Christel Buchanan

ERA 2024

While visiting CZ in the United Arab Emirates, I didn’t only get to see Dubai, I also got the privilege of meeting some of the most influential people in Crypto at a small house party in Abu Dhabi. Two of those people include Christel and her husband Mike Buchanan, who live in Singapore.

From the moment I heard Christel’s story, I knew she was the kind of global entrepreneur whose perspectives could enlighten anyone. I asked if she would volunteer some time for a video call with me. I wanted to learn from her. Then I could share her message with people in our audience–many of whom are women living in crisis. We need to feature people like Christel–a self-directed woman who builds and builds.

Christel is the personification of an entrepreneur. Before she became successful, she invested in herself to learn. As she learned, she used her wisdom to identify opportunities. She didn’t only learn by doing, but also by observing while working at major global companies. She was born and raised in Singapore, where she benefited from a strong public education system. She earned a scholarship to attend university, but also did her own research by looking outside the classroom to find opportunities to create or seize. She’s always been driven to learn by doing.

  1. Early Start:
    • She attended public schools in Singapore, then won a prestigious government scholarship to study at a local university.
    • Even before finishing her degree, she launched a graphic design business in her first year—her first taste of entrepreneurship.
  2. Corporate Experiences:
    • After graduation, she worked for a global media company (Havas) and later joined Twitter.
    • At Twitter, she was among the first employees to help expand the company from the United States to Asia and other international markets.
  3. Entrepreneurship Takes Flight:
    • Christel’s interactions with innovators at Twitter inspired her to build her own company, Babe, a platform that helps content creators reach global audiences without relying on large, centralized organizations.
    • Over the years, Babe has expanded to support big clients like Bloomberg as well as everyday creators. It’s now accessible on millions of smart TVs worldwide.
  4. Ongoing Education:
    • As if building businesses weren’t enough, she also enrolled in a part-time Master’s program at Oxford University. She’s currently working toward a graduate degree to learn more about AI (Artificial Intelligence), another transformative technology that’s shaping our future.

The big takeaway for me, and for anyone in our audience, is that Christel never stops investing in herself. We strive to share that message through our curriculum, and she puts a human face on the success for people who do: if you invest in your education, you can open new doors, even if you’re in a difficult place right now.



Early Adoption of Bitcoin

Christel first heard about Bitcoin in 2010—very early in the cryptocurrency’s history. Back then, buying Bitcoin involved navigating complicated online forums. Conventional investors didn’t yet trust Bitcoin, and it was still more of a theoretical experiment than an established asset. Yet she saw the potential for a new form of money that could bring opportunities to people worldwide.

Despite the early skepticism from traditional finance, Christel and many others who embraced self-directed learning developed a belief that Bitcoin and blockchain technology would continue to evolve—just like the internet did in its earliest days. She and her peers took a chance, and that decision opened doors to her current ventures at the frontier of digital finance.

In that era, investors valued Bitcoin at less than $1 per coin. Since then, over the past 15 years, Bitcoin has performed better than any other asset class. As I wrote this entry for our master-class series, the global markets value Bitcoin at more than $100,000 per coin. Had Christel not invested in herself, she may not have spotted the opportunities that others missed. Her story provides further evidence that we all should invest in ourselves to learn. The more we learn, the more we put ourselves in the pathway of opportunities.



Explaining Layers in Blockchain

During our conversation, Christel helped clarify some of the complexity around blockchain layers:

  • Bitcoin: Often called the “grandfather” of blockchains. It provides a peer-to-peer network for sending value around the world, but it doesn’t allow for more complex “smart contracts.”
  • Ethereum: A child of Bitcoin that enabled programmable transactions via smart contracts. This gave rise to decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and many new use cases.
  • Rollups, Side-Chains, and More: These are extensions or separate blockchains that connect to main networks (like Ethereum). They aim to make transactions faster and cheaper.

Although the technical details can be overwhelming, anyone can start by learning the basics. She encourages people to learn from the Bitcoin white paper that Satoshi Nakamoto published in 2008. Then, people who want to create the kinds of opportunities that Christel opened should read more, learning at their own pace. We’ll continue to publish and distribute content for people who do not have access to the internet.


Christel’s New Venture: “Pivotal”

Christel’s latest startup, Pivotal, builds on the concept of staking Bitcoin. Traditionally, Bitcoin hasn’t allowed for “smart contracts” or “staking” the way Ethereum has. Now, through emerging protocols, there’s a way to “stake” (or lock up) your Bitcoin as security for other blockchain networks—letting you potentially earn a yield (an interest-like return) on your Bitcoin. Here’s how she explained it:

  1. Staking: You lock your Bitcoin in a digital vault, but it stays in your own wallet. Your Bitcoin provides security for transactions on other blockchains in a permissionless, decentralized way.
  2. Potential Yield: By contributing your Bitcoin’s “economic security,” you might earn a small return. This yield often comes from a combination of transaction fees and other rewards paid out by the protocol.
  3. Smart Security: Protocols like Babylon (the underlying technology for Pivotal) use cryptographic methods and time-stamping features to ensure that your locked Bitcoin follows automated rules. You can always “unstake” your Bitcoin if you need to, and everything is recorded transparently on the blockchain.

Christel is quick to note that yields on Bitcoin staking won’t be as high as people sometimes claim in sensational headlines. If someone promises 15–20% returns on any investment, that’s a big red flag. Realistically, she says, even 0.5% or 1% can be considered a positive start. Although it’s still very early days, some see huge potential as developers integrate Bitcoin into more decentralized applications.

To understand more about such yields, it might be wise to study more financial terms, interest rates, and Bitcoin. For many people, Bitcoin is a store of value, an asset class that serves many purposes. Instead of trading or selling Bitcoin, many people want to hold onto the asset, believing the scarcity and other features will push valuations higher, leading to generational wealth. If Pivotal can provide a yield to investors for the Bitcoins they hold, then Pivotal creates enormous value to the marketplace and advances the cryptocurrency network.



The Bigger Picture: Opportunities in Tech

If you’re a student of the Prison Professors curriculum, then you may wonder why it’s important to learn about more opportunities in the digital economy. Consider the following lesson that i learned from Christel:

  • Always Learn: Christel’s story shows how investing in yourself—through formal education or self-study—can unlock new paths, even if you start with minimal resources.
  • Look to the Future: By staying informed about technologies like blockchain, AI, and decentralized finance, you position yourself to seize opportunities when you return to society.
  • Adopt a Global Mindset: Christel built her career in Singapore, worked at Twitter, launched a startup that spans multiple countries, and now invests in Bitcoin staking. In the digital era, anyone can connect and collaborate worldwide.

Recommended Reading

Christel recommends starting with the Bitcoin White Paper—it’s roughly 10 pages and offers the foundation of how this technology works. She also suggests other reading, including All In on AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence, a book by Tom Davenport and Nitin Mittal.

I have not yet read this book, but when I do, I will write a review and share with our audience. Christel said that the book highlights how major companies are already using artificial intelligence to transform business. Even if you can’t access those materials easily right now, just knowing their titles can help you plan your future reading list. Separately, I’ll recomend the following book, which I finished listening to on Audible recently:



My Gratitude and Final Thoughts

I’m grateful that Christel, as a busy global entrepreneur, took the time to speak with me and share these insights. She shows us that if we stay focused on learning and remain open to new technologies, we can discover ways to contribute value to the world. That’s true whether we’re outside building businesses or inside prison preparing for the next phase of life.



Self-Directed Learning Question

  • In what ways are you broadening your awareness about emerging technologies and positioning yourself for success in a rapidly changing, globalized world?

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