Breaking Barriers: Leveraging Blockchain for Education and Women’s Empowerment in Afghanistan.

Transcript

All right. Well, thank you everybody uh for being here. I know it's the end of the day. Um nice to see some very old familiar faces. Uh my name is John Lillick. I guess may maybe some FCC people know me from all the years of being in Ethereum and being around. Uh and some of you who have uh been around for a long time might even remember code inspire. Uh so I'm actually here um representing code inspire. Fresh was supposed to be here, but she couldn't make it. Uh, she's kind of like my sister. Uh, I mean, not by blood, but she's kind of like my sister. And together, we've been working on this uh nonprofit we call inspire for, well, this is our 11th year. And, uh, I'll tell you a little bit about Fresh and a

little bit about the, uh, foundation that we've set up. So, she is wonderful. Um, actually, she recently became an American citizen, which is fantastic. Um she's originally from Afghanistan and was a uh refugee during the Soviet war or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She grew up in Iran. Um eventually she made her way to Berlin and she got her computer science degree and then she went back to Afghanistan and started teaching. Uh she specifically she started teaching girls how to code and then of course the Taliban tried to you know blow her up a couple times. So she ended up a refugee in the United States and we met 2014 in Washington DC at the Bitcoin and the beltway conference.

Actually we were carpooling from New York City to DC and she told me all about it and I said wow this is incredible. I mean she told me all about her vision and so that's kind of how code to inspire started. So, um, part of what I'll talk about here is what we're doing. But I guess we're also probably at this point the longest running, uh, Bitcoin and later we started adopting Ethereum and other tokens, but um, you know, cryptocurrency based, uh, nonprofit and we've been using Bitcoin and stable coins uh, in unique ways for for many years. So, um, yeah, this is a little bit of a depressing fact. Um, and I guess probably in your periphery

or maybe some of you are very well aware of what's recently transpired uh in Afghanistan over the last couple years, but now we're sort of in a situation where um the Taliban is back in full force. And so the regressive policies um are now um taking hold across the country. And this is kind of one of the bigger issues which is that uh young girls and women um are banned from education. Uh so yeah like Fares for a very long time has been thinking about this problem given her personal experience and yeah so we kind of started code and inspire 10 plus years ago. We built the

first coding school for girls in Afghanistan. these laptops. Um, so so this is some of our students in our in our in our in our classroom in Harat, which is the western most city of Afghanistan. And we actually smuggled these laptops into into the country. It was quite an operation. Um, in addition to laptops, we provide pretty much everything you would expect in a classroom. Um, we we also provide a stable internet connection and heat and uh uh uh whiteboards and so on. And we have a mentor teacher program. So we have a group of mentors that deliver the curriculum. Um all of them have a background in computer science and the cohorts of students has been growing

every single year. So our first year we had a handful of students and and this year and and and at this point now we have thousands of students. Um and so in the beginning it was like this. The girls could actually go to uh go to a classroom. Um, so yeah, just just some uh some stats. You know, it's kind of like year 11. I think this might be a little bit outdated and the number of students that have gone through the program is is a bit higher. And the um number of hired graduates earn over $100 per month is a really important metric. So one of the things that we've been doing is not only delivering the curriculum and the curriculum is free um but also on the other side working to

create a job um andor entrepreneurial um market right so a job placement market and and entrepreneurs for the and entrepreneurial opportunities for those who graduate and maybe want to create their own startups. And so it's very very important that the girls have an opportunity to um not only complete the program but then earn an income. And $100 per month is a pretty important milestone because that puts them um into sort of like a category where they're probably earning just as much if not more than some of the men in their family. Which um is very important because that starts to change uh the hearts and minds and attitudes of local people once they see that actually um

even even the women in their family can can earn a very good income. And actually uh quite a number of them earn much more than that but that's kind of like a baseline that we use to highlight this point. Uh and then of course a third of them are actually the sole earners in their in their family. Um which further speaks to uh the need for not only education but more importantly equal access and participation so that women can also um not only get an education but participate in the economy and society. Um okay. So, a problem versus a solution. So, when you think about Afghanistan, there's lots of problems and sometimes it can get overwhelming because you don't

really know where to start, but you have to kind of break it down. Um, so the first problem is, you know, these decrees that come from the Taliban that uh basically restrict and limit um well, autonomy. And so that that that means not only um the restrictions that apply to women in terms of going out and just getting a basic education, but if you wanted to do something as simple as go out and get a bank account, well, first of all, you can't leave the house without a male escort and you need permission and so on and so forth. So this will tie in in a little while to how we've been using Bitcoin and and and cryptocurrencies. Um, but essentially

