The Rabbit Hole Stories Newsletter Is Here!
The first issue of the Rabbit Hole Stories newsletter is now available. To celebrate, we took a closer look at the language problem in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Today’s the day!
The Rabbit Hole Stories podcast is launching its newsletter! And just like any other Bitcoin newsletter, you can expect three things:
Philosophical explanations about how Bitcoin will change the world
Links and resources we either talked about or heard this week on social media
Memes because we all know that they’re the most accurate form of internet language
Speaking of language, this week’s newsletter is dedicated to our latest episode with Sanjna Mehta. She’s one of the co-founders of Yzer, a financial learning and literacy app.
During the episode, Sanjna mentioned how she’s gotten into Bitcoin because of her husband. He had a technical interest, and Sanjna initially wasn’t super into it but thought it would make sense to educate herself about finance.
It didn’t take her long to realize there is so much more to Bitcoin than the technology. There is an actual use case for empowerment and people from the Global South.
As someone from India, a country known for strict rules for specific casts and groups of people, Sanjna knew she found something interesting and had to commit more of her time to it!
Throughout her research, she found out that there is a demand for a simple learning app. One that teaches people all the different aspects of Bitcoin and the financial system as a whole.
She became a co-founder with Yzer and, to this day, works hard to teach people everything about the ecosystem. One of the team's most significant issues is the language barrier between different cultures, and the Bitcoin community doesn’t focus on this issue.
This topic would be the ideal start to the newsletter. We’ll give you our thoughts and share some of our ideas on how we can tackle this issue.
Bitcoin Has a Language Issue, and We Need to Fix It!
In the past 14 years, Bitcoin has emerged as an alternative to the banking system. One that doesn’t care where you come from, what you do, or even what your plans are with the Sats you stack.
This is one of the benefits of this fantastic network. However, because Bitcoin is heavily integrated with the cypherpunk and cryptography movement, it initially seems simple and very techy. It doesn’t matter what your background is. You most likely must pick up the slack and learn a few new things.
This is not an issue for people with unlimited access to knowledge, but that’s only a tiny portion of the population. In other words, this is us in the West. We have unlimited access to data, the internet, and modern infrastructure.
You also see this in the Bitcoin community, where many narratives are based outside the Western world. We know that most of us are financially privileged and that Bitcoin can be a catalyst to connect the Global South to the financial system.
But more needs to be done so far to get them on board. There might be the likes of Anita Posch or others who do boots-on-the-ground work. But a lot of them either need more financial support, weirdly enough, not all Bitcoiners like to spend their Sats, or there are not enough people out there.
This is where Sanjna and the Yzer team step in. Like Duolingo or any other learning app, they break down complex topics into simple quizzes and use learning strategies to orange pill their users.
As Sanjna mentioned in her episode, they focus on getting as many people onboard and teaching them the ins and outs of the finance world. One of the key areas they will focus on is translating the classes into Spanish and local languages.
They’ll do that because they want to offer classes in as many languages as possible, which is one of the most critical tasks within the Bitcoin community. Too many stories and narratives we tell are Western-based and only focus on our standpoints.
This is fundamentally not wrong, but it paints a silly picture. What we categorize as a low amount could be massive in the Global South. We have direct access to DCA apps or brokers. This isn’t always possible in Central and South America or Africa. They have to use peer-to-peer exchanges. We sometimes forget all of these details.
Sanjna and her team aim to solve this problem by offering simple lessons and an app available to everyone worldwide. They also aim to work with local partners and use them to show people locally that it’s possible to stack Sats or use Bitcoin without having access to U.S. Dollars.
This is instrumental! It makes Bitcoin more accessible for people who don’t have access to the same opportunities we have. The faster Bitcoin grows, the more translations, local partners, and people we can orange pill in the Global South.
Recommendations of the Week
Usually, we have a ton of links, articles, or books to share from our current episode. However, this week with Sanjna, we only have one primary recommendation: Yzer. We urge you to check out what the app has to offer.
Check out Yzer on their website: https://yzer.io/
Memes
Finally, we get to the memes of the week! Feel free to share them on your social media accounts or in friends and family chat rooms.
Get in Touch!
Thanks for reading! If you have suggestions or want to engage with us, follow us on X or YouTube. Alternatively, you can also send us an email at show@rabbitholestories.co.
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