You said something there and you said it a few times. You say fiat money, it what you're saying? Yes, traditional money. Yeah, so you call it fiat money. I never heard of it. It's of a very icing bag thing. So there is fiat money and digital money, which is cryptocurrency and whatever traditional currency.

Okay, interesting. just never heard you would and I heard you saying it and I'm like, I mean, I hear what she's saying. I know she's talking about like money, but I just never heard that term before. Okay. I didn't know that at all. So hi everyone. Today I have with me Alina Kornienko. I think I said that right.

and we are going to talk about cryptocurrency today. I met Alina, not even that long ago at, the Barcelona fintech, event. There's, there's a community in Barcelona called the Barcelona fintech, community. And there was an event where they were talking about, digital wallets or currencies, I think. And Alina was one of the panelists and we got to speaking after, and I invited her to come and talk to us about.

cryptocurrency which is you know a lot of In the news a lot these days and has been for a while, but we'll get into all of that So Alina before we get started, would you like to introduce yourself for our listeners? Thank you for For inviting me to your podcast because it's not every day that I try to explain in very simple words What actually do I go apart what I actually do?

So my name is Alina, am CIO and co -founder of QP, a European neo bank that builds bridges between digital currencies and traditional banking systems enabling new financial reality to our customers, both individuals and legal entities from all around the globe. I also do a lot of mentoring and fintech, paytech.

Samantha Sangster (02:20.27)
Mentor and Founder Institute, Sardar Bootcamp, Shew of Tech, Womentheg Global Network. I also do speak a lot about blockchain on all the industry events. So I will be happy to share with you everything that I know as I'm working in the field since 2017. And I'll try to explain you as simple as I can actually what are digital currencies and how you can use

in real life and profit from this technology. All right. Sounds good. And one thing I forgot to say at the beginning is that you're also a doctor, a PhD doctor. So you are Dr. Alina Kurienko, not just Alina, yes. But I think something you said in your introduction brings us really nicely into our first question. You said digital currency.

and I said cryptocurrency. So is it the same thing? What exactly is cryptocurrency and is it the same thing as digital currency? Okay, we should be starting from the very beginning because to understand digital currencies or cryptocurrencies, which are quite the same definitions, but still, you know, like these are different narratives, I would say.

Digital currencies, it's more from a banking world and cryptocurrencies, it's more from the IT and blockchain sphere. well, initially it's the same. But to talk about what is actually a cryptocurrency, we should be starting with what is blockchain, the revolutionary technology behind cryptocurrencies. So blockchain, in very simple words, is a decentralized data registry.

So just imagine a notebook where you can write with only one specific ink. In this case, this specific ink is a native token. That is actually the cryptocurrency. For example, Bitcoin, Ethereum, these are the native tokens because all the rest, these are coins. These are two different crypto coins. are the two main entities.

Samantha Sangster (04:40.288)
So the record can be made in this notebook, so in blockchain. And for making this record, you need to pay. But reading the notebook is fast and absolutely public and free. So the blockchain technology itself guarantees that all the data that is recorded in it is true. And this truth

Well, 100 % true. And this truth is allowed and provided by the cryptography algorithm. All blockchains realize these algorithms by elliptic curves, the digital signature algorithms. And this algorithm provides you with two keys.

So the public key, which actually is your wallet address, because when it comes to cryptocurrencies, you need somehow to store it down somewhere. And for this we need wallets. These are like bank accounts. And private keys. The private keys are like from 20 to 24 words, depending on the protocol, which can sign any data into blockchain, but associated to the public address.

And you can restore your wallet only by entering these 20 to 24 words in the unique order you are provided. So basically cryptocurrency is the method of paying for inscripting any type of data into the blockchain. So it's not initially a currency currency, but when it comes to the real world,

Today people use cryptocurrency, so both native tokens and coins for financial transactions, which means for financial relations between individuals, legal entities, individuals and legal entities, and also in terms of not only transferring funds, but in terms of purchasing something. So cryptocurrency can actually like real

