In recent times I have seen some celebrities buying cryptocurrencies for their children and I wonder, do Cryptocurrencies really teach girls, boys and adolescents something? I can believe so.
Or is it similar to introducing them to the world of lottery and gambling?
The topic has not yet been sufficiently described by psychologists, educators or economists, but it is true that many famous crypto evangelists are already including their children in the world of cryptocurrencies.
For example, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks team, Mark Cuban, wrote on Twitter that he had purchased Dogecoin for his son. Their argument is that it is “edutainment.” He added the reasons for the selection of the currency: “DOGE is worth less than a cent, it is possible to buy a little, 1 or 10 US dollars” and have fun watching it every day. Literally, and I say this in all seriousness, it is the best entertainment center for your money.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of Twitter, considered the richest man in the world, also bought Dogecoin for his little son, whose name is X Æ A-12. On the subject, Musk said that the child, who is just a baby less than a year old, will be “quite a hodler”, however, he did not detail whether he plans to use crypto for his teaching.
Bitcoin critic and gold advocate Peter Schiff, his 18-year-old college son, disagreed: although he didn't want the boy to invest in Bitcoin, he is doing so. Here it is the young man who gives lessons to his father.
Index of contents
Empowered boys, girls and adolescents
The future will be crypto
The concept of savings
Learn to win and lose
Teach mathematics and finance
The value of privacy
Patience
Empowered boys, girls and adolescents
Many teenagers are becoming empowered on the subject. In December 2020, he met a 17-year-old Spanish boy who asked for Ethereum as a birthday gift and was the one who taught his father how to invest in the currency. The young man has become quite the evangelist.
These are some of his words: “When everyone knows about the Blockchain world and the advantages that the decentralized and tokenized world provides, they will run to buy cryptocurrencies. When this happens (over the years), when not only companies and institutions (as they are currently doing), but also governments and citizens start buying and using them, cryptocurrencies will explode, completely forgetting about the system and fiat money. and regretting not having bought sooner.”
And well, it's not just him, I have also managed to study boys and girls who have become a phenomenon on social networks because of how well they explain to us what Bitcoin is. Likewise, the educational system is beginning to take the issue seriously. In the middle of this month we reported that Georgia, United States, was planning a cryptocurrency program for secondary schools.
That is why seeing all these cases I wonder: Is it really worth teaching children what cryptocurrencies are? Also... Is it good for you to invest and negotiate with them?
Here I will mention some lessons that I think cryptocurrencies would teach us. It is, in reality, learning that serves both adults and those beings in training who are the youngest. And you will see that cryptocurrencies can be lessons in economics, but also in emotional strength in the face of change and courage in the face of risk.
The future will be crypto
Everything indicates that in the not so distant future digital currencies will be in the mainstream, but not only because Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano or Dogecoin, to name four, are becoming more and more famous and are gaining press headlines, but because important companies are already investing in them.
Let's dig a little deeper, it's not just about cryptocurrencies, I also know of many central banks that are experimenting in creating their own digital currencies and some, like the People's Bank of China, already have fairly widespread testing in the population. European banks are also testing them and even the United States has recognized that it cannot continue to lag behind in this matter. So? There is no doubt that this new form of money is here to stay. And those who have the knowledge earlier will be more prepared for the changes to come.
In this regard, in the South African media IOL, Nic Haralambous, a columnist from that country, recommends to his countrymen:
“As a parent, you hope to raise children who are as money-savvy as possible, and it all starts with a conversation about the world of money as it relates not only to them, but also to their environment and careers. That conversation includes a key question: what will the world of money be like in 2030? Spoiler: It will likely involve a lot of cryptocurrencies.”
And concludes:
“Familiarizing your children with cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin now will serve them well as we move into an uncertain digital future.”
The concept of savings
You have to be aware that there are basically two ways to interact with cryptocurrencies:
Trading, that is, buying and selling according to the daily rises and falls in price (something that can be very stressful for some and for others it is pure adrenaline).
