November 17, 2021 • 11 mins
Chris Duffus, an experienced financial technology entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Fonbnk, Inc., returns to the Money Moves podcast to give us a Deep Dive on all things digital currency.
He gives us a breakdown of cryptocurrency and all the different types of cryptocurrency out in the world: Ethereum, bitcoin, NFT, dogecoin, smart contracts, and how to use these new ways to make your money move.
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Guest IG: @cduffus
Guest Website: https://www.fonbnk.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, and welcome back to Money Moves. Right now,
We're going to keep digging into the world of cryptocurrency
because I know there's a lot to unpack. Today's deep
dive is brought to you by our partners at MasterCard
bridging the Wealth Gap together with Greenwood to help us out.
(00:24):
We're going to bring back our expert to really dig in.
The founder and CEO of phone Bank, a blockchain based
financial technology venture, Christian Duffis, has helped to enable financial
inclusion through digital access to the two billion plus unbanked
people across the world. Chris has worked with a number
of venture back startups, has built a startup himself and
exited three separate financial technology ventures, and was an early
(00:48):
investor in seven ethereum based companies. You don't think anyone
else is better suited to help us out here again, Chris,
thank you so much for joining us again on Money Moves. Okay,
can you tell me and share a little bit more
on what is the difference between all these different types
of cryptocurrency Because I feel like we have an understanding
of the blockchain. We understand that there's these um, you know,
(01:10):
digital assets that are now securely built on top of
the blockchain. But what's the difference between the bitcoins, the ethereums,
and the doge coin that, I mean, the lists feels
like it's growing every day. Sure, sure, And you know,
one analog that I'd like to use for this is
a little bit like sort of basking Robin's right, you
(01:33):
speaking my language, Chris, you're talking ice cream and you know,
and each blockchain and token actually has a specific use
case UM, and that protocol sort of UH was developed
UM specifically for that type of application. So for example, Bitcoin,
(01:54):
that's really just digital gold. Right. While while the original
white paper contemplated it being used as a payment method,
I think that was more of a hypothetical than a
than a practical. But for a lot of people in
the world that need need gold, or have looked at
gold as a type of UM reserve asset or commodity,
(02:16):
Bitcoin is actually a far better solution for that. Whereas
something like ethereum. They're what's called sort of the the
world's virtual computer, and in many respects UM I would
almost describe them as like the ms doss. You know
remember that from the you know, I sadly am old
(02:36):
enough to remember that you saw it on the Internet
or something. Yeah, yeah, that's right, good, good good. But
it is literally the ms doss of the blockchain world.
So you can build all these different applications on it,
one of sort of the you know, the applications that
people are talking about today, or like these n f
(02:57):
t s or non fungible tokens yes artwork right, um.
So that and that's just one example of many. There's
another another big area that's uh predominant etherory and base
is what's called um distributed finance or DeFi for short.
But that allows people to do all these types of
(03:17):
sort of uh investing, lending, you know, all types of
funky types of financial type applications. And then you know,
to a certain degree, there's something like a doge coin,
which everybody has heard about recently, which they call it
sort of a meme coin or something that was put
together as a joke. I mean, someone actually spent a
(03:38):
lot of time putting it together, and you know, ha ha,
it's very funny in a nearly fifty billion dollar market
cap now. But I might even describe that as a
type of loyalty currency, um, where I know people that
give it out as like a promotional um uh currency.
(04:01):
That's kind of funny because there's so much talk about it. Yeah,
we'll give you doge coin, right, So you know, while
people kind of think of it as a as a joke,
but you know, there are some actual business purposes around
it and to drive and adoption UM and then you know,
you have any number of different flavors of UM cryptocurrencies
(04:25):
that for any number of different reasons. I'm actually working
on something in the you know, co communication space for
emerging markets interesting. So you know, it's I think it's
it's one of these really high level things that people
have to just sort of have faith and believe in.
