Bankless - Aarika Rhodes vs Brad Sherman: Getting Crypto into Congress CA-32

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

Aarika Rhodes is running for Congress! Running against incumbent Brad Sherman, who is notoriously misinformed and anti-crypto, Aarika seeks to bring a more crypto-friendly approach to CA-32, representing much of the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. A schoolteacher by profession, Aarika seems to be breathing fresh air into the stale political landscape. Here's her policy on crypto: "Aarika believes in the right of every individual to manage their own finances and investments as they see fit. In Congress, Aarika will oppose any attempts to ban this emerging technology. Aarika is also a strong advocate for making sure financial literacy is taught in schools and for people being aware of the environmental impact of their investments." Learn more about Aarika: https://www.aarikaforcongress.com/  ------ 📣 ONJUNO | Crypto from your Checking Account! https://bankless.cc/OnJuno  ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/  🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  🍵 MATCHA | SMART ORDER ROUTING https://bankless.cc/Matcha  🚀 SLINGSHOT | LAYER 2 SOCIAL TRADING https://bankless.cc/Slingshot  🏦 GEMINI | TURN FIAT INTO CRYPTO https://bankless.cc/Gemini  🦁 BRAVE | THE BROWSER NATIVE WALLET https://bankless.cc/Brave  🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED FUNDING https://bankless.cc/UniGrants  ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro 6:30 Aarika Rhodes 11:33 Why Get Involved? 16:42 Anti-Crypto Policies 21:09 California's 32nd District 25:17 How America Can Win Crypto 30:00 The Youth & Environment 34:15 Web3 vs Banking 38:11 Financial Literacy 42:31 The Campaign 46:09 Proactive in the Community 47:58 The Single-Issue Voter 50:29 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Resources: Aarika on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AarikaRhodes?s=20  Aarika's Tweet: https://twitter.com/AarikaRhodes/status/1468647038925500418?s=20  Get Involved: https://www.aarikaforcongress.com/  ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures 

Hey, Bankless Nation. Welcome to another state of the nation. Nighttime edition, David and I are super excited to host Erica Rhodes. The episode that we're going to talk about today is how we beat Brad Sherman. Okay? David, who's Brad Sherman for folks that don't know? Brad Sherman is the sitting member of Congress from California 32nd District who recently made a farce about crypto using things like mongoose coin and like rabbit coin. And to make, overall, just doesn't take crypto seriously and has openly advocated for an open ban on just generally all things crypto. I'm not a fan of such a policy. So I think that we can do, we should do whatever we need to do to make sure that that kind of policy does not work its way into Congress. And so it just so happens that a new person on the scene, one named Erica Rose, is also not a fan of such a policy. And we are going to talk about that here on today's state of the nation.

I think this is a conversation with Erica Rhodes, and we're going to talk about her battle against Brad Sherman for this congressional seat. We're also, I think there's a bigger picture here because we're going to talk about pro-crypto versus anti-crypto in the 2022 midterms. Really in 2021, one of the main stories was crypto finding its political voice for the first time. And so I'm very curious as to whether we'll see crypto flex its muscles a little bit, whether this is something that. gain some mainstream attention, whether it helps some folks that are running actually win some seats against those who our opponents are against crypto. So I think that's going to be the conversation we're about to have today. Before we get into it, we're going to tell you a little bit about our friends at On Juno. This is really exciting. This is kind of a, you've heard David and I

talk about the defy Mollett thesis, okay, which is like fintech in the front and defy in the back. a lot of fun. That's what on Gino really is. So this is a bank for crypto natives. Okay. So this is an opportunity to save, earn, and invest using your bank account. My problem with my bank account is I have like a Coinbase account and I have a Wells Fargo account. Neither of these things are connected. In my Wells Fargo account, I really can't do anything with crypto, but I still need it to pay bills and to do real-world things. With On Juno, this is kind of a bridge between both of those worlds. And so my hope is eventually I can get rid of my Wells Fargo account

and completely flip over to something like this, a hybrid crypto-native bank account. So it's super exciting. So there's an opportunity to earn. You can get your paycheck in crypto. You can save, earn 4% bonus on USDC. You can also invest in crypto at zero fees. use the code bankless, you get $50 on your first crypto paycheck.

That meets a paycheck that gets converted into crypto for you. You can find out more at onjuno.com. Make sure you use that code bankless. David, I'm asking you the question we start every state of the nation episode with, which is this. What's the state of the nation today, sir? I actually had to look this word up to make sure that it was actually a word. And yes, it is indeed a word.

We are, Ryan, on today's state of the nation. We are discoursing. We are having political discourse. We are talking about politics. We are talking about governance. We're talking about policy and asking about what should crypto policy be? What is good crypto policy from someone who believes in crypto rather than thinking that it should be banned? So today, Ryan, on the state of the nation, we are discoursing.

I think we need some more discourse on crypto and politics. We need to take crypto to the politicians. So that's a good topic for today. So we will be right back with Erica Rhodes. But before we do, we want to thank the sponsors that made this episode possible. Slingshot is a decentralized trading platform that combines the performance and ease of a centralized exchange with the openness and transparency of DFI. Slingshaw aggregates liquidity from all of DFI in order to find the best price on thousands of crypto assets. Every token on Swingshot comes with a price chart and trade logs to give you insights into the market's activity in real time.

