Bitcoin Forum

Hear me out, it's just an idea... (continuation from this (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2gbyyf/why_dont_we_fund_and_air_a_national_tv_commercial/ckhqfy0?context=3))

Inspiration: https://usbank.visabuxx.com/

Kids i.e. ~13-18 year olds. Old enough to want to spend money online, too young for their own credit card.

Some parents want to give their kids a way to spend a small amount of money online without giving them a credit card or debit card. Bitcoin is:

• completely anonymous (read: safe)
• has strict spending limits (can't spend more then you have)
• has no monthly fees
• is accepted at (some) online merchandisers (parents might like the idea that it's limited).

Kids can spend money securely through a program on their computer (maybe a dumbed down version of electrum).

Kids can buy the latest humble bundle for example without having to ask their parents.

It makes since that you have to convert money into kid money. It doesn't make since (for the average person) to buy bitcoins to shop at newegg. You could have just used your credit card and skipped a step and saved time.

I know this might propigate a bad image for Bitcoin (i.e. it's kid money) but I don't think that would kill it.

-> Remember kids grow up. <-

seeing as it is small amount like $5 a phone app wallet would achieve this.
i do not recommend third party services for life savings or large investments, but for a kids weekly pocketmoney a web wallet is the perfect scenario.


banks and governments had the same mindset in 2012.. now look at them, they all want a piece of the bitcoin pie

Can't believe you missed the gambling...

On the subject, I think there already is a pretty big number of 16-18 yo using bitcoins. There was a poll somewhere on this forum, but cannot find it.

You forgot music and celebrities, teenagers are very into that.  Video games also come to mind.

I'm 14 and I planned to use bitcoins to buy some steam games. I mined some altcoins at launch to get the money but I wanted to invest in altcoins. So I did, and managed to get up to 0.4 btc. But (because I was stupid) I went into pump and dumps and my 0.4 btc turned into 0.2 btc and then another pump and dump turned it into 0.07. At that point I gave up trading for a while.
Now it seems that I've lost my touch with trading. I'm too scared to invest now but when I do, the price always drops. A good example of my bad luck would be motocoin. I sold all of my coins. The next day I decided to invest again and I sent btc to the exchange. I forgot about it and a few hours later I went on the exchange and the price was x5. I was so angry with myself for forgetting. You can probably see a post I made on the motocoin thread when that happened.

Anyway, back on topic;

A dumbed down version of electrum? Maybe if it was for 10 -12 year olds.

I used the (20gb waste of space) BitcoinCore but now I use the blockchain.info app because I can scan QR codes for payment. I think most people my age can handle normal wallets but then again, people say I am mature for my age.

I'm not sure we should be specifically targeting children to be honest. Bitcoin has both pluses and negatives for kids, but kids in the uk can still get a debit card pretty young which you can't spend more than you have in there.

Not a good idea at all...this anonymous nature will make our job lot harder to track their activities.

Why should teenagers not have the same freedom and privacy everyone else has?

The idea would be to create and promote marketing material based around this idea as an application for Bitcoin. Knowing about it before hand wouldn't be a requirement, and hopefully with some marketing the Bitcoin community could help change the perception.

Would have to be pretty smart kids. I don't think we should force it on them and debit cards would be safer until they understand the technology.

That's true that some kids might think it's pretty lame (like a debit card but worse). They would have to want it before it rather than it being forced on them.

Do you think that users of Bitcoin should have to understand the technology to use it?

Only at a basic level. Like you don't need to know how a mobile pohone works to use one, but there's certain things you need to understand or be aware of before you can use it.

I actually read yesterday someone trying to explain that one of the factors in the recent doge run up was its popularity with kids.  Hey, why not.  More users equals higher value for bitcoin.

As a teen I had an online savings account long before I had any cards for spending online. Using something like localbitcoins I could have bought BTC via transfer no problem or perhaps cash and there you go. I can say that bitcoin would have been very attractive to me at the time, for sure.

