23 Apr 2014 / SFGate – For Oakland mayoral candidate Bryan Parker, technology is a solution to many of the East Bay city’s woes. Parker, who entered the tech industry over a decade ago as senior director of finance at security software firm iPass, sees bitcoin as a way to address poverty and crowdfunding as a means of increasing financing for civic development. He favors analytics to maximize the efficiency of Oakland’s understaffed police force and improve education in the city’s classrooms.
Parker shared his ideas about how Oakland can capitalize on its proximity to Silicon Valley and use technology to innovate.
Q: You’ve said bitcoin, the digital crypto-currency, would be a part of your economic plan for the city, in particular helping to build a “culture of saving” among Oakland’s poorest residents. How would that work?
A: What I’m doing is engaging in the fight on poverty, which is a big, ambitious goal. What is one of the ways you get poor people into different habits? You start getting them to save more, get them online. (Bitcoin) is a way of using modern technology that’s helpful in doing that. If I have money in the bank, I have embedded in the system a savings pattern because I have to go somewhere to get money. When you’re operating on cash, all your cash is there and it’s harder to keep track of. We’re reversing the paradigm here. I think (bitcoin) is something we can do in combination with financial literacy to drive better behavior…. Read more
Photo credit: SFGate