Slinghot is available on Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism, saving you from the high gas feeds and low. transaction speeds of the Ethereum L1. There are no fees to trade on Slingshot, and any positive slippage is given to the users. Trading on Slingshot is a social experience. You can even set your chat avatar to your favorite NFT, or soon, a Slingshot 2099 NFT avatar. Once you bridge your assets to Polygon, Arbitrum, or Optimism, go to app. Slinghot.

To trade and use the chatbox to share your trades with others and find other tokens to ape into. The Brave browser is the user-first browser for the Web3 internet, with built-in privacy and ad blocking to keep you in charge of your digital footprint. Inside the Brave browser, you'll find the Brave Wallet, the first secure crypto wallet built natively inside of a Web3 crypto browser. Web3 is freedom from Big Tech and Wall Street. More control and better privacy. But there's a weak point in Web3, your crypto wallet. The Brave Wallet is different. Brave Wallet is built natively inside the Brave browser. No extension required, which gives the Brave Wallet an extra level of security versus other

wallets. With the Brave Wallet, you can buy, store, send, and swap your crypto assets, and you can even manage your NFTs and connect to other wallets and defy apps, all from the security of the best privacy browser on the market. Whether you're new to crypto or a season pro, it's time to switch to the Brave wallet. Download Brave at brave.com slash bankless and click the wallet icon to get started. Arbitrum is an Ethereum scaling solution that's going to completely change how we use defy and NFTs. Over 250 projects have already deployed on Arbitrum, and Arbitrum's DeFi and NFT ecosystems are growing rapidly. Arbitrum increases Ethereum speed by orders of magnitude for a fraction of the cost of the average gas fee.

When interacting with Arbitrum, you can get the performance of a centralized exchange while tapping into Ethereum's level of decentralization and security. If you're a developer who wants low gas fees and instant transactions for your users, visit developer.offchain labs.com to get started building your application on Arbitrum. If you're a user, keep an eye out for your favorite defy apps or NFT projects building on Arbitrum. Many of your favorite apps are already live, with many more coming over soon. You can find these apps at portal.arbitrum.1, and you can bridge your assets over to arbitram using bridge.arbitrum.io in order to experience defy and NFTs the way it was always meant to be.

Fast, cheap, and friction-free. Welcome Bankless Nation to this issue of state of the nation. We are here with Erica Rhodes. And Erica Rhodes is an elementary school teacher in the great state of California, where I also reside in Los Angeles in 2022. Erica was an active volunteer during the Democratic primary for former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, of which I was also an active volunteer for Andrew Yang. So we share some commonalities there. Erica is running for Congress in 2022 against Brad Sherman, who's a staunch anti-crypto representative. And he's the one that tried to make a farce out of crypto using things like Mongoose coin and has made statements about supporting a total shutdown of crypto.

And it's also no surprise that some of Congressman Sherman's biggest donators in the 2020 campaign were banks and bank lobbying organizations. And so some of the statements out of Brad Sherman in the last couple years or so is that cryptocurrencies are a crock. all Bitcoin does is allow for a few dozen men in my district to sit in their pajamas and on their couch all day and tell their wives that they're going to be millionaires and that Bitcoin also provides no real value to the economy. So, Erica, we have interest in your campaign and what you have to say about crypto policy.

And we are going to unpack that on today's show. But before we do that, we want to learn a little bit about you. Who is Erica Rhodes? Well, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So I am an elementary school teacher. I teach K through sixth grade science. And I ended up deciding to run for Congress in 2020 in 2020.

So we have been at this for a really long time. And it's just crazy like the primary is so close away. But I really want to serve on the education and labor committee on Congress. And I want a subcommittee, the financial services. So I think that this is a real opportunity for us to bring change and really start addressing poverty, our banking system, how why people are staying impoverished, and more importantly, present new ideas and a different way of governance. I think that there is this this deep mistrust between people and their elected officials. And for me, it's really important

that we come together. I want to be like a unifying figure and model what a good representative is. And so I'm really excited to be in this race and more excited that we can actually win. I definitely also think that we can definitely take the seat right out from under Brad Sherman. But I also want to keep on going down the Erica Rhodes rabbit hole. What were some, tell us a little bit about your formative years that has shaped the policy or what you believe in today. Like what policy specifically? Just like your ideals, your ideology or growing up.

What do you believe in? So, you know, funny, people don't really know this about me, but my family is very eclective. So half of my family's Republican, half of them of my family's Democrats. So I think I approach my politics with good ideas and what's going to actually solve problems and what's going to leverage people. And so that's why I think I run a clean campaign. I'm not really focused on like titles as much as I am about just getting things done. And I think for me at this point at 36, young people.

And I really feel we're not advocating in doing what's in the best interest of young people. And that's partly why I filed. I also was inspired by Andrew because he was one of the only candidates to talk about financial literacy. He brought people from all across the political spectrum. And he addressed automation. He's obviously pro-crypto. And I think those things are really, really important. I'm going to change the future.