By hodling, that is, saving, saving the coins waiting for better times.
If you want to show your children the value of savings, in addition to letting them see how your capital is growing, crypto is a good way. A good objective would be to tell them that you are saving in cryptocurrencies to buy a precious object, but also, even, for something more ambitious like university.
That could also help them understand the value of money. Surely they would prefer to save what their parents give them as an allowance and not spend it on any little thing.
Learn to win and lose
Now, we know that not everything in crypto is win-win. I have lived it and I have countless lived experiences related to the losses I have had. It is not always possible to make profits in cryptocurrencies (much less when you enter this world with little knowledge and at a bad time), but you do not always lose either. So, crypto is an excellent way to put into practice a life lesson: living is somehow always a risk, you can lose or win. And you have to have tolerance for frustration, be able to face the difficulties that we will encounter along the way.
Cryptocurrencies also teach lessons in discipline, commitment, but at the same time caution. You have to learn that there are good and bad factors, that there are those who take advantage and scam. Therefore, the lesson that the crypto ecosystem teaches transcends to other aspects of life that a child can understand and assimilate.
They also teach that study and analysis are important, that trusting one's own judgment (and not being fooled by others) also requires having solid knowledge. Yes, that is also taught in the crypto world (and yes, I know it is taught to adults too).
Teach mathematics and finance
The rise and fall of cryptocurrencies, the percentages of their increase and fall, can be an excellent scenario to teach children mathematics, since they are learning arithmetic by putting operations into practice in a real context. It is not as interesting for a child to solve multiplications, divisions, percentages or rules of three in a scenario of pure numbers without reference, as doing so by watching how their small capital grows or reduces.
Bridget McCrea explains it well on the Edsurge website:
“Show a fourth grader how to balance a checkbook, and it won't be long before their eyes start to glaze over or their mind starts to wander to more interesting things. However, infuse a financial literacy lesson with terms like bitcoin or cryptocurrency and the lesson becomes a little more interesting. Better yet, give the student a very hands-on, technology-focused way to experiment with those financial concepts and suddenly they'll find themselves in a whole new realm of learning.”
Having a few low-denomination cryptocurrencies, the child can calculate increases and decreases, percentage increases over time, and they can even learn to read graphs.
A good way, for example, to learn decimals is by knowing how many satoshis a Bitcoin is divided into or how much Dogecoin needs to be worth one dollar.
The value of privacy
A very good lesson that cryptocurrencies can give us is that they help us explain to children the importance of preserving their privacy on networks. In principle, if they are going to have crypto, they must be made to understand the ways in which they must store the private key of their wallet and the consequences of revealing it to someone else.
This learning can be extrapolated to other aspects of Internet life: How much to say and how much not to say on social networks? Who to interact with and who not to? When to distrust? What are the risks? Those are all questions that can be answered by opening your own wallet.
Unicef says well about teaching privacy to children:
“Educating children and adolescents about the right to privacy and the protection of their personal data is a responsibility of families, educators and institutions. It is not something they can learn on their own because the risks are not obvious, sometimes not even to adults. It is part of their right to the protection of private life and their right to identity.”
Patience
In the cryptocurrency ecosystem, we know, you have to be patient, especially if you are hodling. The many users who sold at a time of decline, out of fear of being left with nothing, know this; Those who are distressed when they see stagnant prices know it. So, for anyone, crypto investment is a lesson in the importance of not getting carried away by your first impulses, that you have to know how to wait.
Thus, perhaps the child will even learn not to spy on Saint Nicholas's gifts ahead of time and to wait calmly for their arrival on Christmas Day.
Surely there are many more reasons to introduce any boy or girl to this interesting world. You are going to discover it yourself!
And you, what do you think about it?
Do you educate your children about the benefits of having a global and responsible economy?
Write your comment!