Samantha Sangster (06:57.07)
add value to any product, service, et cetera, et And of course, every crypto has its own value, like a real currency. Okay. So the way that we think about money, regular money, if I try to break it down a little bit more. if I have 10 euro, right, that 10 euro, I can buy something, I

invest it, I can put it somewhere and just leave it alone. When I have the equivalent of that in a cryptocurrency, in one of them, is it, am I understanding correctly where it's currently now just a facilitation or can I actually do a transaction with it and get something within? Of course you can. So as I've said, like first thing

a part of the blockchain system, of blockchain algorithm. Now cryptocurrencies purely operate as traditional money. So let's imagine you have, well you say 10 euro, so let's say you have 10 USDT. I would like use in this case the example of stablecoin, because stablecoins these are the cryptocurrencies that

kind of backed up by real money. So USDT is backed up by dollar and actually it's the dollar equivalent. So it's not that volatile as Bitcoin, Ethereum and all those well, traditional native tokens. So you have the equivalent on your wallet and you can transfer this money to anywhere.

You can buy at special merchants in some shops already. You can buy something for the equivalent of 10 USDT. You can exchange it to real money. Like, well, I say real money, which is, you know, that's not... but because people like say real money and they still consider this as like fiat traditional money, but you can exchange it to heroes. I don't know.

Samantha Sangster (09:24.382)
US dollars, any traditional currency you want to. Okay, so and then in terms of the way we call it crypto currency, instead of physical currency or digital currency, the word crypto, it related to, again, the blockchain or is it a word that is used just because it's on in like a virtual space? Like that word crypto, why do we use that

We use that word because behind every cryptocurrency there is this cryptography algorithm which is the very basis of blockchain. Okay, so this algorithm enables the sequence of blocks where the information stored is divided between these blocks that perform a sequence.

So it is all public. The cool thing about blockchain technology is that as I've said, once something recorded in blockchain, this cannot be eliminated. So the information stays there forever. And it can be used, for example, I know many, many cases when blockchain is used in big enterprises to record

legal activity, for example. Or to record all the accountancy and all the massive of information that are now stored on different documents in different formats. They can all be encrypted in blockchain and well users that get access to it can see the whole story. So all the

how to say all the legal procedures that happen in the company, etc. etc. For example, or the record of all the processes, operational ones, for example, logistic ones that are being performed in this corporation, for example. Okay. So if I understand it right, the blockchain is the main platform that

Samantha Sangster (11:53.868)
you know, is there and the currency aspect of it, which we call cryptocurrency, was it created to then simply facilitate creating value for things or to facilitate in because I would imagine if you had something on your blockchain before, say before they created a cryptocurrency. So before Bitcoin, before stable coin, before Ethereum and all of that, the blockchain existed. So was cryptocurrency

brought into the light to simply facilitate the movement of these digital products or was it always included in the... It was always included because as I've said you need to pay a fee to record any type of data into the blockchain. Okay. And depending on protocols because there are different protocols that are used in

depending on the protocol, these are different cryptocurrencies. So like Bitcoin uses one protocol, Ethereum uses another protocol. Yeah, it really depends on the type of blockchain behind. But it's something without what blockchain technology cannot work.

It's the initial. But if we talk about cryptocurrencies as money, as something that enables financial interactions between entities, can say divisional entities, legal entities, we would say that at some point of the blockchain technology development, people understood

these native tokens can act as an alternative to traditional money because nobody controls them. So there is no government. At the beginning there was no legislation that was regulating. So it was a to say a revolutionary alternative to the traditional banking systems where everything was regulated, imposed by taxes, etc. And people at the beginning thought

Samantha Sangster (14:16.878)
cryptocurrencies would be great to, you know, great alternative to volatility to the rates controlled again by the governments. This would be a way more fair way of economical interaction. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. I think that that breaks it down enough and I hope our listeners followed.

because I do have another episode that I did a while ago where we kind of focused on blockchain and Web3 and how those things kind of work together. And we did touch on some of the cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and stuff, but we weren't focusing on it as much as we want to focus on it today. So I think like between that episode and this one, hopefully your listeners will have.

pretty good understanding how it all kind of works together because we talked about the security of the blockchain and the fact that like you said because once something is written it cannot be erased or gotten rid of like you always know where something came from and I guess who it might belong to and things like that. Who it might belong to that's a bit difficult you can track you can track until

Well, jump a bit to another topic, which is very, very important. Yes, for our listeners, we need to tell that today we all understand that cryptocurrency is an inevitable part of our economical life, our financial life. So European governments, US governments, all the governments decided to

how to this sphere. And I personally do believe it's very important. lots of, especially at the beginning with the existence of darknet, lots of purchases, illegal purchases happen through cryptocurrencies. But today because people use it more and more because people start really purchasing things with cryptos, paying for services

