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My name's Tegan Kline.

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I'm the co-founder of Edge & Node,[br]the initial team behind The Graph.

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And with The Graph[br]what Google does for the web,

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The Graph does for blockchains[br]and organizing data.

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My name is Cynthia Haas, and I'm the[br]director of the World of Women Foundation.

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World of Women[br]is a collection of 10,000 women

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all across different backgrounds,[br]variety of skins, traits.

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And we are a community that champions[br]inclusion and diversity in the web3 space.

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My name is Charlie Lee.

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I'm the creator of Litecoin.

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One of the alternative currencies to Bitcoin.

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I was playing around[br]with the Bitcoin code base

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and decided[br]to create my own cryptocurrency

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and it was a fun side project[br]and it took off.

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When you buy something with a credit card,[br]when your groceries are labeled organic,

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when you see a verified identity[br]on social media or when you vote,

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all of these things, they depend on trust.

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How do you know that[br]the money was transferred,

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that the food is actually organic,[br]that the person is real,

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or that your vote is counted?

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Ultimately, you trust records managed[br]by banks, companies and governments.

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But these days, many people wonder[br]if they can trust companies, governments

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or any form of centralized power.[br]With the rise of misinformation

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what if we could build a system of trust[br]that didn't depend on a central entity?

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What if we could keep track of things[br]like money or property in a way

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that anyone could audit the data without[br]putting a company or government in charge?

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That's possible today,[br]using the technology called blockchain.

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Blockchain is a new way[br]of storing information across the internet

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where everyone can participate.[br]With blockchain,

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data can be decentralized and distributed.

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Nobody owns a blockchain,

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but everybody can use it[br]and verify their information on it.

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This technology is the innovation[br]behind cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin.

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It has other potential use cases[br]which we'll get to in a later video.

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But first, let's look at how the problems[br]of trust have been solved in the past.

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Since the

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earliest of human societies,[br]we have invented different ways

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of building trust by keeping[br]track of information and transactions

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like who owns this farm?

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How much do I owe you for the milk?

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What are the laws of the land?

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Humans started using shells or precious[br]rocks to keep track of transactions,

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and these became[br]the earliest forms of currency.

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As we moved from tribes[br]to villages to cities,

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we needed to keep track of property[br]and laws.

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This led to the early invention of numbers[br]and writing.

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Isn't that incredible?

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We didn't invent numbers for math class.

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We didn't invent the alphabet[br]to write books.

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We invented them to keep track of land,[br]livestock,

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debts and taxes.

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And of course, we've come a long way[br]since then.

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Currency has evolved from shells[br]to coins to bank notes to digital data.

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Writing has evolved from clay tablets[br]to paper

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to digital formats.[br]Along with inventing writing and numbers.

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We've also invented[br]a new way to establish trust,

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because all of these ways of preserving[br]records, they still depend on trust.

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That's[br]why the laws of the land were set in stone

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to make sure nobody would change them.

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But how do you

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trust something,[br]even if it's set in stone?

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For example, you might have a clay tablet[br]that says you own 100 cows,

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but how do I know[br]that you didn't make that number up?

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That's why we invented[br]trusted seals, stamps

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and signatures.

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And with all of these inventions,[br]we authorize and put our trust

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in a limited group of people,

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organizations, or governments with[br]the special power to verify our records.

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And that's the one thing that has never[br]changed over thousands of years

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and new technologies.

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These systems only work[br]if we trust the organizations

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and authorities that verify the records.

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And this brings us back to the blockchain.

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Blockchain is the first technology[br]that allows us to record information

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without needing[br]to trust a central authority.

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It's a digital way[br]to store and verify information

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that is set in stone[br]without needing a stone

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or a seal or a bank or government.

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The information on a blockchain is saved[br]on a distributed network of computers.

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So long as these computers[br]are independently managed.

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In theory, no individual or organization[br]can take down the network or corrupt it.

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This is

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like a form of writing[br]that can't be counterfeit or destroyed.

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It enables a new form of trust.

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The first use is Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin is a digital currency[br]that safely tracks transactions

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and ownership without needing to put trust[br]in any bank or government.

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But that's only one example.

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A blockchain could potentially be used[br]to track ownership

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of real estate, to establish contracts,[br]to authenticate documents

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and to verify[br]a document was created on a certain date.

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It's now theoretically possible[br]to do all of these things and so much more

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without depending on traditional systems[br]of trust.

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Blockchain technology still has a long way[br]to reach its full potential,

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and its future[br]is a topic of regular debate.

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Some believe that this is the future[br]with a potential

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to democratize who has power and authority[br]in human societies.

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Others think it is a giant scam[br]with no other purpose.

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In the rest of this video series[br]will look at how this technology works.

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And then we'll explore[br]different points of view.