autonomy is something that's very hard for for women to find in Afghanistan at this time. Um, and what we try to do is empower our students so that not only do they um have access to an education, employment opportunities, ultimately uh we actually pay a lot of the girls with stable coins in the past with Bitcoin and so they can um earn an income, have custody over their money without needing permission. And and so in a way they they can have autonomy over themselves. Um of course it's very very important that we can um improve the well-being of our students and uh and and and that's really this like progression where they where they go through the program where they learn uh they're in a classroom

environment where they have peers and they have friends and then ultimately later they have jobs. And so, you know, a lot of times in the west we're used to kind of like economic growth numbers, but in a place like Afghanistan, we're kind of looking at economic loss. Um and so what we've been able to do up to this point is and I think that's also a little bit outdated but um deliver economic benefit which is to say that the income our students have earned over the years working for example as freelancers um andor uh other other opportunities they've been able to find through our program. And that number is starting to um you know have some meaningful impact in our local

community and and it's actually starting to accelerate right now. Okay. So, um yeah, I guess this is a pretty good crypto payments use case. Um it's actually it's actually it kind of reminds me of like the early days when and and and one of the previous speakers sort of had a great cipher punk quote, but it's very very important. Um you know, when you look at some of the challenges and and and the challenges in Afghanistan um are kind of like even more pronounced. I mean, in addition to um, you know, in addition to kind of like standard KYC requirements, even being being able to leave the house in many instances is really tough. Um, but

pretty much, you know, these are all things that are like very fundamental uh, as far as some of the conditions that our students are facing. And so, the opportunity to just send them a transaction and they have um, you know, they've got whatever Bitcoin or ETH or or stablecoin or something else in their wallet. And then um some of the other things that have happened in recent years is obviously local markets have grown. So there's these like informal on-off ramps where they can actually get local currency, but then more and more vendors are beginning to accept cryptocurrency. And we've actually even seen um really interesting solutions where certain types of goods are imported into the country for example electronic goods and then you know kept in a container and then you can sort of like buy those um goods with uh you know

with with USDT or with ETH or whatever. Uh and so we have been working to build local marketplaces as well. Um yeah so I guess I mean we kind of are in year 10. We started out really small and over the years we've just continued to persist and continue to try and grow and I guess throughout the crypto and blockchain ecosystem we've had lots of interactions and I guess headlines and and more and more awareness. Um so I really am very grateful that we even have this opportunity here at SEC.

Uh, so we had a great case study with Binance with their charity program and I have to I have to give a shout out to CZ and his whole team and well I guess this is before when he was at Binance but the entire Binance uh organization. They were fantastic. they came through uh they were able to um donate a sizable amount of money and then together we were able to actually uh provide uh lots of lots of relief to our students um ensure that um we could get uh cryptocurrencies into their wallets.

So throughout the pilot program, we kind of you know um collected some data just to try to understand some of the challenges and basically cashing out my cryptocurrency was was basically the biggest problem. The other problem was um and this is sort of like a new problem keeping track of information and and this further speaks to the need for privacy um and I think sometimes in our ecosystem you know and right now in Ethereum the whole privacy is normal meme is starting to gain traction again which I'm very happy about but in Afghanistan we've got like the Taliban now in control of all the infrastructure in the country and attempting to set up a type of NSA

program where they can actually go in and um collect information and then use that to target uh you know dissident or or or people that um you know are breaking the law like girls who wanted to go to school. So privacy is very very very important. I think we should continue to work in that direction. Uh and and there's a lot of instances of of these kinds of um critical needs for privacy around the world. Um and then just you know kind of like some feedback in terms of um we we were able to distribute uh cryptocurrency to a broad range of of students in the program many of them and

some some of the thoughts uh some of their uh feedback as well in terms of um biggest benefits and so on and and I think this kind of information is very important because it it can help us further shape how we continue to build out Ethereum. and how we continue to build out this ecosystem because you you can see privacy and security in an area where um you know actually this is fundamental and very very critical is like the number one um benefit that that our students outlined. Um okay. So um one of the things that we've had to do recently was as the Taliban took control again um they threatened us and so we had to close the school um

like the uh physical location the actual school and so we built an online platform and we decentralized ourselves and so I think we're also now turning into a bit of an interesting case study in decentralized education. And so we created a platform and the students can log in uh they can interact with our mentors either in a live you know um video call session andor a pre-recorded uh video and then some like course material and then there's forums and they can ask questions and interact and so on. Uh we can then issue out uh certificates or digital accreditation once they complete the program. Um, and of course we can continue to use

