 Coming up next, stay tuned to learn more about the state of the art and blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Reimagine 2020. And we're back. My name is Tyler Olson. I am the university program director here at Mousebell, also one of your hosts for Reimagine 2020. I am here with Francesco Palmietti, who's at Prague College. Prague College is a recent addition to the mouse-built repository of institutions that we like to give support to and stay in contact with. Francesco, you want to introduce yourself? Hello, I'm Francesco Palmietti. I'm 24 years old, and I study at Prague College. I'm doing my master's in international management at Prague College. And at the same time, I work as a financial analyst at Coca-Cola, always in Prague. And, yeah, I mean, I got interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, I think, some months ago, four or five months ago. Thanks to Bruce, that is my professor at Prague College. He's teaching some subject related with finance. And over some discussion we were having together, we were talking about new technologies, big data. And he started to introduce me to the blockchain. And so I start reading some books, attending some conferences and getting always a bit more interested in this field. I mean, reading, listening and getting into it, I truly believe that it might be the future of our lives. And that's what intrigues me the most. And I cannot, I mean, my background is not from the perspective of the creating the coding, I don't have a coding and such a background, but I'm interested in this field. And I would like to realize some projects in this field. I would like to work definitely in this field. And I mean, my perspective is that I want to have some time in the, let's say, in the 2020 to build up my knowledge and my very strong base and then explore even better this world. Yeah. How do things look in the general region that you're in? I mean, like, I guess there's one question where we could ask, how does, you know, blockchain and cryptocurrency look and feel in Europe? Are there people like receptive to it? Are you aware of a lot of people working in the industry and trying to, you know, integrate it into things like supply chain or anything like that? I mean, like, what does it look like in Europe overall and I guess more specifically, what's going on in Prague? Look, I have the feeling that it's something, some movement is starting, some integration is starting, some awareness is starting, but still is not something that it's fully integrated in our, in our lives. I mean, I have this feeling still that it's something very new and it's becoming to be, it's starting to be slowly in our lives, but I have the feeling that if you're interested in these things, you cannot get involved in project and increase your awareness. Otherwise, it's still something that is not very spread around. I have this feeling. I mean, for sure, in the Czech Republic, in Europe, of course, something else is moving a bit faster, but not as fast as, for example, in Italy, where I'm from, things are, I mean, there are some experts, but not as many as this field requires because it's a very important field is something that is going very fast and I think there should be more awareness around. Right. And, you know, that's in large part how we came on to the scene, you know, we, you know, some of us, like, you know, we've sort of have some people that have, have had their feet planted in the world of academia, you know, myself and Ashley, for example, we've been in academia for some time, we go back, that's how we met, we, you know, professors of philosophy at these institutions or these kinds of institutions. And then we have people working in tech and our sort of philosophical interests and blockchain and, you know, cryptocurrencies and our sort of affiliation with our tech friends, you know, it all just kind of made sense that we landed together but then how mouse but university specifically kind of came on was, we noticed that there was a lack of education around this and we noticed a lot of what you were just pointing out. Specifically, the sense in which everything here is moving much faster than, you know, big institutions that have all these bureaucratic hoops and you know they're all stuck in, right, you know, the sort of traditional academy is in a lot of ways stuck and sort of hindered by its own, its own traditional habits, if you will, right. And so it's, you see that because it's moving so fast, and because those types of institutions are sort of barred from certain kinds of movement given the sort of, you know, bureaucratic nature of I guess how they operate, they're unable to pick up, you know, it's like too slow they have to do peer review and sort of give the due diligence and so what I'm getting at here is that there's a lot of there's a lot of demand but there's not a quick enough turnaround time. Yeah, definitely completely agree with you. So, I guess that brings me to my next question. What does it look like at Prague, I know that you and your professor, who reached out to us a couple months ago, wanted to get an organization off the ground, right and he's trying to maybe integrate some sort of blockchain lessons into his discussions about fintech and things like that. Maybe you can tell me a little bit about what you're doing at Prague with the club, you know, how are you all trying to facilitate more conversation around cryptocurrency and blockchain. Yeah, definitely look, I know that I'm doing my master, and I know that there is one full course in in the bachelor that is held in that is dedicated to fintech, and many, many classes are related with blockchain and fintech technologies. And that's for sure something that is very important because it's started to create the basis for the people that are studying. And they are approaching quicker and in a softer way to this world that is not as easy. I mean, it's complex. Maybe even this is one of the reasons why the awareness is not spreading so much around. And with this club, I mean, Bruce, my professor decided to create this club and for the moment it was just created but the aim of this club I believe is to spread awareness for sure and to try to work on projects together and to process blockchain project and create awareness. And they create, let's say, knowledge that can help us to navigate better in this new world and why not to have ideas to put in place. I mean, he's very open, he's a very open person, so he gives us advice what to study, what to read, which courses to follow. And for the moment it's still something very raw, I would say. I mean, it was just created but I think that the guidelines are defined and is very into that as well as a wide experience and he's able to navigate us on the things that we should focus on. Yeah, so it's like, you know, he kind of has a little bit of the background there to provide some structure around it, y'all may have more of the knowledge, but then the rest of it is just kind of improvising and you know, figuring out Yeah, really what's going on. Yeah, and I think that's great, you know, the only way to sort of get where you're trying to go is to start getting there right you have to just start moving. So yeah, that's great to hear that y'all are taking some initiative there at Prague College to spread the gospel, as it were. We're starting to run out of time so I want to pose this question to you that we've been posing everybody else that we're talking to. It has to do with the future. You know, a lot of the talk around cryptocurrency and blockchain is always future oriented, you know, we're always trying to imagine a better and brighter future and you know, we like to think that our moral compasses lead us to invest in those things that we think are going to ensure a better world and some respect or other right. So I think it's an opportune time in the blockchain and cryptocurrency community amidst all of the Wildness that is 2020 so far to ask, how do you want to reimagine 2020 or maybe I could frame it another way. How do you see things unfolding after 2020 and what is blockchain and cryptocurrencies have to do with that one kind of final thought there on Yeah, I mean, I think this might be the answer by many people, but I believe, I heavily believe in blockchain. So I hope that it can facilitate drastically our life, take out bureaucracy and give the people the opportunity to be more creative and reinvent themselves in a new world, in a more technological world with much less bureaucracy and easier, I would say. Wonderful. Well, Francesco, thank you so much for joining me and thank you for, you know, going on this journey with us as we reimagine 2020. You the best for the rest of 2020. I wish Prague College and y'all's blockchain organization that is just now in the works, the best. Reach out to us anytime. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, have a good day. Stay tuned to learn more about the state of blockchain education at major universities all around the world. Reimagine 2020.