What blockchain can do for financial literacy

There is a widespread idea that once you start learning about Bitcoin, you are going deep down the rabbit hole. Today I’d like to connect Stuart Hylton’s book “What the Railways Did for Us: the Making of Modern Britain” – particularly the chapter on literacy – with crypto. Here is what the author says:

“The train was a natural place to sit (or stand) and read, and it remains so: a railcar probably hosts more readers every day than the average small-town library. (Harrington) The early railroad years saw some significant advances in the nation’s literacy. One estimate shows that 75 percent of the population in 1840 could read and 60 percent could write. Male literacy, according to another estimate, rose from 67 to 80 percent between 1841 and 1870, while the female rate went from 51 to 73 percent.”

Not all people who were considered literary would have been familiar with Shakespeare’s entire works, but how many of them were capable of doing much more than signing their names to a marriage register? Likewise, you don’t need to become a blockchain developer, but you want to single out valuable projects and know how to set up your own wallet.

How did people find out about the world of cryptocurrencies?

“Before the railway, there was no such thing as a real national newspaper. When the London papers appeared in the more distant parts of the provinces, their news began to go out of date, and they generally had little of special interest to the provinces. Similarly, provincial newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian (founded 1821) carried only “late echoes of the London press”.

Similarly, people never fully controlled their money until blockchain introduced a decentralized, trustless environment. What I noticed, however, is that people should first understand what money is, and how it works, before moving on to decentralized money on the blockchain. Here are some resources to help newbie blockchain enthusiasts.

1. The Udemy platform is a real find for anyone who wants to get to know cryptocurrencies, blockchain and trading. Many free courses and lessons are available on the website.
2. The Coin Diligent website engages blockchain industry experts and shares their experiences and opinions with its readers. Experts examine crypto investment topics, provide security advice, recommend the best exchanges, and discuss the latest news and developments in the crypto industry.
3. BLOC-511DL: Introduction to Digital Currencies is a free online course on blockchain technology and digital currencies. At the end of the course, an exam tests your understanding of the concepts presented.
4. The 99Bitcoins website is a must-read for anyone starting to delve into the crypto space. The platform is constantly updating its manuals and adding new reviews. Whether you are looking for a good cryptocurrency exchange or setting up your first mining setup, you will find the answer to all your questions in this resource.

“The rise of industrial capitalism, with its work ethic and its emphasis on self-improvement, is one, as is the transformation of the state’s view of education, from laissez-faire, through the support of voluntary providers, to the Education Act of 1870, providing compulsory education for all children between five and thirteen years.

Lessons must be carefully planned to address all the behavioral biases that make kids (and adults) miserable with money. Students need to see actual case studies of people who made bad decisions and suffered financial losses. They also need to learn about those who have accumulated wealth gradually rather than miraculously. Above all, students must be taught the value of money. How to earn it, how to invest it, how to grow it and save it, and wise ways to spend it.

Just as they learned to use steam as a steam-powered printing press a couple of centuries ago, which made it possible to publish many more copies of books, blockchain introduced features that others could apply to one’s work and business: an immutable ledger, smart contracts, and a trustless network of participants. But you can learn not only in theory, but also in practice.

Approaches to increasing crypto knowledge:

• Airdrop is a type of marketing strategy used by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. It involves giving tokens to current cryptocurrency traders in exchange for a small advertising service or giving them free tokens to put in their wallets. The airdrop aims to expand ownership of the cryptocurrency startup and increase awareness of it.

• Bitcoin faucets were popular in the early days, allowing users to earn some bitcoin (and eventually learn about it) while doing small tasks or watching ads. Payments were made in extremely small amounts, therefore it was necessary to use several dozen faucets and perform the activity for several months to earn real money.

• Bounty is a cryptocurrency incentive given to anyone who can complete a specific task or collection of tasks. Crypto projects that need to grow their community and bring in new users often create bounties. As a result, you can be given a bounty just for performing simple actions like joining their Telegram channel, following the project on Twitter, and retweeting one of their tweets or blog articles.

• Learn to serve is a procedure where individuals can gain expertise in a particular field while earning money by passing question and answer exams. For cryptocurrency investors, it is an income model that motivates them to learn some technical expertise, which promotes cryptocurrency trading and education.

• Play to earn are online games that allow players to earn real-world rewards by completing tasks, competing against other players, and advancing through multiple game levels. In-game items, including cryptocurrency tokens, virtual land, as well as skins, weapons, and other NFTs are used as these rewards.

“The forced inactivity of a train journey created a huge captive market for readers (60 million passenger journeys a year by 1850) and retailers spotted the opportunity.”

The forced observation of currency inflation led people to explore new ways to preserve capital… just as railways were instrumental in giving Britain the mid-nineteenth century equivalent of email, blockchain will play an important role in the world, providing each person a tool to create and store values.