The Boston Blockchain Podcast EP.8 | State Rep Kate Lipper-Garabedian Talks Blockchain

[Music] cubic Labs presents Boston blockchain week stepping into the future celebrating the creators innovators and heroes of blockchain and web3 I'm Mike Joshua from Mud House media reporting from Boston blockchain week 2022 presented by cubic Labs with me now is State Rep Kate Lipper garabedian welcome Kate how are you great thanks so much for having me oh absolutely so tell me what it is about what what brings you here absolutely so as a state representative who gets to think about State policy and filing bills this legislative session I filed a bill to create a special Commission on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency my background is in education I'm a former seventh grade public school teacher then I went to law school and practiced education law for more than a decade before taking on this role and so I don't come from a background in terms of disruptive innovation and Technology but I do come with a perspective about the importance of preparing our students for the 21st century economy and what's coming down the pipeline and so I thought starting with a special commission to really study the industry think about ways in which we can responsibly support it from a Workforce Development perspective from an economy development perspective would be really appealing so file that bill and at the same time launched a house caucus on blockchain technology with my co-chair representative Josh Cutler we've been meeting monthly as a group of house members and staffers with invited representatives from the blockchain technology Community to learn more to engage on these topics and from those discussions filed another bill this session with Josh Cutler to create a Workforce Development trust fund and a pilot program to support community colleges VOC Tech schools employer associations with providing curricula training and certificates in blockchain technology professions to really help support the ecosystem here and and make Boston you know a hub of this internationally that's fantastic and it seems like this Boston blockchain week is establishing itself as as that Hub is that is that correct I think that's right it's another example of the energy in this space and the fact that we can draw on some really natural local resources that we have both our heavy investment historically in K-12 education our incredible institutions of higher education are demonstrated wealth of expertise in certain industries that naturally would want to explore and already are exploring implementation and integration of blockchain into their functions so I'm thinking of financial institutions here that are known internationally our biotech fields are you know our heavy investment in stem as well what's the best way for a company that's interested in learning more getting involved whether they're in state out of state what's their first step to to getting in touch with What's Happening Here in Boston and Quincy well that's a great question for you know the um the founders of this week as well as the hosts at cubic Labs certainly if they're interested in having a dialogue about what's happening at in the state government the degree to which we're exploring this industry thinking about ways to integrate blockchain technology functions into government as well right ways in which we can better serve our constituents with their interfacing with government transactions and services we'd I'd love to hear from you directly so you're welcome to find me on the Massachusetts legislature website Reach Out by email or call the office and you could obviously do that for any of my colleagues as well finally Kate what's the most exciting thing that's happening uh here at Boston blockchain for you for me well it's just an opportunity to get to meet other people creators you know intellectuals academics practitioners and sort of better and deepen my understanding of of the space um think about ways to sort of apply it to the work that I'm going to be doing in a next legislative term including as house chair of the caucus I think the caucus will come out with some bills that are priorities for us when we are sworn back in in January of next year that's fantastic forward-looking and uh and so exciting Kate thank you so much thanks so much for having me for more on Boston blockchain week go to bostonblockchainweek.com for more about cubic Labs go to cubiclabs.com