and then
also I started the first meetups of
Bitcoin in Buenos Aires in early 2013
and I met good friends with whom that
were crazy enough to to go with me and
start the Bitcoin movement in Latin
America so now we have 10 countries in
Latin America with communities and
meetups and people discussing this
technology is working around these
technologies but in the back of my head
I still wanted to solve that problem
that remind and solve from my from my
youth I still wanted to solve the real
problem for me that it was how we could
include half of our population and I
started trying like to go to the slums
with Bitcoin and that was very
interesting yes it was you cannot
imagine I mean everything in the slams
is digital economies like it’s cash so I
was telling them you know move into this
wallet this digital cash and also it’s
not pesos it’s a different currency that
you never known that is from the
internet that is decentralized that
nobody can touch ok be around Bank
saying I want to be my own bank you know
I just need to leave thrive
protect my wealth but but it was very
interesting and one of the learning
lessons is that when we don’t need to
include them what we need is to
integrate we need to learn from each
other
because in that process of exchanging
ideas and needs and everything is where
a new thing will be born will be born
and since then I realize we need to
create use this technology to create a
digital peso or the local currency I
realized that we needed to have a way to
settle agreements between us because in
our society transferring value is not
only transferring value we also have
agreements attached to the transfer of
value many of you will hear about that
as a smart contracts which is another
interesting concept so with some friends
we started extending Bitcoin to add a
layer on top to enforce or to settle
agreements among the people and in that
layer we can also represent the local
currency or any valuable thing for the
human beings like the title of your
house and we are working on that now in
the slums to give you know a registry of
the property of the land where they live
so we are starting to work on those
ideas and we also realized that we
needed to scale this we need to I mean
this technology underneath Bitcoin
doesn’t scale well is it can serve you
know a few hundred of millions or maybe
tens of millions but we need to create
more technology to scale that and we are
in that process in the moment so we
started building all these technology in
my case around the solution of a problem
it was not technology per technology per
se and I realized that this whole
construction the social and
technological construction was a new
thing a new internet for the transfer of
value with the same values as the
internet of information had the same
values of openness of neutrality of
inclusiveness that the internet of
information had and this internet of
information of value will transform our
lives in many many ways one of them
it will give the power of money back to
the people now we will be able to create
our own money to represent our economies
our community the economies of our
communities it will give us a financial
system that will be inclusive because it
you don’t need to have a recurrent cost
a maintenance cost to have an account
open in this internet of value it will
lower the transaction cost to a fraction
of a cent making trend the transaction
cheap enough so anybody can transact in
the world and it will bring to life a
very powerful emerging pattern there is
the construction of identities based on
reputation where every action we take in
our societies every time we trade with
others every time every time we help our
communities every time we learn
something new we will be able to record
that into the internet of value in a way
that we will be able to show that value
to others because the main reason why
people is excluded in our society is
because they are invisible they don’t
have assets they don’t have cars houses
or a paycheck they can show to prove
that they are worthy but people like
haniwa is worthy they have a lot of
value in directions in how they
contribute to the society so now we have
the tool to show others that value to
make visible for others all that value
that is hidden in our society so there
are many ways in which you can
participate in this internet of value
you could learn more you can share the
ideas if you like them you can go to the
slums although there’s no many slums
here but I mean but I think the most
important thing is and is that you start
looking at the world in a new way to
start seeing that there’s
a new world emerging a new society
emerging and that you come with me in
this journey of creating the conditions
to give the honeywell’s the Honeywell
and all the people like him in the world
the opportunity to thrive and to be
happy and to be an integral part of our
society
thank you [Applause]
Buenos Aires at the age of nine with my
mother that started for her as a journey
for personal discovery but when she saw
the inequalities of our society that
turned out into social activism and been
exposed to that in such an early age for
me was transformational since then since
then for me transforming society for
and I did I I worked many many years
going to the same slums I went with my
mother until my early 20s and I met
wonderful people along the way among