Samantha Sangster (16:38.318)
cryptos, even making big purchases like real estate, cars with cryptocurrencies again. And it happens, yeah, it happens in Europe, it happens in Asia Pacific region. We need regulations, you know, to make both, well, all the acts of the cryptocurrency transactions to make them feel safe. So today with the implication

NICA, this is European legislation for cryptocurrencies and some other regulations that happen in different regions. it is needed to score the cryptocurrencies, to score the transactions, to score wallets, to understand are the funds in the transaction on the wallet, are they so -called clean? So there is dirty crypto and clean

Dirty crypto, this is where actually this understanding who is the owner comes to the scene because as in blockchain everything is written down and you cannot erase this information. The cryptocurrency can be tracked until the very beginning when it appeared. So the cryptocurrency appears in the digital world.

through mining, for example. Mining is a process through which new cryptocurrency tokens are created and transactions are verified and added to blockchain. It involves solving complex cryptographic puzzles that secure the network with miners typically rewarded for newly minted coins and new blocks created. So it implements a lot of computing facilities.

But the newborn cryptos, they are the cleanest ones because they don't have the history behind. But as people start using these cryptos, the coins might get involved in some illegal operations. They might get through, for example, some sanctioned exchanges. Cryptos might be stolen because despite the fact that blockchain is very secure,

Samantha Sangster (19:02.824)
some exchanges, some wallet services were hacked. And if the crypto was marked as stolen, it is dirty. So it will be banned as soon as it gets to any legal cryptocurrency service. So licensed in whatever region in the world. So the thing is that today we need to scan all this history behind the cryptos we have to

On the one hand to be secure, on the other hand not to lose the funds we have. And finally to make this market more regulated, more, how would you say, Okay. So I understand that. And while you were talking, I couldn't help but try to equate it in my mind where people would mine gold in the past or even now they still mine gold

It's essentially the same process like when you started talking about mining except that it's in a digital space Before we continue I want to talk to you a little bit about the mining of cryptocurrency I remember a few years ago my little brother who was about I don't know. He was probably 10 at a time He tried to explain to me What mining was like and he was explaining how much like you said computer power you need and I just could not wrap my mind around the fact

calling it mining and thinking that it required all of this power when it's a digital thing, right? Like in my mind, you just put it, create it and it's done. So yeah, if you can, can you explain a little bit about the mining? And also I know that there has been conversation around the amount of power and how that ties into the environment. So I would love to just chat a little bit about that aspect of it. Okay, so.

Mining is something that freely hides at the... So just... We'll go again into the history. the first cryptocurrency as a cryptocurrency as we understand it today it came to world in 2009 and it was Bitcoin. So Bitcoin was created by an anonymous person

Samantha Sangster (21:28.43)
well, or a group of people that call themselves Satoshi Nakamoto. And the primary motivation behind was to create decentralized digital currency that was secure, private, and free from government control and censorship, particularly in the wake of 2008 financial crisis. So this was kind of an ideological and technological response to the hard times people were facing.

And at that time mining bitcoins was very very cheap because it did not implement that much power computing power And at that time one Bitcoin The cost of one Bitcoin was so minimal in comparison with what we have today But it's it's really close to the gold mining because you have this mining spot

the mining field with a lot of gold. But as you dig deeper, sometimes there is less and less and less gold. Quite the same thing happened with and happens with every cryptocurrency mining. When you get more and more, it becomes more and more difficult. It's not difficult to mine new currencies to create new blocks, but it implements every time more and more power.

So you need a lot of computing power. Like today you cannot mine any bit quiet with your MacBook Air for example. You need a lot of power and you need this to be continuously done day and night. Of course some...

Well, as I said, miners are rewarded for this. But if we come to the environmental question, you need a lot of electricity, a lot of power. But the other thing is, as I said, you cannot mine Bitcoin with your MacBook Air, for example, not even with a gaming laptop, for example. Today, no, you need way, way

Samantha Sangster (23:53.814)
stronger, more powerful facilities. And for example, these facilities you buy special mining machines. There are the reputed producers, for example, in China that create, know, recreate those mining machines as it gets harder to mine cryptocurrencies. But these machines, they need a lot of electricity.

but they're also giving a lot of heat into the environment. And you also need a special cooling system because when these machines, when they work and when they get at some high level of productivity, you need a great cool, well, inside professional miners, there are these kind of air conditioner systems, but still it hits a lot the environment around.