And I think the lack of things getting used. done has changed, like has kind of like shaped the way I view politics. You know, it's not about just being against someone as much as it is about being for something. And I feel like today's politics is just character assassination. And who does that impact the most? Everyday people, because people just want to see their lives get better. They will, they're sick of inflation. They're sick of, you know, the education system and their kids not getting what they need. And so that's kind of where I am politically. And I want to remind,

and I wanted to say one more thing. I want to remind people like, I am not like this career politician. I'm not crazy polished. I am literally myself. I'm a teacher. I was really frustrated within justice is happening, no one advocating.

And I just made the decision to do something about it. And so if people, people like kind of expect me to be a certain way, I am just myself. And I think that's refreshing for people that do support my campaign because I want someone regular that understands in that seat in Washington. So it's cool to see, Erica, it's really cool to see millennials get involved in

politics because I know like you speak out on behalf of, you know, some millennials, Dave and myself are part of that generation. So many people, so many millennials are just apathetic, right? So like they just like or so many in crypto, you know, very much believe what you said earlier that institutions are failing us. Like there's massive institutional distrust, but then they really don't feel like they can do anything on the political front. Now, I confess, like sometimes I'm guilty of this too. And so are a lot of people in crypto. In fact, crypto is almost a protest movement for us where we're saying like, hey, the old system

doesn't work. So we're just going to opt out. But can you give the case for why people in crypto, maybe millennials or some of the younger generations as well, should stop being apathetic and actually get involved in politics. Why should they care about your campaign specifically or like politics in their local district in general? I love this question. I think you're nailing it dead on. The systems are failing people. And that's why when Trump got elected, it wasn't like, okay, I just because I just didn't like him. It was more like, well, why did he get elected? What was the cause of that? And then I had made the personal decision that I'm going to get politically active. I'm going to pick a candidate. I'm going to support them like I've never

supported anyone before. And now I'm running for office. And with me running, my students are seeing that an everyday person can stand up and make a difference. And a lot of my platform was inspired by young people, like lowering the voting age to 16 when I first decided to announce that you should be the pro-Bitcoin candidate. You should have that on your campaign and take donations in Bitcoin. And I said, well, I'm familiar with Bitcoin. I don't know how that works with FEC compliance, but a lot of young people have already participated. And I think for me, I'm very intentional about empowering them and lifting their voices up. And I think when you have people like me showing a different way of running the campaign, I think that's going to trickle down and inspire other

people to run their campaign differently because the old way isn't working. The old way of governing isn't working. And that's why we've created such a mass movement. And this is what's wild. Is I work full time as a teacher in a pandemic and we've raised over a quarter of a million dollars and we have $200,000 cash on hand. And it's not from big banks, corporations, pawn shops, check cashing is from everyday people that want an everyday representative. And so that's why young people should get in because this is the campaign for hope. This is the campaign for the future. And this is the campaign that's going to bring the change and that kind of leadership in Congress. Because the reality is if I go to Congress and I serve maybe one or two or three terms, I can go back as a teacher

because I love my job. I'm not trying to be like in the Senate. I'm not trying to run for president. I'm really trying to advocate in the best way I know how. I'm single. I don't have children. My dad was like, Erica, you need to run for Congress. And we made it happen. Two teachers and a bunch of kids built this platform. And here we are about to unseat Brad Sherman. And one of the reasons why we're so interested in this campaign is I think that this could be a microcosm for so many more races and the future of politics in America and perhaps even the world. Because if we can show that, especially as the crypto industry, if we can show that we can rally behind somebody that not only reflects the interests of our industry, but also the generations of the people

that make up this industry, which tends to skew younger, and we can show that we can unseat somebody who's backed by banks and just long-term incumbency, then hopefully we can start a domino effect and really start to realign so much of what politics has left behind, which is, you know, younger generation. And it pushes the narrative that that seat you're not entitled to. That you actually have to earn it. That you can't just show up around election time. That you need to be in your community all the time advocating for everyday people. And that's the issue that I take with not just Brad, but several elected officials. They think that seat is theirs. And we and myself and there's a lot of other candidates that run on a pro crypto, pro Bitcoin. platform, which we happen, we try to ask people to do it and take Lightning Network and, you know, just be more open-minded. And now the news is picking up to our campaigns. It's becoming a hot topic. And I, my prediction, in 2024, you'll see presidents running a pro-Bitcoin crypto platform. Wow, you think so? Presidents, pro?

I absolutely do. Absolutely do. That would be incredible. And if that's the case, it's got to start this year. It's got to start in, you know, 2022. But can you talk about this? Because this is, this is so hilarious that Brad Sherman is running against such a pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin, can it? Like, it couldn't have happened. I just love that it's happening to Brad Sherman. But like, I just, so, I mean, I know you're not about, you know, slinging mud in campaigns and this sort of thing. But like, I think that the crypto world is somewhat mystified a little bit about Brad Sherman. And I'm wondering if you could kind of help us get in his head for a minute

because it's really bizarre to us to see him talk about crypto in the way he talks about it. Right. Like with a complete dismissal, like, you know, there's got to be thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in his district that actually hold the crypto assets that he's disparaging, that have actually benefited from the upside of these crypto assets that he's disparaging. Can you help us understand why? Why does Brad Sherman hate crypto so much? Because Brad Sherman gets his money from the Big Bangs, Chat, Caching, pawn shops. And so it's in his best interest to be anti-crypto and anti-Bitcoin.