them I met with one one of the most
beautiful persons I met in my life a
name called Hannibal he was like a short
guy strong handed bright eyes he helped
everybody in the community he was also
very ingenious he was creating systems
to build better houses because the
construction in the slums it’s very poor
it’s very you know it’s not a good
shelter so so he was always thinking on
ways to improve his community so he had
all the qualities we could look into a
human being
he was hard worker solidarity he has
solidarity he was kind-hearted
nonetheless he couldn’t get out of
for me for me that injustice stuck and
still is with me and and when I’m saying
this I’m not saying this out of pity
because I don’t have pity for him
because although he was he was poor in
material aspects he was the richest man
in the world in every other aspect and
unluckily that you know activist era in
my life ended up in disenchantment
because I saw my fellow activists start
like chasing power instead of chasing
our original purpose a problem that I
think in our society is very general
that power corrupts or tend to corrupt
people but there was another track in my
life that was present since my early
days because at the age of 11 I started
programming I want to do a one-year
training course for programming in basic
for gordon language that’s kind of
ancient history and you know it was an
adult course so I was the only I was
like 11 and the following I was 24 so I
was kind of the pet in there yes and you
know I love technology because you feel
like you are like God you give life to
new things and then somebody else use it
and it seems very nice that you’re
creating it’s pure creation so so
technology technology was my passion as
well so I keep building software keep
building things for others all the way I
didn’t have feedback on the consequences
of what I was building because you know
software back then was isolated was in
the hands of the user and in computers
and that was like that until in my 20s I
was hired by the main newspaper in
Argentina called clarin and to build
them digital media area of of Clarion
and as part of that they they gave us a
lot of freedom so we started creating
the website this was 1995 so we created
a website for the main newspaper in
Argentina mostly as a game because I
didn’t have any idea of what I was doing
it was just fun to do it and when we
release this website into the word
something amazing happen we started
having emails from people Argentinians
all over the world saying it was
incredible
because they were being able to know
what was going on in Argentina in real
time I know you give that for granted as
well today but you know in the past that
was not like that I mean it was very
tough like if you were abroad you would
wait a day or two until you could know
what was going on in your country so
that was Bywater moment in my life as
well because suddenly I realized I could
put my two passions in one I could use
technology to transform society and I
did and I started like helping
entrepreneurs mentoring them to help
build their dreams I I created systems
to improve our educational system but
there was something that that Internet
of information couldn’t change although
we changed many areas of our society it
changed how we communicate with each
other it changed how we access to
knowledge how we have fun but it left
the excluded in our society almost
untouched the reach to them just arrived
very late in the game maybe in the last
years and giving them too little in
exchange because we couldn’t change how
we transfer value we couldn’t remove the
middleman in the transfer of value and
you know I didn’t see a solution to that
until in 2012 a good friend of mine call
me all sight out he lives in the Silicon
Valley
and he told me they eat oh you have to
see this this is awesome and say okay
what it is I mean come on what can be so
awesome I say okay open an account and
to give you some context in Argentina
back then it was almost impossible to
move money back and forth from from the
country we have strict capital controls
so no money was getting in out so he
told me open an account in this website
it would be a Bitcoin first time well it
was like the second time I heard about
it but it would be a Bitcoin account I
did that and ten minutes later the
amount equivalent to a small apartment
in Buenos Aires appear into that account
so I say what it’s like this is crazy
and but it looked like a game no so so I
send it back okay
yeah I know we all made mistakes you
know I say yep so the thing is I send it
back and he told me no but keep one so
you play around with it you get to know
it and and I did and I say okay but this
is like how true open financial system
an inclusive financial financial system
would look because I didn’t have to ask
permission to anybody to open the
account I could interact with others
without asking permission that was the
same essence of the internet of
information we were chasing in the 90s
openness neutrality access for everybody
so then I decided that I was going to
devote my life into it and I was like 15
days non-sleeping
reading about it because I think I’d
still don’t get it right but you know
it’s a it’s like you know it’s very
tough because it’s microeconomics this
technology is well in my view is social
scaling is
it’s other things that go way beyond
