Teaching college students about Bitcoin

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

There is a saying which goes like this ‘‘Youths are the leaders of tomorrow’’ and a nation that has a strategic plan for the youths always reap a better future. So on that note, I decided personally to go share my little crypto knowledge about Bitcoin with some college students in the community and it all went well. But before then, I always knew Bitcoin has come to stay and as such there was a need to recruit more Bitcoin lovers, of which the only way that could be done was by creating awareness among these young ones now in their early teens so that as they grow up, they get to love it, use it and grow the crypto/Bitcoin community at large. So that was how the idea of this thread came about, and I will be happy to walk you through as you continue reading…
According to the statistics i got from blockchain.com, I am meant to understand that Bitcoin has a total supply of 21 million, of which an average transaction of 267,490 takes place daily, and the last Bitcoin is said to be mined in 2140, which is approximately 118 years from now, so imagine if after this generation there is nobody to succeed us in our crypto journey, who do you think will mine the remaining Bitcoin meant to be completed in 2140. Have you ever thought about that? So that’s the reason why there is a need to educate the young ones now than ever before, of which I like to thank the school management for giving me the privilege to talk to these students. So please pay close attention as I share with you guys how my journey about trying to teach college students about Bitcoin all started, the challenges, and possible findings.
  

Here are my Aims and Objectives

1.   To test their knowledge about Bitcoin with my Questionnaire
2.   To introduce it to those that will be hearing the name Bitcoin for the very first time
3.   To explain it to those who could have heard of it but never knew what it’s all about
4.   To explain its pros and cons
5.   And, to show them the least place to start investing in Bitcoin with the least minimum of $2 to $5 (since they are students and don’t have much).

So let’s start,
When I arrive at the school for the 1 hour Bitcoin briefing, the very first thing I did was to issue a Questionnaire to these students to test their knowledge about Bitcoin, and it was fun as I came to find out that 60% were hearing the name ‘Bitcoin’ for their very first time, 30% have heard the name but has no idea and 10% have heard it and could give a try that ‘’it’s a  cryptocurrency’’ and these data gave me a clue that I needed to start the briefing from the scratch.

How it started (Brief Introduction)
So I began my crypto briefing with the students by saying just as Naira, Dollar, or Pounds are physical currency we use on daily basis to pay for goods and services, issued by the central bank and controlled by the government, Bitcoin on the other hand is a digital currency independent of its own, not controlled by either the central bank nor government. Launched in the year 2009 by an anonymous fellow known as ‘’Satoshi Nakamoto’’, by which the name is called anonymous because till date nobody knows who he is or his whereabouts. As the name was only mentioned in its official whitepaper (i.e a manual which shows the road map or how to use a crypto project). That with the use of Bitcoin, one can now transfer money to anyone anywhere around the world within just a few seconds, which is unlike before that you have to pass through several processes just to receive or send money to a friend or family member studying overseas, which at times takes weeks or months to be delivered. As all that is needed is just a creation of a wallet of which we have got a lot of them on google playstore, but the most commonly used one called ‘’Trustwallet’’ which has a 12 digits seed phrase that is just like the key to your wallet funds and needs to be written down and placed in a safe place. And you are good to go.
I told them that just as every other thing has both pros and cons, that Bitcoin is no exception to that, as it is also good to know its advantage and disadvantage, and one of the advantages is that it can be used to transfer money to anywhere in the world in few seconds, it is the best choice for long term investment, it is easy to use (i.e anybody can create a bitcoin wallet to received bitcoin within few seconds e.g Trustwallet). And one of the disadvantages is that it is highly volatile (i.e the price always goes up and down), it is irreversible (i.e in case been transferred to the wrong address) and its transactions can’t be traced.

I also told them that Bitcoin has come to take over the worldwide currency because just as back then in 2010, how 10,000 BTC could only afford to buy 2 pizzas, that today the price of just one Bitcoin can not only buy 2 pizzas but 2 standards fast-food selling pizzas, since as the year goes by so is the price of Bitcoin increasing, which is why it is a good option for long term investment. And no amount of money is too small to get started, as they could only invest an amount they could afford to lose, because of the nature of its volatile market.
So I went further to tell them that getting started with Bitcoin is very interesting, as we have got a lot of already made tools which make things easier for us, e.g coinmarketcap (a website which helps us to track the price of all cryptocurrencies), Binance (a site where we could buy almost all kinds of cryptocurrencies), and Bitcointalk.org (the official Bitcoin forum where you can learn everything about bitcoin and crypto). And I told them in other to buy a coin, Binance and Remitano both offer a p2p where you can buy crypto with the least minimum of $2 and $5 directly from your bank by just doing transfer. And I told them that for more information, they can get it from blockchain.com, google, youtube, or contact me via my phone number




Here are some pictures below


















Below are the Questionnaire test results

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Conclusion

So as a result of my questionnaire and brief interaction with the students, i got to know that thou Bitcoin has been around for over 13 years now, there are still some persons who hasn't heard the name "Bitcoin" before, and that create a sign that we all have much work to do in creating awareness campaign to enlighten the young ones about this currency for the future. So i have done my own part by teaching the young ones in my community, and its left for you now to play yours now. Because if only we could educate the young ones in each of our communities, Bitcoin will have a better future tomorrow.
Thanks

Update 👇👇
The photos have been blurred and everything back on track. So I hope to update you more on this coming soon

[Pmalek]

Great initiative to bring Bitcoin closer to the younger generations!

