We are now in DAY SEVENTEEN since the government rescinded Bitcoin as legal tender, at the request of the IMF (effective 30 April)
The lack of transparency around the process and terms is a major problem and a symptom of a world in which small, elite, opaque groups decide for the rest of us. I’m talking about international financial organizations such as the IMF as well as national governments such as El Salvador
If we want a better world, we need to do things differently
@My First Bitcoin TValready announced that we are hiring new teachers and doubling our goal—teaching 21,000 students just in El Salvador just in 2025.
But it’s not just about numbers. A better world will care about empowering the individual, not just dictating to them, and it will be more transparent.
Here is our vision document for our Education Department, approved on Feb 7, 2025—
Vision for the Education Department
Mi Primer Bitcoin is not focused on bitcoin education, that is just a means to an end. The real goal is to empower. The real goal is to reimagine what’s possible.
Bitcoin education is the best tool humanity has to not only allow the individual to take more control over their money, but in doing so to take more control over their own life, which in turn gives them more control over their own future, which finally leads to a shift in perspective and incentives—toward building, creating and learning.
The question then becomes, knowing this end goal, how do we best create an Education Department to facilitate this mission?
Focus.
Within bitcoin education, what focus best helps achieve that end?
Introductory bitcoin education, rather than advanced, is where we can do the most good and where students are the most malleable toward embracing this paradigm shift. It is the best opportunity to help put students on the path to believe that Bitcoin is more than just a new money, more than just a new technology, more than just a new investment. These students, new to bitcoin, are the ones we should focus on.
Reject trying to do too much. We need to have a core, which right now is the Bitcoin Diploma and the Intro Course and may eventually expand to the introductory education for younger audiences. This does not mean we can’t create or use other materials, and this doesn’t mean that our core won’t evolve over time, but it does mean that we need to prioritize our finite resources on core products before all else.
Teach them how to think, rather than what to think. The real objective in all of this is to empower the student and that means we can give them the information and prompt the right questions, but they have to be the ones to answer them. This is NOT the norm in education, including bitcoin education, as it is slower and harder—but it is essential to our mission.
Always be independent and impartial. Even in the bitcoin space, very little education is independent and impartial, and that threatens to derail the tremendous potential of bitcoin education as a tool to think differently, to think independently, and as a true alternative to fiat. For us to succeed in our mission to allow students to come to their own conclusions we must be vigilant not just that we are actually independent and impartial, but also that the perception of the organization is. Our success here thus far has helped both the community and our students trust us, support us and help us grow. It’s taken years to build up that trust, but it can be destroyed in a day if we lose this value.
Inspire others to join the movement, rather than try to absorb them into ourselves. This is not just about empowering students, or rather, our perspective must be that we are all students. This means we must open source everything—not just the materials but also the processes and philosophies. This also means we need to create spaces to collaborate and share best practices, encouraging collaboration from outside the project as well. We should never try to ‘control’ others, but rather inspire.