And I'm going to tell you something right now. Before work, after work, every weekend, we are outdoor knocking, phone banking, canvassing. and I have yet to meet one person that wants it regulated or wants it banned, not one person. And I'm talking people from all walks of life, all across the political spectrum, age, gender, whatever. I have not met one person. And even people have this consensus that even if they don't hold Bitcoin or Ethereum or whatever, that it shouldn't be banned or regulated. And why are you working on that in Congress when we have an increase in homelessness in our district? when we have a housing crisis in our district,

when we have climate change problem, when we have education problems, why is that your priority? And so believe me when I say this, people need to go to fbc.com, type his name in the search engine, and look at where he gets the money. And that tells you everything you need to know

about what he's interested in. And I promise you, you will not see young people, people of color, everyday working people. You won't see that reflected in where he gets his money. So this is like your explanation for this because it's it's not just Brad Sherman. There are a few other politicians who've come out with this aggressive anti-crypto policy. And I've always just like been flabbergasted by it. It's like that can't be a winning position. Like back to your point, who on earth is asking for it? Which of your constituents are actually asking for this? And yet they're coming out very so strongly anti-crypto.

But if this is coming from the big banks, like the big banking lobby? Because if you're coming out, they're so strongly anti-crypto. But if you're- But if you're- you're representing your constituents, you're not taking this position. And that's the truth. If you had a town hall and said, hey, this is coming, I'm doing a hearing on cryptocurrency stable coins. How do you feel about it? And then you're hearing an overwhelming amount of people saying, look, we don't want that. Please regulate it, whatever. But then I can see him taking that position in the hearings. But if you have a town hall and no one is saying that this is their number one issue, then it shouldn't be something that you're aggressively trying to ban and regulate. And so obviously it goes back to where do you get your money.

And that's why I am very pro. And I know this can be controversial in the crypto space because there's this feeling about printing money. But public finance elections, imagine if we can get the big money out of election process, give everybody $100. They donate to the candidate that they wanted. then an elementary school teacher wouldn't have to hustle as like way hard to try to unseed an incumbent.

And it would make the incumbent actually go to their community and find out what they care about. We have to fix the systems. It's not like it's not enough to just replace people. We have to get to the root of it. But you have to have bold leaders, bold representatives that will introduce that legislation,

go on the House floor and give those impassioned speeches and rally up their constituents to put pressure on ever elected officials. That's how you get changed and that's how you create a movement. Okay, I want to specifically call out who you plan to actually represent because I mean, I think there might be a lot of listeners here that, you know, might be in your district that maybe they don't actually know it. So where is California 32nd District?

And can you tell us a little bit about that district? Who, what type of people lives there? What is the constituency base? and just like what's the region? So that we just had the redistrict and we lost the congressional seats. So CA 30, which was initially when I started running, it was CA30.

Now it's CA 32nd district. And we represent majority of the valley and they just added the palisades in Malibu. And if you go to my website, Erica for Congress.com, and you show it to the bottom, we have a whole map of the new district in all the cities. There's like micro, there's like smaller cities.

It's like a long list. And the demographic makes up from, you know, we have an array of people from the, from the economic standpoint. It's very diverse in terms of like, you know, race and age. We have the largest death community in the country, which I'm very proud about. I learned sign language when I was in college and I'm a huge advocate for the D and Deaf community. And we have a lot of like working class people. And we also have people, a lot of people that work in tech and, and they're very pro-innovation. Oh, thank you. There it is. And then we have, so it's a very well-diverse district. And so this is who I'm running to represent. Well, that is fantastic because from what I can

gather, this is a pretty well-populated district. Can you kind of just scale up how big California 32nd district is versus other districts? Is this a big district? Is this a medium district? What's the size of this? We don't have the census report yet. but it's going to be around 800,000 people-ish, give or take around in that, in that right. So it's fairly big. Like if you compare it, it is a bigger district. And L.A. has become an epicenter of the creative side of crypto, especially with this just absolute boom of NFTs.

