A college student’s mother shares lessons from an orange-whitening session with her daughter and her school friends.
This is an op-ed by Tali Lindberg, mother of a college student and co-author of HODL UP Bitcoin.
Hyperbitcoinization is a future that all Bitcoin customers hope to see. It is defined via Nakamoto Institute as “a voluntary transfer from a lower coin to a higher coin, the adoption of which is a series of individual actions…”
But who are the individuals who should move to move from using a particular currency to using Bitcoin? I acknowledge that today’s Gen Z college students will play a major role in this transition. Unfortunately, most of them do not follow Bitcoin threads on Twitter, nor do they read articles about the latest developments in monetary policy. However, they are the future leaders of our country and the world and have the power to influence politics. It is crucial that we find a way to reach them and educate them about Bitcoin.
This is why, as a Bitcoin enthusiast, I am determined to make a difference and bring this revolutionary freedom technology to college students. For me, making a difference means investing my time to impact, however insignificantly, those who have not yet joined the ranks of Bitcoin. In this article, I share my experience and lessons learned with a recent example. My conclusion is that we are empowered, even obligated, to make a difference in sharing bitcoin with the youth in our lives.
Visiting my daughter with a game of bitcoin in hand
I recently traveled to visit my oldest child at her college. Fortunately, she has a healthy group of friends who share traditional values and respect. They’re good kids, and they don’t know anything about bitcoin. My ideal audience!
I arrived armed with my passion and the Bitcoin board game I created with my husband HODL UP. For the next two hours, I sat on the cold, squeaky bedroom floor playing the game with six students. My goal: to spark their curiosity about Bitcoin in a fun way. These students major in business, environmental science, mathematics, and psychology. While they all heard about Bitcoin through media headlines, they had no real knowledge of what it is, how it works, or even why it’s important.
Explaining the game to them was quick and easy. They had no questions about Bitcoin. They just wanted to know how to play the game. So, I didn’t spend any time explaining the parts of the game and what they mean in real life. I simply told them each player’s choices at every turn. The game started and the students picked up the pace.
As the game progressed, the students engaged in a friendly conversation as they attacked and defended their Bitcoin toys. The room resounded with their laughter and warmed my heart. But at the same time, I longed for them, any of them, to ask me anything about what they were up against in the game: adaptability, halving, hot and cold wallets, whatever. It was hard to hold my tongue and not spoil the fun.
The match ended in a three-way tie and fourth place. All of the students had wide, cheerful smiles on their faces as they snuggled up to each other and celebrated. Then they started helping me pack the game pieces. When I put the last piece back into the box, I was freaking out about it StillNobody asked me any questions. “Oh my God, is someone going to ask me something?” I believed. “Someone ask me something!”
Now we’re getting somewhere
The students all exclaimed that the game was so much fun and thanked me for participating.
“Wow, I’m glad you enjoyed that,” I smiled and replied, but internally screamed: “Ask me something about Bitcoin!”
no!
Unable to contain myself anymore, I asked them, “Does anyone have any questions about the game?”
no answer.
Try again: “Does anyone understand why Bitcoin is so hard to modify?”
“What?” One of the students replied, “Is this real?”
I replied, “Yeah, everything in this game has to do with how bitcoin works in real life.” “What have you learned about hot and cold wallets? What are your best practices?”
One student replied, “Well, I’ve learned that I have to keep some money cold but some hot so I can make educated investments.”
“What?” I believed.
“What do you think represent hot and cold purses?” I asked them.
Another student answered, “Liquid and non-liquid assets.”
“Oh, now we’re getting somewhere,” I thought. You explained what cold storage really is and the importance of keeping their private keys offline.
Then I asked, “If you had a dollar and put it in your pocket, how could someone steal it without touching it?”
Without hesitation, one of the students replied, “By printing money.”
I then explained that one of the best features of Bitcoin is that there will only ever be 21 million BTC, no more. No matter how much someone justifies their need for more, there will only be 21 million bitcoins left with a scheduled release managed through halving events.
It was hard not to sound preachy. I concluded my talk by telling an environmental science student how bitcoin uses waste energy, making it productive, and sent him several articles. I also made some book recommendations to a business student who said he wanted to read about Bitcoin over the summer.
As I drove home, I replayed the evening in my mind and wondered if it had made any difference at all. Then I got a text message from a student. He thanked me for the opportunity to play HODL UP. “It was pretty insightful,” he said.
Insight? ‘Insight’ is a good thing, I thought. ‘I’ll take ‘Insight.’
I reminded myself “I’m just there to plant a seed”. Instead of focusing on trying to take an orange pill for someone, I’m just planting a seed. In time, life and circumstances will water the seed, and hopefully one day the person will find themselves down the bitcoin rabbit hole. But I cannot insist on seeing the fruits of the seed once I have planted the seed. This feeds my ego but is the wrong focus of what I’m doing and will put unnecessary and unhelpful stress on my interactions with students.
So, going forward, there are three things that I plan to keep in mind that I would recommend to parents, grandparents, and teachers to share Bitcoin with young people:
- Warm the Audience and Create a Positive Association – It was much easier to catch the attention of students in a Bitcoin discussion after they associated an enjoyable experience with Bitcoin than if I were cold. Hence, the game first.
- Focus on having fun, not on teaching the nitty-gritty — keep things simple and light. Explain only when necessary or if asked and avoid Soap box syndrome.
- Remember, we are only sowing seeds. Everyone comes to Bitcoin when they are ready. We must maintain a low time preference perspective.
On to the next! The game has begun!
This is a guest post by Tali Lindberg. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.