even the basic things that everybody
sees in Bitcoin or blockchain and these
technologies so as part of doing
everything I started meeting in cafes of
when Osiris to buy and sell Bitcoin very
scary thing but well not for me because
I’m accustomed to it but you know it was
like a little bit risky and then I had a
gaming computer and started producing
bitcoins with that that was fun and then
also I started the first meetups of
Bitcoin in Buenos Aires in early 2013
and I met good friends with whom that
were crazy enough to to go with me and
start the Bitcoin movement in Latin
America so now we have 10 countries in
Latin America with communities and
meetups and people discussing this
technology is working around these
technologies but in the back of my head
I still wanted to solve that problem
that remind and solve from my from my
youth I still wanted to solve the real
problem for me that it was how we could
include half of our population and I
started trying like to go to the slums
with Bitcoin and that was very
interesting yes it was you cannot
imagine I mean everything in the slams
is digital economies like it’s cash so I
was telling them you know move into this
wallet this digital cash and also it’s
not pesos it’s a different currency that
you never known that is from the
internet that is decentralized that
nobody can touch ok be around Bank
saying I want to be my own bank you know
I just need to leave thrive
protect my wealth but but it was very
interesting and one of the learning
lessons is that when we don’t need to
include them what we need is to
integrate we need to learn from each
other
because in that process of exchanging
ideas and needs and everything is where
a new thing will be born will be born
and since then I realize we need to
create use this technology to create a
digital peso or the local currency I
realized that we needed to have a way to
settle agreements between us because in
our society transferring value is not
only transferring value we also have
agreements attached to the transfer of
value many of you will hear about that
as a smart contracts which is another
interesting concept so with some friends
we started extending Bitcoin to add a
layer on top to enforce or to settle
agreements among the people and in that
layer we can also represent the local
currency or any valuable thing for the
human beings like the title of your
house and we are working on that now in
the slums to give you know a registry of
the property of the land where they live
so we are starting to work on those
ideas and we also realized that we
needed to scale this we need to I mean
this technology underneath Bitcoin
doesn’t scale well is it can serve you
know a few hundred of millions or maybe
tens of millions but we need to create
more technology to scale that and we are
in that process in the moment so we
started building all these technology in
my case around the solution of a problem
it was not technology per technology per
se and I realized that this whole
construction the social and
technological construction was a new
thing a new internet for the transfer of
value with the same values as the
internet of information had the same
values of openness of neutrality of
inclusiveness that the internet of
information had and this internet of
information of value will transform our
lives in many many ways one of them
it will give the power of money back to
the people now we will be able to create
our own money to represent our economies
our community the economies of our
communities it will give us a financial
system that will be inclusive because it
you don’t need to have a recurrent cost
a maintenance cost to have an account
open in this internet of value it will
lower the transaction cost to a fraction
of a cent making trend the transaction
cheap enough so anybody can transact in
the world and it will bring to life a
very powerful emerging pattern there is
the construction of identities based on
reputation where every action we take in
our societies every time we trade with
others every time every time we help our
communities every time we learn
something new we will be able to record
that into the internet of value in a way
that we will be able to show that value
to others because the main reason why
people is excluded in our society is
because they are invisible they don’t
have assets they don’t have cars houses
or a paycheck they can show to prove
that they are worthy but people like
haniwa is worthy they have a lot of
value in directions in how they
contribute to the society so now we have
the tool to show others that value to
make visible for others all that value
that is hidden in our society so there
are many ways in which you can
participate in this internet of value
you could learn more you can share the
ideas if you like them you can go to the
slums although there’s no many slums
here but I mean but I think the most
important thing is and is that you start
looking at the world in a new way to
start seeing that there’s
a new world emerging a new society
emerging and that you come with me in
this journey of creating the conditions
to give the honeywell’s the Honeywell
and all the people like him in the world
the opportunity to thrive and to be
happy and to be an integral part of our
society
thank you [Applause]
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