And also these miners, because of this heat they create, they do not last a very long time. So the other thing for the environment is the... I don't know personally whether they recycle it or not. I think they can't at the moment. Or they can anyway. You need to somehow recycle these machines. So it's not

that that did for the environment on the one hand. Okay. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That that is helpful to understand because I always struggled with with wrapping my mind around how it plays into that environmental aspect. And I guess I didn't think about the heat part. I didn't think about the cooling part. And just, you know, the because when we think about energy, we usually think about it at the end.

the end right like when you plug your devices in. But if one entity is requiring I don't know a thousand times the energy of one person, then yes, it needs to be produced and in producing energy damages the environment. for some reason, I didn't I've never really sat and thought about it throughout the whole process. So it was good that we got to talk about it today. Okay.

Samantha Sangster (26:09.962)
So Alina, thanks so much for indulging that segue for us to talk about how we actually get the cryptocurrency or the coins or the tokens or whatever. But let's talk about more the practical uses of it. For people listening or for me or like I say, for my mom listening, if she needed to know, well, all right, you told me all of this about cryptocurrency, where it came from, how it operates,

What do I do with it? I have a wallet in my handbag and in that I have money or I have a card. How does cryptocurrency play into this notion of using it on a day to day basis? Okay, so first of all, as I've said, when you have crypto, you need to store it somewhere because it's purely digital. Like it's not the way that you can put it as cash in your wallet until

some time but you need to store it in a digital wallet and that's actually when it all starts because if your mom told me I want to have crypto in my bag I would say we need to start choosing the right service so there are two types of services there are wallets and there are exchanges you can have an account on

On an exchange, of course the licensed one. This is something important but the biggest ones that have the good infrastructure between crypto and fiat or between different cryptos, they're all licensed. So you either have an account on an exchange or you have a wallet service which can be connected to an exchange which can have its own infrastructure like we do but

you need to create an account in one of these services. And that's where the real problem comes. It's like a choice between Apple and Android. I love comparing this to because in general, in the cryptocurrency world, there are two types of wallets. So there is cold wallet and

Samantha Sangster (28:32.48)
say something there are a lot of talks on the internet and the industry about wallets and what is actually a wallet but I would say it's a very simple word for an ordinary user so the cold wallet it's like a it's a device connected to your computer a small device which stores your crypto on it and it is called

It is called cold because it has no access to internet until you plug it into the device like laptop connected to the internet. So it is supposed to be the most secure way of storing your crypto. And it was very popular, for example, the ledger technology when many exchanges got hacked and people didn't want to funds on exchanges.

They stored it on a device. The problem with the device is the following as soon as you connect it to the device with the internet It is no longer that safe and if you lose it No way you can restore the funds on it And there are hot wallets. So hot wallets. These are digital wallets that are in the blockchain on the

So the hot wallets are divided into centralized and decentralized. So that is the second choice you need to make. So the decentralized wallets are the ones when only the user has access to the wallet, to the data and to the funds stored on

So on a decentralized exchange, in a decentralized wallet, when you create a wallet, as we said in the beginning, you are given a sequence of 20 to 24 words, which is your... it's sometimes called mnemonic phrase, it's sometimes called private key, but the thing is still the same. It's kind of a password to your funds. Only you know the sequence of these words.

Samantha Sangster (30:50.892)
When you create a decentralized wallet, you're shown once at the creation, once or twice, but it's at the creation process. You need to somehow record these words somewhere. As all blockchain specialists, I do not recommend you to store these words on your device connected to the internet. It is not secure. Your device can be hacked. And when you're done, what happens after?

Writing it down on a paper is not good. Also the best choice because if you lose the paper and you don't remember the sequence, no service will help you.

