Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee members for having me here today to represent Women in Blockchain Canada.
The corporation has been federally incorporated since 2018. We have been doing workshops around blockchain education. Really, in order for us to move anywhere, people need to know what blockchain is, how it works and what the use cases are. Specifically, the mission of the organization is to inspire women to become involved in blockchain technology. There are various studies that confirm that women are under-represented in blockchain technology.
Furthermore, to add to what other people have said, 15% of Canadians are underbanked, so definitely the financial sector is a place where there could be regulation to help people have access, especially those who are under-represented.
Basically, I started with blockchain technology because I come from an immigrant background and I was having a conversation with another person who's an immigrant about sending money abroad. Using the current financial system is difficult and expensive, and the reality is that it takes a long time for things to be authenticated.
A lot of other people have also mentioned NFTs, insurance and the banking sector, so I will just add to that. One of the biggest industries in Canada is real estate. You can use blockchain to do title searches, for example, which makes it much cheaper and much less expensive, and you can authenticate on the blockchain. Another use case can be authentication of documents. That's just to add to what everybody else has already said.
What I would really like to focus on is the fact that in order to create regulation, there needs to be education around this space. People need to know what is really happening, and that's really the mission behind the organization.
In closing, I would like to suggest to committee members that they look at how we can include people at different economic levels in the space. Specifically, I offer accommodation for consultation strategies to be developed to reach the under-represented groups.
Thank you.