In this episode, Sunny Ray reconnects with Hillary, Managing Director of the Blockchain Research Institute, whom he first met at Toronto Bitcoin meetups back in 2016. Hillary traces her unconventional path from a political studies degree at Queen's University through a decade in traditional finance at RBC Dominion Securities, Franklin Templeton, and UBS, into freelance writing and digital publishing. She explains how Don Tapscott's early books on the internet's transformative power, and later his tweets about bitcoin and decentralization, convinced her to pivot into blockchain before co-authoring articles with him and eventually joining the Blockchain Research Institute. The conversation also revisits the explosive growth of Toronto's early Bitcoin meetups, from intimate gatherings at Paytm Labs to overcrowded 1200 person events at MaRS. Hillary reflects candidly on the stark gender imbalance in those early crypto rooms, sharing the talk she gave on diversity using examples from the Boudon land movement in India and Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, and praises the role supportive spouses play in sustaining people through the industry's volatile cycles.
A former banker recounts her leap into blockchain, Don Tapscott's influence, and Toronto's wild early Bitcoin meetup days.
Where did we first meet each other?
I think it was at the Bitcoin training conference in 2016 in Toronto held at MaRS, but I actually remember meeting you a few days later at the meetup on Adelaide Street, around June 27th 2016. You held the door open for my husband and me and introduced yourself. That meetup was one of the first big ones in Toronto, and there was even pizza and beer back then.
What's your story of how you got into blockchain and bitcoin?
I was a political studies major at Queen's, then spent about ten years in banking at RBC Dominion Securities, Franklin Templeton, and UBS, where I got exposed to global currencies. After having kids I moved into freelance writing during the early internet era, which led me to Don Tapscott's work. When he started tweeting about bitcoin in 2015, I realized blockchain would disrupt financial services the way the internet disrupted publishing, so I dove in to get ahead of it.
What year did Blockchain Revolution come out?
Blockchain Revolution launched on May 5th, 2016, though Don was already tweeting about bitcoin and blockchain the year before while researching it. The book went on a nine month global tour and was translated into 18 languages, becoming a global bestseller and generating huge interest from the business community and governments.
How did you eventually connect with Don Tapscott?
He followed me back on Twitter and we connected on LinkedIn. He was true to his word about collaborating across digital channels, you simply had to send him a direct message saying you wanted to write about him or interview him and he'd say let's do it. Through that I asked for a copy of his Blockchain Revolution manuscript to write about it for the Globe and Mail.
Do you remember what you spoke about at the meetup event?
I spoke about the touchy subject of gender diversity in the blockchain ecosystem. At the meetup at MaRS with over 400 people, fewer than 10 were women. I used the Boudon land movement in India and Mahalia Jackson's nudge to Martin Luther King during the I Have a Dream speech to show how including women strengthens outcomes and messaging.
How lucky are you to have a supportive spouse in this space?
I'm incredibly lucky my husband joined me on this journey. When I said I wanted to register for the training course, we paid full tuition, just got a 200 dollar discount from a code Andreas Antonopoulos tweeted out. Having him certified alongside me, teaching our kids about crypto together as a family, has been awesome, and I see how frustrated innovators get without that kind of support.
What happened next after you spoke at the meetup, how did you end up at the institute?
At the time I was doing pro bono work, helping Kyle Kemper with social media for the Social Wallet and working with Alan Wunsche at Token Thunder on digital and comms. After Blockchain Revolution came out and my Globe and Mail article was well received, that collaboration eventually led to me joining the Blockchain Research Institute, where I've now been for almost four years.
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