1
00:00:13,638 --> 00:00:14,806
My name's Tegan Kline.

2
00:00:14,806 --> 00:00:17,976
I'm the co-founder of Edge & Node,
the initial team behind The Graph.

3
00:00:18,268 --> 00:00:20,145
And with The Graph
what Google does for the web,

4
00:00:20,145 --> 00:00:22,522
The Graph does for blockchains
and organizing data.

5
00:00:22,605 --> 00:00:25,692
My name is Cynthia Haas, and I'm the
director of the World of Women Foundation.

6
00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:28,987
World of Women
is a collection of 10,000 women

7
00:00:28,987 --> 00:00:32,741
all across different backgrounds,
variety of skins, traits.

8
00:00:32,991 --> 00:00:36,745
And we are a community that champions
inclusion and diversity in the web3 space.

9
00:00:36,745 --> 00:00:38,288
My name is Charlie Lee.

10
00:00:38,288 --> 00:00:39,914
I'm the creator of Litecoin.

11
00:00:39,914 --> 00:00:42,542
One of the alternative currencies to Bitcoin.

12
00:00:42,542 --> 00:00:45,211
I was playing around
with the Bitcoin code base

13
00:00:45,253 --> 00:00:48,381
and decided
to create my own cryptocurrency

14
00:00:48,548 --> 00:00:51,718
and it was a fun side project
and it took off.

15
00:00:52,761 --> 00:00:56,848
When you buy something with a credit card,
when your groceries are labeled organic,

16
00:00:56,848 --> 00:01:00,310
when you see a verified identity
on social media or when you vote,

17
00:01:00,727 --> 00:01:03,229
all of these things, they depend on trust.

18
00:01:03,646 --> 00:01:05,982
How do you know that
the money was transferred,

19
00:01:05,982 --> 00:01:09,694
that the food is actually organic,
that the person is real,

20
00:01:09,944 --> 00:01:12,113
or that your vote is counted?

21
00:01:12,113 --> 00:01:17,327
Ultimately, you trust records managed
by banks, companies and governments.

22
00:01:18,036 --> 00:01:22,832
But these days, many people wonder
if they can trust companies, governments

23
00:01:23,333 --> 00:01:28,296
or any form of centralized power.
With the rise of misinformation

24
00:01:28,671 --> 00:01:32,634
what if we could build a system of trust
that didn't depend on a central entity?

25
00:01:33,009 --> 00:01:36,429
What if we could keep track of things
like money or property in a way

26
00:01:36,429 --> 00:01:41,976
that anyone could audit the data without
putting a company or government in charge?

27
00:01:41,976 --> 00:01:45,146
That's possible today,
using the technology called blockchain.

28
00:01:46,064 --> 00:01:49,275
Blockchain is a new way
of storing information across the internet

29
00:01:49,776 --> 00:01:52,570
where everyone can participate.
With blockchain,

30
00:01:53,071 --> 00:01:55,323
data can be decentralized and distributed.

31
00:01:55,990 --> 00:01:57,700
Nobody owns a blockchain,

32
00:01:57,700 --> 00:02:01,079
but everybody can use it
and verify their information on it.

33
00:02:01,079 --> 00:02:05,750
This technology is the innovation
behind cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin.

34
00:02:06,376 --> 00:02:10,964
It has other potential use cases
which we'll get to in a later video.

35
00:02:10,964 --> 00:02:14,259
But first, let's look at how the problems
of trust have been solved in the past.

36
00:02:15,635 --> 00:02:15,969
Since the

37
00:02:15,969 --> 00:02:19,055
earliest of human societies,
we have invented different ways

38
00:02:19,055 --> 00:02:22,517
of building trust by keeping
track of information and transactions

39
00:02:23,601 --> 00:02:26,020
like who owns this farm?

40
00:02:26,855 --> 00:02:29,107
How much do I owe you for the milk?

41
00:02:29,107 --> 00:02:31,693
What are the laws of the land?

42
00:02:31,693 --> 00:02:35,780
Humans started using shells or precious
rocks to keep track of transactions,

43
00:02:35,947 --> 00:02:38,700
and these became
the earliest forms of currency.

44
00:02:38,992 --> 00:02:42,495
As we moved from tribes
to villages to cities,

45
00:02:42,871 --> 00:02:46,332
we needed to keep track of property
and laws.

46
00:02:46,875 --> 00:02:50,295
This led to the early invention of numbers
and writing.

47
00:02:51,254 --> 00:02:53,173
Isn't that incredible?

48
00:02:53,173 --> 00:02:55,216
We didn't invent numbers for math class.

49
00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,720
We didn't invent the alphabet
to write books.