cryptocurrency to pay them once, uh, they go through the program and they find employment. Uh, we continue to smuggle in laptops and other computer equipment and, um, those little internet dongles. We're hoping to, you know, see, um, very large uptake of Starlink, for example. And so, um, we're really rapidly right now decentralizing ourselves. And as part of that, these are some of the core considerations and definitely um platform security and student data privacy. And so thinking about how we can um ensure that someone has credentials to log into the platform without necessarily compromising who they are even in the event of some you

know malicious actor like breaching the system somehow. of course zero knowledge uh proofs and attestations and some of the things we've been working on in Ethereum become very fundamental and and and critical uh for us. Uh yeah and then finally um we'd love to get more participation from everyone and first of all we want to thank everyone who's donated. Uh we've received donations from the Bitcoin community, Ethereum community, um and other communities, Salana community, and many others. And so we want to thank everyone who's contributed.

Um actually, our let's say current financial state in terms of our ability to continue on in this mission is largely uh attributed to the fact that we have Bitcoin from like 2014 and we have ETH from like 2015. We just haven't sold our crypto. Um, in addition to individual donors and and and corporate donors, um, spread awareness, get in touch with us, uh, code inspire.org. You can find us on Twitter. That's for SJ's email. Um, yeah. Thank you very much.

[Applause] Yeah. Any questions? Happy to take questions. Um uh first of all, thank you for the presentation. Very interesting. Um I was looking at the salaries. So you said over 70% of women get over $100 a month. Um I mean of course we know um in crypto and even in tech in general that's uh quite low compared to western countries in which you could realistically be earning 100k um a year. um how feasible would it be for one of the students to actually reach uh some of these salaries that we can have um over here? Yeah,

great question. So uh we have to uh so so the first thing to understand is we're starting from kind of zero I mean um and basically warn torn conditions and um but like as they go through the program they learn certain skills and as they continue u maybe their skills get better and better and uh and so what we have noticed recently is some of the more senior students who have gone through the program and and had experience are actually starting to much much better wages. Um but that's also largely a function of the extent to which we can build that endsided marketplace where we deliver the uh education but then also we have corporate partners and startups uh who

are willing to hire the girls um you know and and and pay them a reasonable wage. So that's kind of like a a kind of like a market function and that's part of our awareness campaign. I I I can say that in the past uh you know consensus in the past as example as a startup where I used to work was was very generous. Lots of consensus folks hired the girls and other projects as well of course Binance as well. And so the more awareness we can raise the better uh we can elevate their skill sets and their experience the more qualified they'll be and uh ultimately the more money they'll make. So that's kind of the flywheel we're trying to build. Okay, that's awesome. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you, John, for the talk. Um, really awesome as always. Um, I followed Coast to Co to Inspire for a while now, just, you know, following your work. Um, I'm curious now that, um, these girls are learning and also obtaining credentials on the platform. Um I imagine you might have also some sort of identity for these um for these women although they are not actually able to access any services and infrastructure within Afghanistan due to like v various reasons um not bound to just you know Taliban intervention.

If you're able to export this identity um or basically build up this identity such that it can actually interoperate with international services um could you also be would you plan to actually open up something of this sort where you enable this uh identity so that um these folks can actually get access to other international open markets be it job markets investment platforms and so on. Yeah that's that's a great question. Thank you Judy. So it's kind of like prior to my talk uh there was a talk about the network state and crossing borders and so on um and organizing in different ways and I think the extent to

which you can establish your identity on chain we were just talking about this it's like you have your canonical identity uh you have your uh persona constructs okay uh and these persona constructs can describe you in different contexts and those those persona constructs have attributes and then those attributes have attestations and now you have this like constellation of attributes and attestations that form identity and the extent to which you can selectively disclose that information. And so I can imagine a scenario where you use something like EAS to issue the attestations. Um we obviously have to be very mindful of like you know uh this malicious state actor like kind of

triangulating information about someone's identity. So ZK is going to be a really important part of that. But then to your to your point which I think is a brilliant like that's exactly what we're trying to do in the background which is to say um bring in international organizations, international businesses, international service providers um and recognize these attest you know these onchain identities um in order to like for example if you could imagine a girl having a sufficient number of attestations and a strong reputation like getting a virtual Revolute account, right through their I don't know MetaMask wallet or something or I guess that'd be Mastercard or whatever the case is. So that would be kind of the next step and then what we

could do there is basically um entirely circumvent the interventions of the Taliban effectively. Um and then and then uh and then you know that could extend out to to many other services as well. But yes, I think onchain identity um kind of like holds the key to that. Um but we have to be very careful about well first of all selective disclosure and then the extent to which we can shield certain information um you know but uh but that would be an interesting way to do it basically.

All right. Thank you very much. [Music]