CRYPTO GOVERNMENT: What did I learn from my recent dinner in LA with Crypto Congressman candidate Brian Forde.
To begin with, I was surprised that US Congress candidates were already adopting cryptocurrencies!
Surprisingly, we begin to see signs of this trend as early as 2015, when Patrick Nelson, a candidate for Town Board of Stillwater, New York accepted campaign contributions in Bitcoin. Nelson, now a Democratic candidate for New York’s 21st Congressional District, continues to bet on the power of decentralized cryptocurrencies as a form of funding for his campaign and to push forward his “scientific literacy” agenda.
One does NOT need to have a crystal ball to see that the more politicians embrace crypto, the more the US government will be willing to adopt Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in general!
Since I personally don’t have a crystal ball, I wanted to learn more about how California Democratic congressional candidate, Brian Forde, saw government’s relationship with technology.
To start things off right, my dinner with Brian Forde was at my favorite place in LA — Fogo de Chao — a true Brazilian Steak House!
So between succulent slices of all sorts of meats and an array of high-tech conversations with other dinner guests, here are the 3 key things I learned from Brian:
1- Government is NOT Tech-Savvy
If you think your grandmother is not tech-savvy enough, then you have not met the vast majority of US Politicians who have little or no understanding of the basic concepts of Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, let alone Blockchain/Crypto?
Assuming that number of Politicians who actually do understand these technologies is very small, I was optimistic to see someone running for Congress, who besides being a major supporter of the Jobs Act, was also a Senior Technology Advisor in the Obama White House, assisting the president to recruit more technologists to help the government understand how new-tech is affecting everyone’s life.
2- Coding Saves Lives
As we see technology eliminating many job functions, the future is not very bright for those hard working truck drivers who will be replaced by autonomous driving vehicles or those friendly farmers who will lose their jobs for robots that can milk cows and pick oranges. Thus, the new workforce needs to be as tech-savvy as possible, or else it will be replaced by machines! Like me, Brian believes that teaching people how to code can provide people with the tools to excel in life. Consequently, I was pleased to learn that Brian started TechHire, a national White House initiative in 72 communities across the country to train and hire thousands of people for high-paying tech jobs.
3- Environment First
Although I think of myself as an enthusiastic about technology, especially Blockchain, I am first and foremost an environmentalist! Can anyone logically disagree that Global Warming is real? Can someone please build a time travel machine to go back in time to sign the Paris Climate Agreement! I think we all agree that we need to save the environment ASAP.
Thus, I was happy to see Brian speak so passionately about launching President Obama’s Climate Data Initiative to provide people with real data-driven tools that can help us all fight climate change and promote the use of renewable energy.
To conclude, as much as I am usually not a big believer in the goodwill of most politicians, I have to say I really enjoyed meeting Brian and chatting about his outlook of how technology is shaping the world, and how government needs to quickly understand the complex technical aspects and collateral effects of frontier technologies!
If you want to know more about Brian Forde, here is the link to his website — https://www.forde.com/
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Cheers,
-AN
Alex Nascimento
Chief Strategist at 7MarketingMedia
7MARKETINGMEDIA Blog:
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DISCLAIMER: I am NOT A LAWYER, nor FINANCIAL ADVISOR, and thus DO NOT INTENT to provide any short of Legal or Financial Advice to anyone. The content above is based solely on my opinions and is published ONLY for “entertainment purpose.” Make sure you do your own research and consult a professional and fully licensed legal and/or financial advisor!