But from what you've told me, I kind of like
in it's attaching value to these cryptocurrencies almost like airline miles,
(04:49):
you know, you you some people use them, some people
live by them, and others are like but there is
an inherent value in these in these cryptocurrencies, I mean,
especially with the bitcoins. Now, the doage coins a little
bit interesting, like as you said, because it was kind
of done or created as a as a little bit
of a joke, but we've looked up and it's got
some incredible value and like you said, the market cap
(05:10):
of it is really really high. Um. What are some
other cryptocurrencies that are exciting you right now? So one
of the things that people talk about from the transactional
effectiveness of cryptocurrencies are the transaction feeds that people have
to pay to kind of move a crypto from one
(05:31):
wallet to another, and they're really high, and so they're
there are a number of new protocols that UM are
trying to do, everything from sort of fast payments in
the case of like a ripple to um uh smart contracts,
which is what ethereum does, but you know, with lower
(05:54):
or no fees, right and potentially whether it's more security
or or other type of attributes. In the case of
like um, there's something called flow which is used by
the n f T platforms. Okay, you said something there
that I'd like you to go into a little bit deeper.
Smart contracts. I feel smart contracts is kind of inherent
(06:18):
in this cryptocurrency in blockchain world. Can you tell us
a little bit more about what a smart contract is? Yeah,
I mean we all know what sort of a regular
contract is that you might get from a lawyer or
a lease or some type of agreement that you pay
um that you use for for business. But a smart
contract is really simple, right, It's just sort of a mutable,
(06:40):
scripted UH agreement. But it might be as simple as
yes no. If something happened, and that sort of baked
into the the code of on the blockchain, where um
you can't change it, or certain attributes have to occur
or certain parties have to unlock in order to change it.
(07:01):
But so, for example, we could make a bet that
if you know, on Friday, UH it's gonna rain, you're
gonna send me a hundred dollars of ethereum, right, and
but what's unique about that? You're gonna send me a
hundred dollars of ethereum? You heard it here, guys, Yes,
please rain on Friday. Chris is sending me a hundred
dollars of ethereum if it rains. The smart contract has now,
(07:26):
you know, And maybe we could even pick a place
in southern California or Florida, Oregon or something like that
and tie that sort of UM the outcome to the
Noah Weather database, right, third party UM data source, and
then that's immutable or and then we that is sort
(07:46):
of the oracle rather sort of the all knowing UM
source and then we code that into the smart contract,
and essentially we've programmed our effectively our money, right, And
that's really what ethereum is. It's programmable money. So it's
been programmed and that if the set event occurs on
(08:08):
why date, then I, you know, my wallet will automatically
transfer that value to your walt. That's something really really simple.
Imagine if you know, and we've all done you know,
Excel spreadsheets where we'll type in these really complicated formulas.
At least I have UH and so UM imagine you
(08:32):
can create these very complicated UH sets of relationships just
based on that those if then type statements and and
related to certain outcomes. And that's essentially sort of a
smart contract that I think has significant value in terms
of commerce and UM. You know. One of the things
that I sort of my vision around crypto is I
(08:54):
see this whole convergence between sort of the UH money
and sort of what applications are, whether it's you know, hey,
I like Starbucks, I like getting you know, UM points there.
Imagine if that was programmable and you can use that
to buy other things. I mean that's a perfect example
(09:15):
because I feel like once upon a time, you used
to have those coffee punch cards and now it's actually
in your digital wallet on your cell phone and you're
able to keep track of them and it becomes much
more valuable. UM, thank you for that. That that was
really really helpful and enlightening. So as you know, people
get more and more comfortable with understanding cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Um,
(09:36):
what are some of the easy ways to get involved
or maybe perhaps some of your favorite apps that you've
used to hold your cryptocurrencies? Sure? Sure, so, I mean
there's there are the obvious ones, you know, whether it's
like robin Hood or coin base and even now PayPal,
(09:57):
but there's even some interesting ones you know. Uh, like
there's a firm called round they x that does round
up your spare change. Wow, that's a new one. Yeah,
I haven't heard that one. Um. And so but you know,
obviously I would get people to do their research, look
for trusted sources and reviews. Um. You know that I
(10:18):
would say the downside of this the crypto space is
that you don't have you know, a central authority or
you can't complain to somebody of something that occurs. And
you know, so you do have to to spend some
time doing some basic diligence and research before you sort
of put real money into it. Oh my goodness, well,
(10:40):
thank you, thank you, Chris. Those were incredibly enlightening and
wise words. And I hope that you guys all go
home and do your research and understand that opportunity is
knocking at your bank account door or your crypto wallet door. So, Chris,
thank you so much for being on our show today.