Samantha Sangster (31:35.966)
centralized wallet. So centralized wallets are sub wallets created by the initial service and all these sub wallets are controlled by the service. So even in case you lose the device, you lose access, the service will help you to restore all this data. The problem is that the centralized wallets are way more vulnerable to hacker

Because if hackers hack the initial wallet, then they will have access to all the wallets that are connected to it, the sub -wallets. But on the other hand, centralized wallets are way faster in transactions, are way faster in exchanges. The fees for transactions and exchanges from centralized wallets are way cheaper.

in comparison to decentralized ones. So, in case your mom would want to become cryptocurrency holder, I would simply ask her what she wanted to do with cryptos. So if she just wanted to purchase it and consider it as a long -term investment, then I would say purchase something reputed, something solid.

and this could be Bitcoin. It's considered like the blockchain gold. Again, we come to the gold metaphor. And just store it on the decentralized model. Just keep it there. You never know when you'll need this money or you will then simply transfer it to any other wallet.

The thing is that this transaction will take longer time. It depends on the case, but still it will be safe. So it's like a safe word account in a bank. If she would say that she wanted to purchase crypto and then use it as fiat money, I would say open a centralized wallet and use

Samantha Sangster (34:02.274)
some of the stablecoins. So stablecoins, we've touched a bit. These are the cryptocurrencies that are packed, backed up. They equal to real money. And it's today the most used ones. These are USDT and USDC. So there is Tether with USDT and Circle with USDC. The two big companies behind.

the developers of the coin, but they still equal US dollar. On the other hand, today we do see a lot of cases when governments want to create their own stable coin and it's called stable because it's related to the peer currency. It's something that really, you know, they do really love because governments on the one hand creating legislation to regulate

operations and interactions between people in crypto. And on the other hand, they understand that sometimes it's a better way to use digital money and not fiat money to help economics, to help people live in their country. it is a very, very good case for countries with very volatile national currency. But also it's a good way to

economic digitalization, which can be very good for both developing and developed countries. But I would say, again, returning to the use case of your mom, I would say buy stable coins and use stable coins just because transactions in stable coins are cheaper. The rate is not that volatile. It is not volatile. And it would be very easy for you.

operate with them because it's way more, it's way closer to the money you are used to. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I wouldn't even know where to start though. Like what would my first step like, do I Google? Like, where do I go to buy crypto? Like, you know, do you just Google it and go there and

Samantha Sangster (36:25.324)
somebody you need to use real world or I guess like physical money or credit card or something to then buy it to initially have it, right? Yes, you would need either your bank account or your bank card. There are some services where you can purchase crypto for cash. I do not recommend that because it's not purely regulated. you register.

either a wallet surface or in an exchange. You pass the KYC. So it's like a neo banking KYC. So you write your name, surname, date of birth, where you live, you submit your selfie so that people know you are a real person, you submit your ID card and you have your account.

As soon as you have your account with the service, you just follow these steps. It's usually very simple. You follow these steps to purchase. So you either open an account with inside the service or you link your card or account to the service. It depends really on the use case, but you simply transfer traditional money.

to the service and there the exchange is made and you get credited for cryptos on the wallet. Okay, it sounds straightforward enough. I will have to try actually never ventured into trying cryptocurrency before. So I've graduated a lot to different things. I've done, you know, the the new banks and all of that, but I haven't actually tried to buy or attempted to buy.

any of the cryptocurrencies. So maybe I'll give it a try after this conversation. I would recommend you to use our service just because it's super straightforward. So when we decided to build it, it was really something for both people that are newborns and for those who are very, very familiar with the crypto.

Samantha Sangster (38:51.614)
with the crypto world, but who are looking for both secure and convenience service. So you simply get your IBAN account and at the same time you can create wallets in different currencies. And then you simply go into your either IBAN account or your wallet and you just choose what account or wallet you want to make an exchange and to what account or wallet you want to make an exchange.

then the currency is automatically appear because one account or one wallet, one currency. And then you just tap the amount you want to purchase. You see the fee down under the final sum. You tap confirm. And money is credited normally like in two or three minutes. Again, if it is a cold wallet.

It might take longer time. Bitcoin transactions in general are long, longer than the stablecoin ones. Okay. So when you said us, you were talking about your company, right? Yes. guess this would be a good chance then to talk a little bit more about you and how you got to this point. So maybe you can tell us a little bit more about QP beyond what you said at the beginning and then tell us how you got into working in this space.

So I started this project with my co -founders back in 2017 when the crypto field was really high paying. The Bitcoin price was going up. Lots of new protocols appeared. People were running around looking for opportunities. People actually discovered that there is a huge opportunity on market.