Crypto has all of a sudden become cool in the last like, you know, 18 months or so. And a large part of that story has to do with the creatives outside of L.A. And so I think when we see you unseat Brad Sherman, maybe a lot of people are surprised about that. But maybe they're surprised about that because they weren't paying attention to how far crypto has infiltrated people's lives and how the NFT movement and the creator economy movement has really taken a seat in L.A. And so I kind of see L.A. as a perfect ground for flipping a seat that doesn't understand what an NFT is or why people are paying money for a JPEG. Yeah, I agree with you. And you know what I don't think people understand is like everyday people have crypto. Like I know lots of teachers. We talk about it on our lunch break. So it's so it's like you're like everyday people have it. There's a there's a girl. She doesn't live in my district,

but she's a huge volunteer for my campaign. She was a veteran. And when she came back, she fell into poverty and she got into Bitcoin when it was really, really early on and pulled herself out of poverty. And now she's devoted her life to community service and helping, you know, get elected officials into office that care about poverty. And so a lot of people in the crypto space actually give and do a lot of community service work with their earnings. And I think that goes a notice. And so we have to cheat as like a community, we have to change the narrative around Bitcoin

and crypto and what people really do because there's like this misconception. that's criminals and all this stuff. That's not true. That's not true. So you're going to tell me teachers I work with their criminals. Come on. They teach kindergarten. They teach kids to read. Like, let's be real. So we have a lot of work to do in terms of bringing other elected officials along. And I think that we're the campaign to do it. So Erica, there's also a story, I think, for the rest of the U.S. around innovation here. And you put out this tweet recently in early December. You said this, Congressman Brad Sherman wants to ensure our countries last in line to benefit from all the innovation that is occurring in the cryptocurrency

industry. It's time for new leadership. And you position yourself as someone who will fight and defend the infrastructure of Bitcoin and stable coins. And Brad Sherman has been a notable anti-crypto advocate in many of these conversations. What would you do differently? How do you think America can lead in crypto? Leave it alone. not try to regulate it to death, I would be the antithesis of him on that hearing, right? So I think that we need to embrace the innovation. I think it is going to be the next big thing, like as big as the internet. We're already seeing signs of that.

And so if I were in that hearing, you would be seeing me asking totally different questions that really highlight the net benefit of embracing Bitcoin and blockchain and innovation and what it could do, because that's the education. educational piece. And you'll also see me trying to inform other members of Congress why they should also refrain from trying to regulate it. And if they were going to do it, then we need to make sure that it's done accurately and that the language is correct and that it's being presented to the public and like being intellectually honest, I think is the best way of framing it. And then also I'm going to start. I want to, I think there's already one, I guess,

found that you can't have a Bitcoin caucus, but definitely be a part of the bipartisan crypto caucus. Because I think it's important that when things come up for a vote, that we can then as a caucus, then go and educate people and say, like, no, this is why you don't want to vote this when if you do it, then maybe we'll hold our votes on X, Y, and Z, and to leverage in that way, and then definitely sign onto the bills that are pro-innovation in the United States. We definitely want to make sure that this stays here. So I think a lot of us, you know, know the stats, know how difficult it is to actually unseat a multi-decade, you know, incumbent. Somebody like Brad Sherman. What makes you think you can unseat him? What makes you think we have a shot this time? Oh, a lot of reasons. One, he's canvassing. I haven't, I've lived out in my district since 2006. I have never once seen him even canvas or campaign or anything because he just thinks that that seats his. And so now he's, he's actively campaigning. So that's a really good thing. Out of fear. Well, out of fear.

You know, this is a historic race too. And so we've never had a women represent this district. We never had a black woman or African-American represent this district. So people are really paying attention to this race. And we're starting to get national attention. So he's really taking this seriously. And we have the bankroll. You know, we still have, you know, about half a million more to go, which I do believe is going to come Q2. but he sees that this teacher has actual cash on hand and can physically take him out. And we're running a really solid ground game. We are in the community every single day.

As I'm doing this interview, people are phone banking and everything. So we're in this to win it and he knows it. And so I think he does fear me. Well, and he should. And we will definitely be telling people where they can go donate at the end of this show. But before we get there, there's some other conversations that we want to talk about, more details on your actual specific crypto policy. Stable coins are a very hot subject right now, as well as things like SEC regulation

and exactly what you talked about, which we want to make sure that American policy doesn't regulate away the value of crypto. So we're going to get all into those subjects and more, right after we talk about some of these fantastic sponsors that make the show possible. When you shop for plane tickets, you probably use kayak, Expedia, or Google to compare ticket prices. So why would you limit yourself to just one exchange when you trade crypto? When you make your trades, you want to make sure you're getting the best possible price on your trade. And that's why you should be using Macha. Masha has smart order routing that splits your trade across all the various liquidity sources in Ethereum.

And is also operational on Polygon, Avalanche, finance smart chain, and other chains. Trading on Masha is super easy because it pools the liquidity for me in a single easy-to-use platform and allows me to make a limit on-chain orders. So you can set and forget your DFI trades, and they will go through automatically while you're away. So when you're making a trade, head over to macha.xyz slash bankless and connect your wallet to start getting the best prices and most liquidity when you trade your crypto assets. The Gemini Exchange has been my exchange of choice ever since I got into crypto. I use Gemini to both buy the dips and also manage my regular automatic monthly purchases of my preferred crypto asset. On Gemini, you'll find over 50 different cryptos, including many of the top defy and Metaverse tokens like Wi-Fi and Axi Infinity.

Using Gemini Earn, you can earn yield on your various cryptos. including 8% on the GUSD stable coin. Gemini is available in all 50 states and more than 50 countries worldwide. So if you're looking to upgrade your crypto exchange, sign up at Gemini with Gemini.com slash Go Bankless and get $15 of Bitcoin after you trade $100 or more within the first 30 days. That's Gemini.com slash go bankless. Bankless is proud to be sponsored by Uniswap.