It was a pleasure to have you. Thank you for
dropping those gems that I hope will grow into seeds
(11:01):
of wealth for our community. My pleasure. Thank you so
much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want
more or a recap of this episode, please go to
the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I heart Radio
podcast powered by Greenwoods Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
(11:24):
For more podcasts on I heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts from.
Hey everybody, and welcome back to Money Moves. Right now,
We're going to keep digging into the world of cryptocurrency
because I know there's a lot to unpack. Today's deep
dive is brought to you by our partners at MasterCard
bridging the Wealth Gap together with Greenwood to help us out.
(00:24):
We're going to bring back our expert to really dig in.
The founder and CEO of phone Bank, a blockchain based
financial technology venture, Christian Duffis, has helped to enable financial
inclusion through digital access to the two billion plus unbanked
people across the world. Chris has worked with a number
of venture back startups, has built a startup himself and
exited three separate financial technology ventures, and was an early
(00:48):
investor in seven ethereum based companies. You don't think anyone
else is better suited to help us out here again, Chris,
thank you so much for joining us again on Money Moves. Okay,
can you tell me and share a little bit more
on what is the difference between all these different types
of cryptocurrency Because I feel like we have an understanding
of the blockchain. We understand that there's these um, you know,
(01:10):
digital assets that are now securely built on top of
the blockchain. But what's the difference between the bitcoins, the ethereums,
and the doge coin that, I mean, the lists feels
like it's growing every day. Sure, sure, And you know,
one analog that I'd like to use for this is
a little bit like sort of basking Robin's right, you
(01:33):
speaking my language, Chris, you're talking ice cream and you know,
and each blockchain and token actually has a specific use
case UM, and that protocol sort of UH was developed
UM specifically for that type of application. So for example, Bitcoin,
(01:54):
that's really just digital gold. Right. While while the original
white paper contemplated it being used as a payment method,
I think that was more of a hypothetical than a
than a practical. But for a lot of people in
the world that need need gold, or have looked at
gold as a type of UM reserve asset or commodity,
(02:16):
Bitcoin is actually a far better solution for that. Whereas
something like ethereum. They're what's called sort of the the
world's virtual computer, and in many respects UM I would
almost describe them as like the ms doss. You know
remember that from the you know, I sadly am old
(02:36):
enough to remember that you saw it on the Internet
or something. Yeah, yeah, that's right, good, good good. But
it is literally the ms doss of the blockchain world.
So you can build all these different applications on it,
one of sort of the you know, the applications that
people are talking about today, or like these n f
(02:57):
t s or non fungible tokens yes artwork right, um.
So that and that's just one example of many. There's
another another big area that's uh predominant etherory and base
is what's called um distributed finance or DeFi for short.
But that allows people to do all these types of
(03:17):
sort of uh investing, lending, you know, all types of
funky types of financial type applications. And then you know,
to a certain degree, there's something like a doge coin,
which everybody has heard about recently, which they call it
sort of a meme coin or something that was put
together as a joke. I mean, someone actually spent a
(03:38):
lot of time putting it together, and you know, ha ha,
it's very funny in a nearly fifty billion dollar market
cap now. But I might even describe that as a
type of loyalty currency, um, where I know people that
give it out as like a promotional um uh currency.
(04:01):
That's kind of funny because there's so much talk about it. Yeah,
we'll give you doge coin, right, So you know, while
people kind of think of it as a as a joke,
but you know, there are some actual business purposes around
it and to drive and adoption UM and then you know,
you have any number of different flavors of UM cryptocurrencies
(04:25):
that for any number of different reasons. I'm actually working
on something in the you know, co communication space for
emerging markets interesting. So you know, it's I think it's
it's one of these really high level things that people
have to just sort of have faith and believe in.
But from what you've told me, I kind of like
in it's attaching value to these cryptocurrencies almost like airline miles,
(04:49):
you know, you you some people use them, some people
live by them, and others are like but there is
an inherent value in these in these cryptocurrencies, I mean,
especially with the bitcoins. Now, the doage coins a little
bit interesting, like as you said, because it was kind
of done or created as a as a little bit
of a joke, but we've looked up and it's got
some incredible value and like you said, the market cap
(05:10):
of it is really really high. Um. What are some
other cryptocurrencies that are exciting you right now? So one
of the things that people talk about from the transactional
effectiveness of cryptocurrencies are the transaction feeds that people have
to pay to kind of move a crypto from one
(05:31):
wallet to another, and they're really high, and so they're
there are a number of new protocols that UM are
trying to do, everything from sort of fast payments in
the case of like a ripple to um uh smart contracts,
which is what ethereum does, but you know, with lower
(05:54):
or no fees, right and potentially whether it's more security
or or other type of attributes. In the case of
like um, there's something called flow which is used by
the n f T platforms. Okay, you said something there
that I'd like you to go into a little bit deeper.