But there existed services already, but all of them were either insecure or absolutely incomprehensible for ordinary users. the developers, the IT engineers, blockchain engineers, they understood how to use these services. People did not, and that was the problem. And because we were micro -founders,

Samantha Sangster (41:19.09)
being financial specialists with a great background, including investments, they discovered that they wanted to create a service for themselves, for people around them, to be able to simply and securely purchase crypto, store crypto, know, like profit from the market.

And so in 2017 we decided to build a decentralized for the security reasons because at that time there were so many hacks together with the market price. We decided to build our own wallet and it was great. It was very obvious. It was very, you know, native for the user and had a great journey for the user, both the experience and the new one.

And then like a year and a year passed and we understood that we need to move forward and moving forward together with the market is creating the right service for bringing together as I've said traditional banking and cryptocurrency services. So at that time we really became a new bank with

this fiat part, the opportunity for our customers to open iDAN accounts in different currencies like euros, British pounds. Then again, you know, having this crypto part at the same time. So making quick purchases between cryptos and between fiat and crypto in the same interface. And then we'll again move forward and add that centralized wallets

purchases for fast transactions All of this again in one interface. Then we added cards. We're launching our prepaid cards very very soon. We added the different top -up methods of the iBank account. it means that you can buy crypto with your card, any bank card. You just top up your iBank account with us. And then you buy.

Samantha Sangster (43:36.79)
or sell crypto. So it's something of an ecosystem that gives a user great everyday financial opportunity that helps people not to struggle, not to jump between different services because you need to copy your account details down to paste it in some other service, etc. To avoid

all of these iterations with native, like, only one. And I do believe, I really do believe it's the future because now banks start to partner with cryptocurrency service, start to offer in some way cryptocurrency services, their own ones, the partner ones. So it's something, it's a great step forward for both traditional banking and blockchain.

Because the reality that was like some years ago, this initial thing like an alternative to the government controlled funds. It was a great idea at the moment. But today we do understand that both credential banking and cryptocurrency solutions do have to mutually benefit.

from infrastructures for unusual development. Thanks so much, Alina. That's very helpful. And I'll be sure to link QP somewhere after we're done with this. So our listeners could go check you out. You talked a little bit about, you know, like you're going to launch a card soon. And earlier on, we talked about that there are some, you know, things could get hacked and you could lose your cryptocurrency the same way that you could lose your physical.

or digital currency, right? So I guess what are some of the major security risks when it comes to cryptocurrency? We talked a little bit about knowing and saving your password or your collection of words. So we talked about that. We talked about hacking. What else are some ways that the security of your crypto could be compromised?

Samantha Sangster (46:01.454)
Okay, so again, I would say some general words that we hear from any traditional services like do not share your personal data with anyone. Do not share the access to your devices with anyone. This is important. Do not lose your or do not share the mnemonic phrase private key with anyone until you trust the person.

I mean, that is something. Yes. The other important point that we've already touched a bit is check your crypto, check your wallets for the cleanness of funds. Because as I've said, you might stay without your funds if the service gets

the part of the crypto is dirty on your wallet. And you might have not known that because someone transferred you funds and this someone received funds from someone else. mean, it's a long, you know, sequence of transactions, like with real money. Do we actually know who touched the cash we have on our wallet? We don't.

So that's the same thing. But it is something of your own security also because you invested in these funds with your service, with your fiat money, with your other cryptocurrencies. So it's better to stay safe and to keep the funds safe. You said something there and you said it a few times. You say fiat money, it what you're saying?

Yes, traditional money. Yeah, so you call it fiat money. Fiat money. I never heard It's something of a very, I think, banking thing. So there is fiat money and digital money, which is cryptocurrency and whatever traditional currency. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I just never heard you would and I heard you saying it and I'm

Samantha Sangster (48:21.646)
I mean, I hear what she's saying. I know she's talking about like money, but I just never heard that term before. cool. And something else we talked about as well earlier, we said neo bank a lot and I just want to let our listeners know for those who may not know what a neo bank is. Tell me if I'm correct where it's basically these banks that are 100 % online. So it's more like the newer banks.

