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- This fortnightly podcast from the World Economic Forum features the world’s top changemakers, showcasing the habits and traits effective leaders can’t work without.
- Netta Korin of blockchain startup Orbs and non-profit the Hexa Foundation, is using technology to solve big humanitarian problems.
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Netta Korin is no stranger to pivots. She’s worked in investment banking, government, philanthropy and even founded a cafe whose profits went straight to charity.
Those experiences helped her see the value in leveraging blockchain technology to solve big problems such as waste in foreign aid – and the potential for the technology to help billions of people.
Her first exposure to blockchain came just three years ago while working as an advisor for Israel’s Ministry of Defense. A meeting with the World Food Programme introduced her to a pilot project that deployed blockchain to help feed thousands of undocumented refugees. Blockchain allowed the organization to have a clear picture of where its money was going and whom its dollars were feeding.
The project was an ‘aha’ moment for Korin who saw the possibilities of decentralized databases to bring more transparency to aid and a number of pernicious problems. Today she works as co-founder of the blockchain startup Orbs and the founder of the Hexa Foundation, a non-profit that leverages the technology to solve global humanitarian problems.
One of Hexa’s key projects currently is educating global law enforcement agencies on the potential for blockchain to eliminate exploitative images of children. The solution deploys an existing technology created by Microsoft and Dartmouth College and a decentralized global database that can retain user privacy while helping agencies eliminate access to most illegal imagery online. “It’s a perfect use for blockchain,” says Korin.
Korin talks to Meet the Leader about her latest pivot to the technology sector. Hosted by editor Linda Lacina, these bi-weekly podcast interviews dive into the habits and qualities leaders depend on the most – the ones that truly underpin great change.
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Highlights of this episode
A habit she swears by: Educating law enforcement about her solution to tackle illegal imagery takes call after call – and patience. To maximize her outreach, Korin says she looks for ‘the doers’ – people in agencies and governments who look beyond their roles and just want to solve problems. These people are most likely to help connect her to the right people and get her closer to making her solution a reality.
A book she recommends: The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking. This book was one of the first Korin read when she got into the blockchain industry and it helped her understand what Bitcoin is, what digital money is and have a better sense of the history of money itself. Korin suggests anyone read it to gain a better understanding of how value has been transferred and the resulting innovations that have developed over time.
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Listen to Meet The Leader‘s sister podcasts World Vs Virus, about the global pandemic, and The Great Reset, on the efforts to ‘build back better’.