Smart contracts. I feel smart contracts is kind of inherent
(06:18):
in this cryptocurrency in blockchain world. Can you tell us
a little bit more about what a smart contract is? Yeah,
I mean we all know what sort of a regular
contract is that you might get from a lawyer or
a lease or some type of agreement that you pay
um that you use for for business. But a smart
contract is really simple, right, It's just sort of a mutable,
(06:40):
scripted UH agreement. But it might be as simple as
yes no. If something happened, and that sort of baked
into the the code of on the blockchain, where um
you can't change it, or certain attributes have to occur
or certain parties have to unlock in order to change it.
(07:01):
But so, for example, we could make a bet that
if you know, on Friday, UH it's gonna rain, you're
gonna send me a hundred dollars of ethereum, right, and
but what's unique about that? You're gonna send me a
hundred dollars of ethereum? You heard it here, guys, Yes,
please rain on Friday. Chris is sending me a hundred
dollars of ethereum if it rains. The smart contract has now,
(07:26):
you know, And maybe we could even pick a place
in southern California or Florida, Oregon or something like that
and tie that sort of UM the outcome to the
Noah Weather database, right, third party UM data source, and
then that's immutable or and then we that is sort
(07:46):
of the oracle rather sort of the all knowing UM
source and then we code that into the smart contract,
and essentially we've programmed our effectively our money, right, And
that's really what ethereum is. It's programmable money. So it's
been programmed and that if the set event occurs on
(08:08):
why date, then I, you know, my wallet will automatically
transfer that value to your walt. That's something really really simple.
Imagine if you know, and we've all done you know,
Excel spreadsheets where we'll type in these really complicated formulas.
At least I have UH and so UM imagine you
(08:32):
can create these very complicated UH sets of relationships just
based on that those if then type statements and and
related to certain outcomes. And that's essentially sort of a
smart contract that I think has significant value in terms
of commerce and UM. You know. One of the things
that I sort of my vision around crypto is I
(08:54):
see this whole convergence between sort of the UH money
and sort of what applications are, whether it's you know, hey,
I like Starbucks, I like getting you know, UM points there.
Imagine if that was programmable and you can use that
to buy other things. I mean that's a perfect example
(09:15):
because I feel like once upon a time, you used
to have those coffee punch cards and now it's actually
in your digital wallet on your cell phone and you're
able to keep track of them and it becomes much
more valuable. UM, thank you for that. That that was
really really helpful and enlightening. So as you know, people
get more and more comfortable with understanding cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Um,
(09:36):
what are some of the easy ways to get involved
or maybe perhaps some of your favorite apps that you've
used to hold your cryptocurrencies? Sure? Sure, so, I mean
there's there are the obvious ones, you know, whether it's
like robin Hood or coin base and even now PayPal,
(09:57):
but there's even some interesting ones you know. Uh, like
there's a firm called round they x that does round
up your spare change. Wow, that's a new one. Yeah,
I haven't heard that one. Um. And so but you know,
obviously I would get people to do their research, look
for trusted sources and reviews. Um. You know that I
(10:18):
would say the downside of this the crypto space is
that you don't have you know, a central authority or
you can't complain to somebody of something that occurs. And
you know, so you do have to to spend some
time doing some basic diligence and research before you sort
of put real money into it. Oh my goodness, well,
(10:40):
thank you, thank you, Chris. Those were incredibly enlightening and
wise words. And I hope that you guys all go
home and do your research and understand that opportunity is
knocking at your bank account door or your crypto wallet door. So, Chris,
thank you so much for being on our show today.
It was a pleasure to have you. Thank you for
dropping those gems that I hope will grow into seeds
(11:01):
of wealth for our community. My pleasure. Thank you so
much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want
more or a recap of this episode, please go to
the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I heart Radio
podcast powered by Greenwoods Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
(11:24):
For more podcasts on I heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts from.
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