A few comments:

- You should teach the kids to never search for Bitcoin wallets on Google Play Store or via the Google search engine. Neither of the two services care and they will gladly advertise scam and phishing wallets. Your recommendation of Trust Wallet is also not the best. First of all, it's a closed-source multicurrency wallet. You don't need that for Bitcoin. Stick with a community-trusted open source Bitcoin-only client like Electrum if you want a light wallet or Bitcoin Core as a full node.

This hasn't been updated for some time, but it's still a good place to start:
[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why?

- Bitcoin won't become the world's #1 currency. Those in power won't allow it. But that doesn't stop any of us to use it. It is and will remain a viable alternative that will be developed alongside the traditional financial systems.

- When you describe P2P markets, mention Bisq as a great alternative to centralized exchanges who make up their own rules of who can and can't use their services.

[SatoPrincess]

It’s generous of you to give your time to create a bitcoin class for the kids. However, from the photos I can tell they are secondary school students because of their school uniform, I believe you are in the one in photos whose face is covered, it will be good to also cover the faces and names of the students too. I think the questions are simple enough for beginners and gives an insight on how much they know about bitcoin.

) and its transactions can’t be traced.

Again, this is not entire true. Bitcoin is not anonymous but pseudonymous, Bitcoin transactions is public on blockchain and can be traced.

And I told them in other to buy a coin, Binance and Remitano both offer a p2p where you can buy crypto with the least minimum of $2 and $5 directly from your bank by just doing transfer..

Binance and Remitano are both centralized exchanges, when you buy bitcoins directly from your bank account on Binance you are exposing yourself. I would hope in your next class you teach your students the advantages of using decentralized exchanges like Bisq over centralized exchanges.

[Lucius]

A commendable attempt that I hope will bring results in the future, because knowledge is very important for anyone who wants to succeed in life. Children need to be taught the basics, but I don't think they should be encouraged to invest until they become independent and find their own jobs. Yet the greatest attention should be focused on security and on how to avoid online scams.

As far as teaching is concerned, in some African countries the situation is probably different from that in the EU or the US when it comes to education, and special permits should be sought for such things - in other words, you can't teach in public schools about something that is not in the education program.

As for privacy, I agree that faces should be blurred, as well as that the names of children from tests should be covered.

[Husires]

A good attempt on your part, but since you want to teach people who have no knowledge about money, the idea and importance of Bitcoin will be very difficult and complicated. To give you an example, hyperinflation was not a priority before 1971, and even in recent years, many developed countries did not give inflation a priority.

• Try to give them the basics of money, decentralization, inflation, stocks, and why we need Bitcoin.
• If you have a good internet, try to recommend to them the best bitcoin education channels on YouTube, and then try to translate everything you can into the local language.
• Try distributing a small amount, for example $2, to each student, and that will make them think about using Bitcoin in practice or trying out testnet coins.
• Don't tell them that Bitcoin is their way of getting rich quickly but rather that they don't get poor quickly.

[Zlantann]

I am really thrilled by your specific objectives because they are not vogue. Your entry behavior is also commendable because you adopted the questioning teaching method. The questionnaire gave you are clear understanding of the level of knowledge of the students as regards to Bitcoin. You have really done a great work theoretical and the next stage should be the practical learning. Although it might be expensive, but using a projector for practical explanation would be nice. You can also use diagrams or charts to do the explanation if a projector is not available. I can see your school is still using the chalkboard, please tell the students to darken the board so that your drawings would be clear. You can also get smartphones that would be used for practicals. As the class continue please identify students that have interest in Bitcoin and separate them fro other serious one. You can keep mentoring the interested ones until they are fully grounded. Please ensure you reiterate the fact that Bitcoin is not a get rich quick scheme because some individuals have been brainwashed by ponzi schemes and shitcoins. Great work sir.  

[seoincorporation]

This is an awesome initiative from OP, Is important that all the world learns about Bitcoin and Specially in the poor regions because BTC is one door to get out of that poor condition.

