#183: The Future of the Blockchain • The Money JAR

Show Hosts

Mindy Lockard and Rishika Vinnakota

About Mindy and Rishika

Mindy Lockard is an internationally recognized leadership and etiquette expert, and for more than a decade, she has facilitated interpersonal workshops for college athletes and alumni, government agencies, corporations and professional organizations, and youth of all ages. Mindy also established G3 (The Gracious Girls’ Guide), a leadership guide for tween + teen girls; and the Leadership Academy, a program for middle school boys and girls that focuses on cultivating lifelong social and leadership skills. She is married with two teenage girls and lives in Portland, OR.

Rishika Vinnakota is a high school senior from the Bay Area, CA. She's passionate about social entrepreneurship, the environment, and writing! As a teen entrepreneur and volunteer, she hopes to pursue a career in business and continue to give back to her community. She's currently the CEO of Reusii, Head of Communications at She Helps Her, and founder of My SplitScreens (a blog where she shares her experiences). Rishika will be attending the University of Michigan in Fall 2021.

Today’s episode of The Money JAR may be your first introduction to some new terms, but our guest is confident that the world of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and even digital land is going to keep growing! Mindy and Rishika spoke with Dr. Justin Goldston, an expert in emerging technologies and citizen science who has several online business ventures as well as multiple TEDX talks about the blockchain. He discusses how the blockchain has developed and what it is used for, as well as how it intersects with finance and cryptocurrency. He mentions quite a few terms and acronyms that are defined below.

Justin’s area of study, citizen science, delves into how people using a technology develop its purpose in society. There are a ton of new emerging technologies, and he says, “You have this collision course, if you will, of the internet of things, of blockchain, of cryptocurrencies, and of Artificial Intelligence, all happening at the same time. We have a lot of unknowns that are going to emerge.” In addition to explaining the blockchain and discussing the viability of different cryptocurrencies, he also touches on the growing market for digital lands, or virtual property sold in the emerging ‘metaverse’ world that is growing with the intersection of virtual reality, augmented reality, and video. Justin sees great potential for Gen Z to profit in this emerging digital world and says, “That’s one thing I talk to all high school students and college students on. Y’all are about to eat! Eat, eat, EAT!”

DAO – decentralized autonomous organization
DeFi – decentralized finance
NFT – nonfungible token
PancakeSwap – a leading decentralized exchange of cryptocurrency.
Polkadot – an open source blockchain platform and cryptocurrency.
SushiSwap – a software running on Ethereum that seeks to incentivize a network of users to operate a platform where users can buy and sell crypto assets.

Dr. Justin Goldston is a Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management at Penn State University. His research is focused on blending the practices of supply chain management, emerging technologies, and sustainability to create positive global change. Learn more about his work and projects at https://justingoldston.com/.