I can see how this would work to be honest however I do feel that with everything that is available for the use of bitcoin such as gambling, porn, drugs and such it would have to be locked down in a way that youngsters could not get access these places easily. Parents would first need to to fully aware of what bitcoin is as well to avoid any problems.

Do that and we'll have headlines "Children gamble away their life savings in Bitcoin" all over the fucking place, no, I'm all for kids using it, but they have to use it because they want to, not because they were tricked into it by adults, the good news is regardless of what anyone has to say, chances are children are going to adopt things like Bitcoin really quickly, especially if they can do it anonymously they've done it with all sorts of technology without their parents knowledge before.

How do I know this? Because I learned all kinds of shit without my parents even knowing about it when I was young and I bet you lot did to.

The point would be to not give children their entire life savings as Bitcoin. Just a small amount to learn how to use money. Also I'm not a parent but it seems to me that if my hypothetical child gambled away 5$ at Satoshi dice and came to me about it I would use this as a learning opportunity. Yet this is just my opinion, it's also possible this experience could cause a lot of problems with the youth later on. That's Australia's political stance anyway: nogame.sa.gov.au (http://nogame.sa.gov.au)

And yeah, I read the other commentators and I agree that it would be better for kids to want Bitcoins then for parents to just give it to them. Although marketing things to kids always feels wrong to me, maybe as other people said their interest in it might come about naturally.

I don't think we have to market it as a currency for kids, but I do think the ability of kids to use it online is an advantage of bitcoin.

My 11yo son has a little bitcoin (I paid him for a chore in it, and then he bought a little from me). I have taught him the basics of securing it (just like I did with cash). I would love it if he could buy things online with it, but right now there is little for sale online for bitcoin that he is interested in.

Regarding the child-unfriendly nature of some things online available for bitcoin, that is part of my job as a parent. I don't let him buy that stuff with cash, or with bitcoin. It would be silly to make out bitcoin as the problem.

Every kid and their brother is watching HD 1080p porn on their smartphones for free these days, the rest can be bought with CASH already. Lol@you.

Parents are overly protective when it comes to their kids. Every new things needs to be scrutinized inside out. Not possible.

Circumventing parental control is precisely what makes it attractive to kids and teens IMO. With that said, fair point that it may not look good for the PR of our community to be seen actively promoting this.

Are there any 13-18 year old kids that aren't already members of this forum? Just have 90% of the forum membership ask their parents for some money to buy Bitcoin.

kids can buy a small amount (like $50) and learn about investing. good idea!

They should understand it to a point that they are able to keep their money safe. Kids are traditionally somewhat careless with their money and with their privacy. This could easily result in them loosing their money

This is  probably one of the biggest issues right now that I see with this idea. I can only imagine how many young kids would lose their BTC to malware they got off torrents/porn sites. Once we have cheap hardware wallets/easy multi-sig options this idea could work.

It is a great idea especially if we get the kids things to spend their coins on something mainstream like video games or toys.  Then their parents would be interested to learn more about Bitcoin.  This is something that could really get Bitcoin on the map!  If parents are paying attention to the benefits of Bitcoin and not all the negatives they may want to try Bitcoin themselves But at least the discussion is being had which is plus.

Kids showing an interests in money and saving it isn't so bad I'd say, no to mention learning about a technology that could have a beneficial impact on their future.  I guess the best thing would be make more outlets to learn about Bitcoin without the adult discussions that take place around it.

The idea is really smart, this could help to spread the word about bitcoin and give more trust among the people.

Electric coins would be a trent in the future. It is not bad for kids to learn a new currency in their early times. After all, Bitcoin is based on computer system, the  calculation itself refers to many knowledge. Besides, the payment by Bitcoin is safe and convenient.

Are you serious about this?  :o

Kids couldnt even read.. and you will give them currency? Come on..

Lol.. :) So dollar is a little bit confusing for kids that is why you decide to make use of btc

i dont really agree with this idea
the price of bitcoin varies from time to time.

No, that's the good part. The kids that end up with half of their allowance because of a price drop will learn a valuable lesson about saving money for the future.