"I heard about Bitcoin 4 years ago, but didn't take it seriously. I mean, I was only 14. I didn't even have a bank account yet."
That's just one of the snippets overheard in the conversations at today's Bitcoin Girls Meet-up in Berlin.
This was the third time I've been hosting, and I have to say these meetings are getting better and better!
We were around 20 people this time (including two men ;)) - around the same amount as last time, however I saw only two familiar faces. That means these were 20 different women from last time, which is quite remarkable and shows how many are "out there".
"... and my Scam Coin is..."
We were all sitting around a long table, like in a board meeting, which was a bit unfortunate for chatting, but since it looked so formal, we thought we might as well do a "formal" introduction round.
That was a great idea (not mine :)) and gave us some insight on how long everyone had been involved in crypto, if they were investors/traders, or worked in the blockchain space.
I had asked everyone to share their favorite coin with us, and why they decided to invest in it. This gave everyone at the table a lot of ideas and notes to "do your own research" later at home.
The first person to introduce herself, also added her "scam coin" after she had shared her favorite coin with us. When asked "What do you mean by scam coin?" she said, "Oh, you know, a coin that will probably flop or turn out to be a scam. I just bought it because I liked the name!"
That was a fun addition and several others shared their own personal "scam coin" afterwards.
80% investors in a better future
My sense was that 80% of the participants were mainly interested in investing and taking care of their financial future. I mean, nobody minds getting rich, but this didn't seem to the primary reason for most of them.
While not everyone may have a thorough understanding of what exactly the arrival of cryptocurrencies means for our society, many of them sense it's important enough to begin educating themselves about it, and there is a strong interest in the philosophy and evolution-of-money part - more than the details of the technology or the getting-rich part.
That also means, that these women are really keen on understanding the What and the Why of each coin or blockchain project, before they invest. They read the White Papers! And they research the team behind a project.
The "Who is behind a coin" makes the difference
Obviously there was a lot of talk about different coins and which are worth investing in. I found it interesting that two independent women mentioned how interested they had been in IOTA - until the day they attended a meet-up.
They reported a "bad vibe" and found the representatives arrogant and brushing people off, when they asked questions. Neither one ended up investing in IOTA.
The "Who" is my primary reason for being so invested in Dash, too. I mean, I love everything else about Dash, but it's the consciousness that Evan Duffield as well as many other key figures in the Dash community bring to the project, that attracts me most.
While we can trade some coins just for profit; in order to get invested in a project, we need to feel an alignment of values with the people behind it, their vision and behavior.
And speaking of Dash: I got to make a lot of people happy with a little Dash giveaway, again.
Sadly the transactions took a while to go through, because the reception in the basement of the café wasn't exactly brilliant, so most of the freshly filled new Dash wallets still show zero Dash in the pictures (which is a bit ironic because those little giveaway's normally also wow people with the sheer speed of Dash... ;))
Success!
All in all, it was a great success. I loved how hungry for knowledge everyone was and how readily everyone shared information. There was a true sense of "lifting each other up" and actively helping each other take the first steps into crypoland.