I would add some questions to that list:

1.-What's the max number of bitcoins that will exist when all of them get mined? (21M)

2.-How many Bitcoins were paid for the first pizza bought with Bitcoin? (10,000 BTC)

3.-What's the Bitcoin Halving? (When the bock reward is divided by 2)

[PX-Z]

What a great initiative, only few who can make this kind of effort to educate the young ones without getting compensated. I hope this will enlighten those guys why bitcoin is very important when it comes to privacy and financial freedom.
Teaching them the whole purpose why bitcoin is created as money, freedom and privacy  should be prioritize. Instead of you can be rich by investing bitcoin, because people only knows bitcoin is it's a store of value, a money scheme to make people rich and etc. It's the only meaning most people remembers what bitcoin is.

[minime0105]

Educating children for Bitcoin knowledge and cryptocurrency speculation and important, it's good for the country that doesn't know anything of bitcoin. When i checked the history and countries that knows bitcoin it's showing that no continent that does not heard of bitcoin. Student's who are smart and intelligent can know and learn Bitcoin through internet and youtube video

[Upgrade00]

Good job in educating younger generations about the pros and cons of bitcoin. It's a step in the right direction as many individuals grow into adulthood without understanding money or how it works.

Teaching about Bitcoin invariably would open discussions about investments and financial awareness. This would build young minds to be able to handle financial decisions and begin the journey of being independent much earlier.My takeaway would be not to give close ended statements, like Bitcoin is the best investment, the students should be able to explore and study how investments work, read books and then make up their mind on that.

[franky1]

Great initiative to bring Bitcoin closer to the younger generations!

A few comments:
- Bitcoin won't become the world's #1 currency. Those in power won't allow it. But that doesn't stop any of us to use it. It is and will remain a viable alternative that will be developed alongside the traditional financial systems.

food for thought. for both you and topic creator
many "believe" that the dollar is the #1 world currency.
but ask yourself based on what.

there are only 330million americans. so yes more people use the dollar than brits use the Pound.
.. but..
the Yuan, is used by over 3x more then the dollar. yep over 1 billion people use the yuan.
so is the dollar really #1 if not that many people use the dollar compared to the yuan

there are 8 billion people. bitcoin developers and their sponsored altnet creators have refused to allow BITCOIN(not to be confused with altnets brand stealing the name) BITCOIN cant cater to support say 1.5billion peoples daily needs ON THE BITCOIN NETWORK(the only place bitcoins exist)
so yes bitcoin cannot become #1 currency.
..
but its not designed to replace all currency needs of entire nations/continents. its to hedge against the nations native fiat currency as a second choice.
more of a savings account "for the unbanked". rather than a visa card to spend "for the unspendable"

[coupable]

According to my experience in this field, the most important obstacle facing a person who wants to teach new generations about Bitcoin is first of all defining what money is and how the global financial system works, as well as about canceling the preconceived notion that Bitcoin will enable its user to get rich quickly.
It is also preferable to stay away from trying to explain Bitcoin through complex technical concepts such as blocks and transaction history.

[Rruchi man]

i have done my own part by teaching the young ones in my community, and its left for you now to play yours now. Because if only we could educate the young ones in each of our communities, Bitcoin will have a better future tomorrow.

Great job OP, certainly these kids will not forget about you in a hurry, and your contribution to the growth of crypto is valid. I once made a post here where i stated my contributions through delivery of branded items and asked how others here have or are contributing to crypto growth, it is good to see that others here are making effort in their own way. This your little steps OP will yield great result, in the future when some of these kids who may have by then become big crypto personalities, and are asked how their crypto journey began, many will point to you as the one who first introduced them to it and stimulated their interest.

It is also good that they learnt/heard about bitcoins first from you and not through a fraudulent investment website or individual who do not care about the first experience any user has. You have saved some of these kids if not all from a potential first time negative experience about bitcoins.

[qwertyup23]

According to my experience in this field, the most important obstacle facing a person who wants to teach new generations about Bitcoin is first of all defining what money is and how the global financial system works, as well as about canceling the preconceived notion that Bitcoin will enable its user to get rich quickly.
It is also preferable to stay away from trying to explain Bitcoin through complex technical concepts such as blocks and transaction history.

I agree with you. It is like saying, money is the foundation of everything that can be purchased in the world, while cryptocurrencies are a branch of what emanates from money itself- something that is more specific and complex compared to fiat alone.

OP, what you have done is truly remarkable and commendable. By your own efforts, you are slowly integrating and teaching the foundations of cryptocurrencies to the youth. You are exposing them to something that may be highly relevant in the future. With these, they can now start trying or attempting to use cryptocurrencies which sparked their curiosity towards this subject.

[Rengga Jati]

Here are my Aims and Objectives

1.   To test their knowledge about Bitcoin with my Questionnaire
2.   To introduce it to those that will be hearing the name Bitcoin for the very first time
3.   To explain it to those who could have heard of it but never knew what it’s all about
4.   To explain its pros and cons

These steps are good steps. Moreover when you are using questionnaires at first in order to test their responses, knowledge, and also about their though about Bitcoin. It may not be easy moreover if you find most students are new to the crypto world.
But, first, is crypto legal in your country? And what college students are they? if there are some relevant, these may be appropriate to them. But if it is not, maybe it cannot be continuous learning. However, it may be useful to teach them at first.