50
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,848
We invented them to keep track of land,
livestock,

51
00:03:02,098 --> 00:03:04,392
debts and taxes.

52
00:03:04,392 --> 00:03:06,728
And of course, we've come a long way
since then.

53
00:03:06,978 --> 00:03:11,691
Currency has evolved from shells
to coins to bank notes to digital data.

54
00:03:12,192 --> 00:03:14,819
Writing has evolved from clay tablets
to paper

55
00:03:14,819 --> 00:03:18,698
to digital formats.
Along with inventing writing and numbers.

56
00:03:18,698 --> 00:03:22,493
We've also invented
a new way to establish trust,

57
00:03:22,744 --> 00:03:27,999
because all of these ways of preserving
records, they still depend on trust.

58
00:03:28,374 --> 00:03:31,628
That's
why the laws of the land were set in stone

59
00:03:31,836 --> 00:03:34,881
to make sure nobody would change them.

60
00:03:35,924 --> 00:03:36,549
But how do you

61
00:03:36,549 --> 00:03:39,469
trust something,
even if it's set in stone?

62
00:03:40,303 --> 00:03:44,807
For example, you might have a clay tablet
that says you own 100 cows,

63
00:03:45,183 --> 00:03:48,811
but how do I know
that you didn't make that number up?

64
00:03:48,811 --> 00:03:52,148
That's why we invented
trusted seals, stamps

65
00:03:52,565 --> 00:03:55,026
and signatures.

66
00:03:55,151 --> 00:03:58,238
And with all of these inventions,
we authorize and put our trust

67
00:03:58,238 --> 00:03:59,864
in a limited group of people,

68
00:03:59,864 --> 00:04:04,077
organizations, or governments with
the special power to verify our records.

69
00:04:04,244 --> 00:04:07,664
And that's the one thing that has never
changed over thousands of years

70
00:04:07,664 --> 00:04:09,207
and new technologies.

71
00:04:09,207 --> 00:04:12,418
These systems only work
if we trust the organizations

72
00:04:12,418 --> 00:04:14,462
and authorities that verify the records.

73
00:04:15,463 --> 00:04:18,007
And this brings us back to the blockchain.

74
00:04:18,007 --> 00:04:21,261
Blockchain is the first technology
that allows us to record information

75
00:04:21,261 --> 00:04:23,346
without needing
to trust a central authority.

76
00:04:23,888 --> 00:04:27,517
It's a digital way
to store and verify information

77
00:04:27,850 --> 00:04:31,604
that is set in stone
without needing a stone

78
00:04:31,896 --> 00:04:34,691
or a seal or a bank or government.

79
00:04:35,233 --> 00:04:40,446
The information on a blockchain is saved
on a distributed network of computers.

80
00:04:40,905 --> 00:04:45,076
So long as these computers
are independently managed.

81
00:04:45,451 --> 00:04:51,291
In theory, no individual or organization
can take down the network or corrupt it.

82
00:04:52,417 --> 00:04:52,875
This is

83
00:04:52,875 --> 00:04:56,754
like a form of writing
that can't be counterfeit or destroyed.

84
00:04:56,754 --> 00:04:58,756
It enables a new form of trust.

85
00:04:59,007 --> 00:05:01,926
The first use is Bitcoin.

86
00:05:01,926 --> 00:05:05,471
Bitcoin is a digital currency
that safely tracks transactions

87
00:05:05,805 --> 00:05:09,976
and ownership without needing to put trust
in any bank or government.

88
00:05:10,601 --> 00:05:12,395
But that's only one example.

89
00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:15,064
A blockchain could potentially be used
to track ownership

90
00:05:15,064 --> 00:05:19,902
of real estate, to establish contracts,
to authenticate documents

91
00:05:20,570 --> 00:05:23,614
and to verify
a document was created on a certain date.

92
00:05:23,740 --> 00:05:28,578
It's now theoretically possible
to do all of these things and so much more

93
00:05:28,953 --> 00:05:31,914
without depending on traditional systems
of trust.

94
00:05:32,498 --> 00:05:36,586
Blockchain technology still has a long way
to reach its full potential,

95
00:05:36,919 --> 00:05:39,839
and its future
is a topic of regular debate.

96
00:05:40,214 --> 00:05:42,967
Some believe that this is the future
with a potential

97
00:05:42,967 --> 00:05:46,512
to democratize who has power and authority
in human societies.

98
00:05:46,846 --> 00:05:50,475
Others think it is a giant scam
with no other purpose.

99
00:05:50,558 --> 00:05:54,604
In the rest of this video series
will look at how this technology works.

100
00:05:54,604 --> 00:05:57,982
And then we'll explore
different points of view.