Uniswap is a new paradigm in asset exchange infrastructure. Instead of a cumbersome order book system, where trades are matched with other humans, Uniswap is an autonomous piece of software on Ethereum that lets you trade any token at the current market price. No human counterparties or centralized intermediaries, just autonomous code on Ethereum. Input the token you want to sell and receive the token you want to buy. The Uniswap Grants program is accepting applications for grants. Do you have something of value that you think you want to contribute to the Uniswap ecosystem?

No matter how big or small your idea is, you can apply for a unique grant at Uniswapgrant. and help steer Uniswap in the direction that you think it should go. Thank you, Uniswap, for sponsoring bankless. All right, guys, we are back with Erica Rhodes, and we're going to dive into some specifics around crypto policy and some of the hot topics that come to mind with regards to crypto in Capitol Hill is that we're looking for fair and equal treatment from the SEC and clarity from the SEC.

We're looking to get stable coins more and more accepted into the financial ecosystem. We'd love changes to the United States of creating. investor accreditation laws because we think those are disenfranchising to anyone that doesn't have a million dollars in assets, which is most people. And we also look exactly what we were talking about before we went to the break is we want to make sure that the United States leads crypto. So Erica, with regards to the specifics behind your stance towards crypto or what you want to see when you become the representative for California 32nd District, what will you focus on? What are you interested in changing first? You know, something that I've been, I, I, I, I,

And I'm still flushing out how this would work. But I'm wondering, I'm curious, is there a way that this can benefit our foster use? I've been thinking about that a lot lately because when kids age out of the foster care system, they immediately fall into poverty or a prison system. And so I was wondering if there's a way that that could be linked. This isn't going to be controversial, but I'm going to say it. I do like aspects of the Green New Deal. I like the Green New Deal.

and I'm very mindful of the environment. And I believe that the crypto space is really doing their due diligence on being more environmentally friendly and trying to make sure that when they're mining the coin, that they're, you know, using renewable energy, methane, solar and wind power. And when I met with miners, I was blown away by that they're paying their miners six figures and they're being environmentally friendly. So I was wondering, can we find a way to put that into this, in the Green New Deal? I've been wondering about that. I think that's worth talking about because I think personally, Bitcoin should not be a partisan issue. Crypto should be a partisan issue.

Anybody that wants to get it should be able to get it and not get attacked regardless of their political affiliations. I really feel that way. And so I think if we can find a way to bring progressives more along and not be like so like, you know, oh my God, you know, I think that would be a positive thing. But I definitely want to push innovation, financial literacy and making sure that we are the forefront of this innovative technology. Because I do, again, think it's going to be as big as the internet. And it's not going away. It's not going away.

So I think we should be the leaders of it. So, Erica, there's been kind of another term that's been used over the past year or so that's kind of caught some steam. Rather than crypto, people have been begun to talk about this industry as Web 3, right? So the third generation of kind of the Internet, right? And an Internet where individual consumers get their data back, they are in control, they have full sovereignty over the data. It's no longer the big tech companies that are running things. So it's much more decentralized internet. I'm curious from your perspective.

I know the term crypto has been associated with all sorts of things in politics and in, Capitol Hill, like, you know, drug dealer money and all of these things from the past, which, you know, like, we don't have to revisit that. But what do you think of the term Web 3? Does that sort of maybe renew the conversation about what the possibility is. what the possibilities are, what the potential is for crypto? We sort of think about that term a little bit more. Does that get maybe more progressives excited and on board with this movement?

You know, I do find it to be exciting. I'm going to be very transparent and honest. I haven't really dug my, you know, my heels into this deeply because I've been really focused on really understanding how we can leverage Bitcoin and making it a part of my campaign with through lightning and really trying to understand the transactions, how we can integrate it with small businesses. So, I'm being honest, like, I haven't really done my full due diligence. But I'm a person, like, I'm so open.

Like, I'm open for anything that is, you know, about the future, that's innovative, that's cutting edge, that modernizes things and keeps up with the time. So I'm not against it. One thing I think that you feel pretty strongly about is the way that the banking system has disenfranchised so many people, especially in impoverished. communities. Where do you see crypto works its way into this conversation? Well, I found it interesting that Bank of America just announced that they're lowering their fees. I wonder why. I do have a great issue with the banking system. I think that they take advantage of people that live paycheck to paycheck,

which is 75% of Americans. And I think that it's worth noting that most Americans, not most, but a large percentage of Americans are a paycheck away from falling into financial ruin. And so if you overdraft and then you're getting all those fees by the time you get your next paycheck, a fourth of it's gone. So how are you supposed to get ahead? You know, I volunteer at a food bank every single Tuesday, not today because I'm with you guys that I made this commitment, but I try to go every Tuesday. And there are people that literally work all day. And then they sit in a and they sit in this food bank line for another hour and a half, two hours just to get a box. of food for the week. And you know, you have to wonder, like, where are we going wrong? Like, why,

like, why I can't people get ahead and you start talking to them? And it's the banking fees. And then I also feel very strongly that pawn shops and check cashing should not be a financial institution for anyone. The interest rates are absolutely insane and equally important. I feel very strongly that financial literacy needs to be taught in schools. Kids really need to understand personal finance. I talk to kids all the time and this is something that they're craving, it's something they want. They should not be going into college not knowing. So I think the banks have also they discriminate with loans and I have an issue with that. And so that's why I'm very, very pro Bitcoin because I think that it is an alternative to the bank.