5.   And, to show them the least place to start investing in Bitcoin with the least minimum of $2 to $5 (since they are students and don’t have much).

If I were you, I will not suggest this. Investing in Bitcoin is risky, will you take the risk of all your students?
I will do those 4 lists, but suggesting they invest in Bitcoin is not wise. they need to learn at first, know, and be aware of themselves if they really want to invest in Bitcoin. Never promise anything to them, moreover promise the profits that they will probably take. Although we have known that Bitcoin is very profitable, this is also risky, moreover when the price crashed and they are not ready for this. But, if they have been learning by themselves and they want to invest based on their own awareness and willingness, it can be.

But basically, I really appreciate your efforts. This may be not easy and hopefully will continue again and again to let more people know about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

But, first, is crypto legal in your country? And what college students are they? if there are some relevant, these may be appropriate to them. But if it is not, maybe it cannot be continuous learning. However, it may be useful to teach them at first.

Crypto is partly legal in my country Nigeria, and in as much, Nigeria happens to be the number country with the highest crypto trading volume in the world, which shows that irrespective of the government's policy we still have great minds who are passionate about Bitcoin, and thats what gave me the mora to continue with  this, because i saw how passionate they were eager to learn this new digital currency, which gives me the feeling it was actually the best option i did.

If I were you, I will not suggest this. Investing in Bitcoin is risky, will you take the risk of all your students?
I will do those 4 lists, but suggesting they invest in Bitcoin is not wise. they need to learn at first, know, and be aware of themselves if they really want to invest in Bitcoin. Never promise anything to them, moreover promise the profits that they will probably take. Although we have known that Bitcoin is very profitable, this is also risky, moreover when the price crashed and they are not ready for this.

I tried as much to erase the idea that Bitcoin was a get rich quick scheme. I made them understand that Bitcoin is a currency, but which has more great features, which prices always goes up and down, which is why its only advisable to invest a little percentage you could afford to lose in case of the unforeseen circumstances

[uneng]

I tried as much to erase the idea that Bitcoin was a get rich quick scheme. I made them understand that Bitcoin is a currency, but which has more great features, which prices always goes up and down, which is why its only advisable to invest a little percentage you could afford to lose in case of the unforeseen circumstances

You have accomplished a great deed and thanks to you, many of those students can now adopt bitcoin and start investing few bucks, working or doing online tasks for satoshis, although I don't know how accessible internet and mobile or desktop devices are in your area. In negative case, it can be a big obstacle for adoption and then alternatives must be elaborated to give conditions to these students and their families to have access to bitcoin on practice, since they were already introduced to it theoretically. Congratulations again for your work and I'm sure you will be recognized for your good will and effort futurely!

[dataispower]

According to my experience in this field, the most important obstacle facing a person who wants to teach new generations about Bitcoin is first of all defining what money is and how the global financial system works, as well as about canceling the preconceived notion that Bitcoin will enable its user to get rich quickly.
It is also preferable to stay away from trying to explain Bitcoin through complex technical concepts such as blocks and transaction history.

If you are passing the knowledge of cryptocurrency to young youths, you will tell them what will motivate them and also see the chance of making money with bitcoin and how difficult it's for making with another technique. It is right to teach the blockchain technology of bitcoin because bitcoin as currency started from there. Therefore the beginning of bitcoin development is mandatory for them to know. Op work hard to bring multiple people for cryptocurrency chain from tender age which is good, because for the students knowing bitcoin now from starting age, i don't think that the knowledge adopted now can be waste of time or will not be put into practice

[Wind_FURY]

OP, good job ser! Please inspire/encourage these children to learn how to code, or to have more interest towards computers in general. Plus maybe next time emphasize on Bitcoin mainly as an unstoppable tool, that's open/available for everyone, to send/receive/store value over the internet, WITHOUT a middleman, WITHOUT government, WITHOUT the banksters. When they grow up, enough young minds carrying that realization could become a powerful force.

[Cookdata]

I once had a one on one discussion about bitcoin with my friend's students, they were so ready to learn but I was focused on privacy, how important it is for everyone and how not to break it for any cash back. I used them as an example and some things they kept secret within themselves, I encourage them to employ that with finances, investments and personal information to be within them and should not in any way let it go in the hands of anyone. Their mistress was giving me this weird look by the window but I know my students got the message I was passing to them and I was happy I did.

....

You blur your image, can you do the same for those kids? They are still under their parents and I don't think you have the permission to publish their faces on the internet, Please blur it for their own privacy too.

Edit: The images has been blurred.