you know, things like N26, Wise, Revolut, yeah, I don't know which are they in the US, all of these banks that I'm talking about, Revolut, N26, Europe, yeah. But yeah, basically, it's those banks that are fully created online, everything is done online. so the main difference between a traditional bank and a new bank, so the new type of banking is that there is no

physical presence important thing for the customers. So no physical offices. Everything is done online. You apply for the account online. You have your, as in traditional banks, have your access to the application, etc. The support is done purely online. So the thing is that you just don't need to go to

to your local bank office to make any type of transaction. Everything is done online, it's 24 -7, so it's way more convenient for people all around the world. No matter where you are, you can open an account, start using it, transfer money there, transfer money out. It's absolutely illegal because there is this physical presence in terms of offices, in terms of employees, every new bank.

licensed by the regulator, the local regulator. Sometimes neo banks have licenses in every region they are present in. So yeah, it's just the way of different service, know, like purely digital being provided. Okay, thank you for that. I just thought it was helpful because I did not know about neo banks until I moved to Europe.

Samantha Sangster (50:46.25)
That's something of a very interesting tendency because I discovered that the Americas are very different in case of banking and especially of digital banking in comparison to Europe, Asia Pacific. Yeah, a lot of my classmates

friends from Asia, everything. mean, you have like, you have, what is this thing? WeChat. Yeah, is where Rabbit does everything. Yeah. I love this ecosystem. When I learned about cryptocurrency back in the day, I think the first one I was exposed to was Bitcoin. And then for a period of time, it just got really quiet. I don't know if it was because I was out of it or there were different things happening.

And there has been a lot of conversation between traditional banks and cryptocurrency because a lot of traditional banks or maybe their founders or their CEOs and stuff are telling you to stay away from crypto because it's so unstable. Some of them at least are unstable. I know we talked about Bitcoin, stable coin. But what do you see are some of the pushbacks in society when it comes to crypto?

Like the fact that we're having this conversation is because I fully didn't understand, right? And I know there are many people that don't understand. So what are some of the pushbacks that you see being in that space? Okay, so the first pushback is the awareness. You are the perfect example. I mean, because people do not know a lot about cryptos, they just hear some rumors here or there.

that like it's unstable, it's insecure, it's fraudulent and just people say no, I would stay with my traditional habits and it's related to habits and also the awareness about cryptos and blockchain is related to the financial education. I personally do believe that it is something every society is

Samantha Sangster (53:03.5)
We do not have much of a financial education since the very beginning. We just know the basics. But how do we know the basics? We know basics from our parents, not from our friends. Like the word to mouth, hey, I discovered this lovely service, et cetera, But these are the parents that make this fundamentals in us.

These fundamentals, they differ from one region to another. Of course, every nation has its own habits related to finance. But the thing is that the end users, and it is everyone, do not know a lot about what is happening in the financial world. What are the tendencies? What's new? What's good? What's bad? And because there are

Because there is this basement, know, formed by our parents, which was formed by their parents, etc. etc. This heritage of knowledge, which becomes actually demodated, especially today, when lots of technological and digital innovations, disruptive ones come to the field. People stay still very reserved in terms of use

different alternative financial methods. And we need a lot of time for new methods, new instruments to come into common use, widespread use. So that is something that pushes back. Also, as I've said, because at the beginning the users, the creators of Bitcoin, they said,

this would be a strict alternative. It would be not regulated by the government. It would not be regulated by the banks that are regulated by the government. like, banks were, of course, very resilient to Bitcoin and to blockchain, to cryptocurrencies, because they felt it as a bad alternative. They felt it as a

Samantha Sangster (55:25.634)
their system. But as I've said, today hopefully after all these years of tippades, struggles, of rivalry in some way, we've come to the fact that we need each other. Banks need Neobanks and cryptos to evolve, to optimize, to offer better service and cryptos and Neobanks still need traditional banks.

for a complete functionality of our services because still today, cryptos for use cases, for real use cases, you still need this other part, is traditional money, to finally use it. know, like some years ago, it was a, you know, just a dream, purchasing your coffee with Bitcoin. Today, it's a reality. There are

banking like light banking cards, but these are crypto cards. and you can pay directly into any like cross -referential and your cryptos will be debited from them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's just the fact it's just a matter of fees etc. But that's another thing it is possible. Of course I would say here that that is why we need stable coins because as I've said cheaper faster

purchasing your coffee with Bitcoin or Ethereum would take time. You will be, you know, standing creating these old queue of people after you because, you know, the barista will be waiting for the transaction to be completed on blockchain. It would take a lot of time and the coffee would cost less than the fees you pay for this transaction.