system and people should have options now. And it's hard to buy a house. It's like, that's a whole another rabbit hole. Can we talk a little bit more about financial literacy? Because that's something near and dear to our hearts. Like so you're an educator. In a weird way, David and I consider ourselves a little bit of educators too, like in crypto, sort of, you know, bringing stuff out of this, this difficult opaque industry and, you know, telling more people about it. But a lot of people we're finding, especially kids, are actually learning finance through crypto. It's kind of interesting, right? It's like, you know, David's an example of this. But, you know, there are many others. There's a 12-year-old, you know, kid involved in the crypto industry that we know in the bankless

community. It's, you know, building all sorts of things. And, you know, learning finance, learning how the world works, learning money systems through crypto. How important is financial literacy do you think? And like how does the U.S., you know, how do we change our education system to prioritize that? It's very important and we need to rewrite the curriculum. It's not a standard. It's not a math standard that teachers are asked to teach. And so we have to rewrite the curriculum.

I think it's incredibly vital that we do this. You know, funny thing, and I do think this is worth mentioning when you brought up kids or starting to learn themselves. GameStop is a great example of that. Because when that happened, that was pretty epic. And ironically, I had taught the stock market to my students two weeks before. And so when that happened, it was like the most iconic teachable moment because we were able to really dive deep into that and what that all entailed. And I think that's really, really important.

And I also think that we have to really talk about when they take out loans, like what that means. So there's this big push to talk about like canceling student like the student loan debt and all that kind of stuff. But I also feel that when they were taking out the loan, that they should understand the interest on that loan. And if they were in a position, like at 35, 40, 45 years old, do you still want to be paying this amount of money for this particular art degree? You know, are you going to, is that an art degree, a $200,000 art degree, a big return? Is that a good return on your investment? Is that a good, is that wise? And we need to be guiding our kids better.

You know, my mom, you know, made it a point to teach me financial literacy when I was in college. And so I didn't even really get it until I was in college. And so I just think that we need to keep up with the time. And also school is more fun when it's connected to the real world. And I think it will engage kids more. And I've always taught like that stuff in my classroom. Even in second grade, we had a class bank account. I talked about how to hustle and how to make money and we saved it. And then okay, now you guys raise. I don't remember them out, but you raise this amount of money. What do you want to do with it? And they actually invested money back into their classroom and a field trip. So I just think it's really, really important. And it can,

be taught literally throughout all the grades and just age appropriate. Maybe that could be a new slogan for the crypto industry is making finance fun again, because that's certainly why I learned about crypto in the first place was it finally made money and money stuff fun to learn about. And so I'm bullish on crypto maybe making its way into the educational system just as a route of something that kids gravitate towards, towards when they want to learn about basic math and how the economy works. Yeah.

And you have kids that want to be entrepreneurs that are already entrepreneurs and they don't even realize that they're being an entrepreneur. And I don't believe colleges for everyone. I believe that we need to invest in trade schools. I think that we need to meet kids where they're at and not as to say like, oh, that's the way to do it.

Because I know a lot of people that went and got a college degree that still live at home or rent a one bedroom apartment from someone. So, you know, a room from someone. So I do think that we need to make this a priority and keep up with the times. I really, I really do. Erica, I want to ask about this status of your campaign. And just for people that perhaps aren't just politically tuned in, what is the timeline?

How many months until election time? How much money have you raised? How much more money do you need to raise? And what's left for you to do in order to take this seat away from Brad Sherman? So the primary, so this is very important. So we are California, so we are a jungle primary. So that means anybody that's running, the top two people, then go to the general election. So it's not like the top two Democrats and then the top two Republicans and then they go toe to toe. It's literally no matter the party, the top two people, we are number two right now. I'm really excited about that. So right now,

if people were to vote, we probably make it to at least the general. So that's how competitive our races right now. So the primary dates June 7th. California just passed a law that mail-in ballots are now allowed. So that's off, that's to our advantage. So it makes it more accessible for people. We raise a quarter of a million dollars, a little over a quarter million dollars, and we have 200,000 of that cash on hand. So we've been very fiscally responsible, holding our money until we need to. And then we then as we get, ready for a get out of the vote, we are going to just just drop all our coin and give it everything we need. And so to execute our entire vision that will lead us to victory, we need to raise another

half a million dollars. I think that would ensure our victory. I really do. Brad had almost four million at the end of Q3. He's been actively fundraising because he knows that we're starting to gain momentum. And I want to remind people, we don't need what he has. I don't even want what he has. I don't even want to win this election with that kind of money because I think it's just a freaking waste. I just want to make sure that our message gets out to voters. I want to do it under a million dollars.

