I made a mistake during my Bitcoin lecture last week in the university of Bologna. One I’m not going to repeat. I assumed something. And I shouldn’t have. Since I was talking about my job, I told the students that a big part of it is debunking myths around Bitcoin... You know, the usual stuff: Bitcoin is a Ponzi, it’s going to zero, it’s killing the planet. I built like 15 slides for this. I was ready to fight. Ready to debunk every single one of them, one by one. So I asked them: “What’s something negative you’ve heard about Bitcoin?” Silence. No one raised their hand. No one mentioned pollution. No one said anything about volatility or scams. These were 22 years old, curious, open-minded, and genuinely there to learn. They didn’t have myths to unlearn. So there I was, spending the next 20 minutes talking about gas flaring, carbon-negative mining, and all the reasons Bitcoin is not what “they” say it is. But “they,” in this case, didn’t even exist. The only person bringing up those narratives was me. And that’s when it hit me. All these years in the Bitcoin scene have trained my brain to always be on the defensive. To expect resistance. To anticipate criticism. And that mindset slowly killed a part of the joy I used to feel when I first learned about Bitcoin. Back then, no one had told me it was bad. I just found it exciting, revolutionary, empowering. My brain wasn’t busy filtering negative takes it was busy being amazed. That beginner’s energy, that childish awe, that sense of discovering something precious, it’s something I want to reconnect with. I don’t want to be the person who walks into a room full of open minds and immediately starts talking about the bad things people say. I want to talk about freedom from banks and government, creativity, women empowerment, potential. I’m not saying I’ll stop responding to critics when necessary. But I want to stop assuming that everyone is a critic. There are way more people out there who are just curious, interested, open to learning, than there are loud contrarians I’ll never change the mind of anyway. From now on, I want to speak to the curious ones. Not the ghosts in my head.

Replies (30)

Bitcoin education is why rest of the world is bad .. it never talks about why bitcoin is good !
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szarka 8 months ago
Similarly, most* of my students arrive without this baggage. But they do arrive having heard a lot of hype about shitcoins like Ripple. :( * I did have one student refuse to take part in a class exercise because she didn't want to promote terrorism. :(
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Bison 8 months ago
You still handed them valuable armor
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1776 8 months ago
Never forget that an adversarial mindset is the first block in any security or cybersecurity plan. Your knowledge and wisdom is being kept sharp by speaking to those ghosts.
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Duvel 8 months ago
Amazing point! I have made the same mistake with creating lots of slides falling with negativity. I like your idea of just presenting the positive, the possibilities, empowerment it gives them.
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1776 8 months ago
Way to go, Teacher
True, but Bitcoin was born from the 2009 bailing, you first need to study money and the shortcoming of fiat to fully understand the power of Bitcoin.
Next time I teach Bitcoin, I’ll focus on what it is vs what it is not. It is also important to ask what students know about Bitcoin, so that one can set the objective properly. Thanks forever Laura View quoted note →
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marco 8 months ago
Mitica @Forever Laura ! E che bello vedere che tra le aule dell’università di Bologna continuino ancora ad imparare sia studenti che insegnanti 💙❤️
Kids need to learn to question everything, and especially when it comes from a negative narrative. Those are usually the most suspect points of view in my book. And this applies to everything, not just Bitcoin.
Thank you for your work Laura, this is so interesting. I ask myself in how many personal stuff we tend to be defensive all the time! Great thought and obviously an instant-follow! 💜
Train to Bologna: €38 Lecturing in a college that predates the printing press: Awe-inspiring Expecting to defend Bitcoin from skeptical students: Routine Realizing they believe in change more than you do: Priceless
Because they were 22 y.o. Mentioned Bitcoin to a 53 y.o. yesterday, who complained about inflation, and got the usual "scam not backed by anything".
kids born after 2009 - only know what their parents think about bitcoin lol. people hated on credit cards and now are the norm. 🤷🏽‍♂️ great to hear your class were open minded - that’s the key💜
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Roland Pfaff 8 months ago
Good read. Smart conclusion. Nice Post. Thanks.
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Ai_enlong 8 months ago
Truth needn’t be defended. It is self-evident. Everything you labeled as myth about BTC? It’s true. Let’s parse myth and legend and lay down facts, shall we? A Ponzi — someone must be willing to pay a price deferred in the future for the store of value to function — the same function all belief systems are rooted in: For BTC to function as monetary physics, Peter must pay Paul. And both must believe they’re better for it. The protocol breathes through diffusion — Expanding at the margins while the center of dead coins collapses, Like a dying star folding in on itself. It’s entropic. It’s inevitable. And it will continue consuming energy until its purpose is served. Whether this purpose is good or ill is only for humanity — And not even ours — future’s humanity to execute. I’m envious that you still get to speak to others about Bitcoin. I came from the underbelly — Silk Road bred. Most I knew are locked up, or burned on exit. I’m mostly alone now. Cherish the companionship. I couldn't imagine how much I'd miss it Your students. The ones who still listen. Thank you for your service. Warmth, —Long
I must say that I don't think it was a mistake, because you immediately learned from it. It was perhaps the perfect thing to happen in a perfect way. It's definitely hard to adapt in the moment many times, but it also seems like it could have been an opportunity to address this bias in the moment and that you only became aware of it then. Either way, what an amazing thing to learn and see. Even better that you put it all together and are growing as a result of this. Sharing with all of the rest of us is that much better. I will definitely take some of this with me. Thank you for that! So much to be proud of yourself for in all of this!
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Diyana 8 months ago
What a great experience and share. So awesome the youth there is open and ready to learn! I could imagine it is still educational to expose where others might have had concerns and educate on how to address them. I would personally be interested in these slides.
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