Today at Pinngle we are pleased to present you our interview with Julio Córdoba Elizondo, Lawyer graduated from the Fidelitas University, Psychologist from the Autonomous University of Central America, and Specialist in Neuromarketing from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica. In addition to working as a litigant lawyer and consultant psychologist, he is a speaker at the Freedom of Expression Forum in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica. Julio has been a lecturer at the Symposium on Social Media and Law, speaker on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency issue, and his pioneering research on this subject is cited internationally. As a speaker on Criminal Law and Information Technology, he has also visited the Southern Zone, Caribbean, and Pacific in the framework of events organized by the Costa Rican Lawyers Association.
Pinngle: Julio, you are an expert in IT law. Why have you chosen this profession?
Julio: IT law is a specialty and area of practice in the legal sciences, in my case as a lawyer with the practice in criminal law and with a background in the field of digital society, I combined that experience with that related to IT law, both in the criminal types and in procedural issues. In addition, given that society is digitalizing, much of the illegal behavior is transferred to the field of IT practice; Clients consult about these issues and request solutions for legal problems in the digital field.
Pinngle: Nowadays the issue of online security is not only about personal data, but also about financial transactions. Lately, many startups have emerged within the framework of fintech. What do you think, what changes do these developments bring?
Julio: We are in a society that transcends borders and creates a global cyber-economy, fintech developments from a broad knowledge focus, in clean capital environments, with investors who know the risks and with entrepreneurs who try to change paradigms, will emerge in this unequivocal way great social transformations as in the era of the dot-com or the boom of social networks. It is time for transformation.
Pinngle: The key to fintech are startups. Among them, the first that became a global giant was PayPal, founded in 1998. Although in the following year it was voted as the worst idea, today PayPal has 205 million users and processes more than 1.7 billion of payments. Now there are many more startup companies. As for Pinngle, it is a mobile calling and messaging app, through which you can make free calls, as well as send messages. In addition, we offer payment services that let our users call outside the Pinngle network, to landline and mobile numbers, including international ones. This is much cheaper and much more convenient compared to traditional calls. It seems to us that these two factors (the economic benefits and the convenience) are the main causes that attract so much popularity also to the fintech services. Could you say what you consider to be the most important benefits for the users of fintech services?
Julio: In my opinion, from a broad focus, constant innovation gives humanity the opportunity to not have a roof when it comes to surpassing the capacity for invention by creating new services. Regarding the benefits of fintech services, it is disruption of traditional models and innovation that generates the facilitation of the commercial transaction, at lower costs and in higher volume.
Pinngle: One of the most revolutionary novelties of recent years is the invention of cryptocurrencies. Although banks do not recognize them as traditional currencies, protected even by governments, cryptocurrencies are the most appreciated and the most expensive ones in the world. In your opinion, why does it happen and what opportunities does this innovation open up in the world of contemporary economics?
Julio: There are different cryptocurrencies, thousands of them, however referring only to the most appreciated, decentralized and of the highest price, I believe that these are becoming “common language” (unit of measure that communicates cross-border the value of the things) and, not being centralized and having an emission limit – like bitcoin – have an appreciability that protects the user from such a monetary phenomena as the inflation is, that impoverishes people as the most unfair of all the taxes.
Pinngle: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were created in order to have a much freer, decentralized and transparent market, as well as secure and anonymous. Pinngle messaging app is also providing a service, that protects its users to the maximum since, in addition to having an end-to-end encryption, it works serverless. That means, no private data, shared through Pinngle, is stored, nor can it be accessed by third parties, offering perhaps the safest service nowadays. Do you think that these technical means can provide humanity with greater freedom and autonomy in the future?
Julio: I consider that humanity needs to grow without the incessant and oppressive police look of politicians “in the name of security”, that is why any communication app that brings people closer without government interference is and will be an opportunity to grow for the humankind because we can only grow free. This type of services are extremely urgent in countries where political repression supports dictatorships and the people need to organize themselves for the transition to freedom.