And I really want this to really show that everyday people can untaven incumbent to bring hope again. And so if you can just be like a $5 to $10 recurring donor between now and the end of our campaign or donate any amount, the max donation is $2,900. We happily accept Bitcoin and crypto to our campaign. So that makes us really cool. And at the forefront of election season,

we were one of the first campaigns, I think the first to even start this. You could donate that way. And so that's the state of our campaign. Well, while we're talking about it, where can people donate, Erica? So Erica for Congress.com

and it's A-A-R-I-K-A for Congress, F-R-R-R-C-R-C-R-R-R-R-S. And if you follow me on Twitter, I have the link right in my bio. And yeah. One of my favorite, there's a book that's very famous in the crypto space called The Sovereign Individual. And one of my favorite lessons I learned from that book is that throughout history, if two armies of equal size went head to head, it was always the army that cared about what they were fighting for that won. And so I think when Erica Rhodes receives $1, that goes a lot further than Brad Sherman receiving. $1 because you are actually tapped in to who you are fighting for. And so if anyone wants to help Erica Rhodes, unseat Brad Sherman, who is backed by banks,

definitely there's a link in these show notes, both on the podcast and on the YouTube to go to her page, learn more about her, learn more about her policy, and then click that donate button. Erica, do you have any last messages for our listeners of a bankless nation? Yeah, go for it. I do. I want to say something about our campaign dollars. We are very intentional about being a community service-driven campaign and empowering youth campaign. So any young person that's 16 or older that wants to canvas on our campaign, we actually pay them.

I actually pay them for their time because gas is really expensive. And so I want to make it very clear that we do our due diligence and we do the right thing with our campaign money. Also, we started a lending library program. We were able to do a community garden that's free for our D and death youth, foster youth. And so even if we were to lose, I don't think we will. But if we were, we've done a lot of good with the money. So it's not just a waste. It really upset me during the 2020 races.

People would raise millions and millions of dollars, just run ads, and then they lose. And it's like, well, where don't have money to go? You know, and so I was very intentional about making sure that a, you know, a percentage of it filters back into the community that we do good along. the way and that our youth can leverage off of our our campaign. And I'm very proud to say pretty much every single kid that we've ever had worked for us ended up going to the school of their choice because we were able to write meaningful letters of recommendations. They were able to put, you know, really cool experiences that they've had on our campaign. And there are future senators,

you know, president, one wants to be a president. And they're also very pro-bik coin. So I just want to plug that because I don't think people pay attention to where the money goes that much because it gets like, oh, got to be bad, got to be bad. But we also have to do good along the way and really uphold integrity, be principled, have values, and, and let this race really mean something when it's all said and done. And that's all I want to say. That's fantastic, Erica. You know, thank you so much. This has been great. I, you know, I want to just maybe address one last cohort. I think we address the apathetic listeners, really not into politics earlier in the show. But can we talk to the listener who's maybe doesn't typically

vote blue or your side of the aisle at all? Because I think what we're seeing a lot in crypto is single issue voters, right? The rise of people who like crypto is a bipartisan issue. At least it should be. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's not a red or a blue thing. It's completely bipartisan. So how how would you represent? represent the single issue voter. And why is it important for a single issue voter to vote for a pro-crypto candidate rather than a Brad Sherman? Can you make that case too? Yeah, you know, I think it's important to vote because that's your citizen and that's just your, you know, that's sacred. And, you know, that's just something special. And it does matter. Elections have been lost off of

100 votes, 500 votes. And I would hate for us to have this really supreme opportunity and lose it because we didn't get a couple hundred votes. So that's one. Two, you can see the hearings. Stable Queens is coming up again in a couple weeks. There's another one in February. So it is a political issue. And if it's something that you care about,

it takes five minutes to go pass the vote. Probably takes 30 seconds to register and five minutes actually vote. And I think it's really important. And just out of, and I'm going to just be honest, I'm just going to say it. I am a teacher. I'm really doing the best that I can. I'm really genuinely trying to make a difference.

So you live in the 32nd district. Just vote for me. I really, like, I'm a regular person and I'm really trying my best. Like, this is the best way I know how to advocate for young people and for everyday people. And so that I hope incentivizes you to cast a vote because I am a decent person. I'm not. I don't have my mom is a $20, like, I know, she's a $5 re-curring donor. And then when we were trying to raise our last $23,000, my dad gave $25.

He was like, because I don't come from money. I'm just, I'm super regular. So I hope that will inspire people to, to cast a vote and to chip in a little bit to help us win. There you go, Erica Rhodes. We are cheering from you. And make sure you come back and keep us updated on the campaign. Let's get Brad Sherman out, Bankless Nation. Erica Rhodes, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much. Guys, risk and disclaimers, we didn't talk about financial advice this time, but we never do because bankless never provides financial advice. Of course, ETH is risky, Bitcoin is risky, all of crypto is risky. You could definitely lose what you put in. But we are headed west. This is the frontier. It's not for everyone, but we're glad you're with us on the bankless journey.

Thanks.