So, well, but still today it's possible. And it's something I really love because again, when you see in Europe like, I don't know, notes on the door of the shop or of a cafe or restaurant that here you can pay with crypto, it's something that attracts attention to even those who were very, you know, preserved.

Samantha Sangster (57:49.446)
didn't want to use because they didn't understand or they didn't trust because again of the rumors or about because of the general you know tone of voice about cryptos. So today when they see that you can pay with it in a restaurant you love and respect then probably this is something not that know not that creepy or not that irregular. Yeah, all right

Well, I feel like we have covered everything we wanted to cover today. I want to give you the opportunity to tell us two more things. One, any final words for our listeners and then, you know, next steps for our listeners. What should they do after listening to this episode? They may say, all right, I'm interested. I'm going to go check out QP. How do I learn more? What should I read? What should I listen to? What should I watch to learn more about how crypto operates?

And then how could we find Alina if we have more questions? You can always find me on LinkedIn and I will be super happy to answer questions and give feedback. So my main message to the audience would be the following. Always be wise with traditional money, with traditional banking.

with digital banking, with digital money. Try to understand the market yourself because listening to influencers, reading articles, reading books sometimes might result in bad decisions. So listen, but think after.

Because investments, it's something of a very risky and if you're not professional, if investments and even if you are, it's a market where different things might happen because lots of conditions are influencing the rate, the market situation. So be wise, be prudent, no matter what service you use.

Samantha Sangster (01:00:10.536)
Read reviews. Check first if the service is licensed, where the company is incorporated, under what legislation it operates. Read terms and conditions prior to accepting and registrating. Because you're submitting your personal data, you are linking your personal accounts, you're investing your money.

So be very precise with what service you are using. That is why I say wise and prudent. When you choose the service, do not start purchasing with big sums because some traditional banks might block these transactions because a cryptocurrency purchase is considered as high -risk investments by traditional banking institutions. So start purchasing with small amounts.

Try to see whether it's convenient or not. If you're entering some field of some token projects, investing in new tokens, in new coins mostly. Be again very wise and patient. Read who is emitting the coin, what is beside the project, what is the team behind. Because while we're in 2024, it's not

2017 or 2018 when lots of IPOs happened and lots of financial pyramids appeared on a market. But still some cases do exist. So think once, think twice. If you listen to influencers, there are great guys on YouTube for example or on TikTok. But try to listen to different ones about the same project or the same service. To be sure

it is something of a trust. Thank you. I will definitely reiterate that with anyone that I meet and I will do it myself when I go and attempt to buy some currency using QP. will I'll go to QP because I know you and and give it a try. Honestly, I'm like a little nervous about doing it because I feel like you know this is coming. It's still so

Samantha Sangster (01:02:37.024)
new to a lot of people. But I know we will get there to the point where it becomes at some point it'll probably just be the only currency. Maybe that and gold because gold doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You know there are some projects, some projects of projects when a cryptocurrency is linked to gold or is backed up by gold. There are some coins like this. It's always a bit tricky as I've said because

Coins are not the token, so they are of less credibility because if anyone can emit a coin on certain protocol than what is behind the coin. This might be fraudulent, but still you will feel great.

When you purchase your first crypto you will feel great because to be honest when you say some someday it will be the only money as we've started I've said it's already our financial reality we cannot escape it in some regions more in some regions less but still it's something of an important bridge even between regions to avoid the parks exchanges exchange fees

to avoid long banking transactions that when you transfer from one currency to another, there are some corresponding banks in between and it takes time. In cryptos, it's just as I've said, several minutes or even seconds. So it's something that really helps us to perform our financial activities to satisfy our financial needs.

It's something, well today it's already as I've said, well regulated, well secured. You can read, understand a lot, listen a lot, always again. Thinking twice about what you hear, analyzing everything. But I do believe you have a very wise audience. just reminding you once again, today it's a very good way because there are regulations, there are reviews.

Samantha Sangster (01:04:57.464)
there are market rules. So it's just the time to start getting very familiar with cryptos. All right. Well, with that, think we could wrap the episode. Thank you so much again, Dr. Alina Correa for being here and sharing with us. I hope our listeners learned a lot. I surely did. And I will be sure to link any of the things we talked about somewhere.

around the episode and I look forward to having you guys listen to the next one. All right, bye -bye. Thank you, Samantha. Thank you guys. Bye -bye.