Teaching Cryptocurrency to the Next Generation: My Son Just Bought $8.33 More SmartCash
Three years ago, my son and I worked together to build computer games using Scratch which you can see at gamesbydevon.wordpress.com. Back then, we asked for bitcoin donations and Reddit users donated! It was awesome. He made enough money to buy himself a pocket knife, but the key thing for me was he learned as a five-year-old that cryptocurrency is real money.
I was thinking about this again tonight and ended up watching the intro video we did way back then. He was only 5! So cute.
Eventually he lost interest in building Scratch games so the project hasn't been touched since.
As I was talking to him about various cryptocurrencies I'm trading now, he got really interested in SmartCash and SmartRewards.
I realized that old bitcoin address of his still had some bitcoin in it (and bitcoin cash):
Previously, he was bummed because he didn't think he could earn enough money to buy 1,000 SmartCash to be eligible for the SmartRewards on December 25th. I'm so glad I remembered he still owned some bitcoin and hurray for the rise in bitcoin price this year. :)
Today we were talking about cryptocurrencies at the dinner table (a common occurrence in our home), and he said he wanted to buy some more SmartCash before the 25th so he'd be eligible for even more SmartRewards for his "Christmas Money." I took the picture above tonight as he handed over his saved funds of $8.33. @corinnestokes and I don't do allowance, but we do pay for household chores such as taking out the garbage.
I'm so very proud of him for wanting to be part of the future digital currency economy at such an early age and his desire to save instead of spend (though he has bought quite a few nerf blasters with his own money lately).
I walked him through the whole process tonight of transferring some of my Steem to HitBTC, selling for BTC, and then buying SmartCash. We then transferred it to his wallet where he now has around $68 worth:
If you're feeling generous and want to send him a few more $SMARTs, his savings address is Skc2EazdASMz2d8cE5hujjoh32CNau9KMF :)
I'm a proud pappa. If my 8-year-old son can understand this stuff with some help from his dad, anyone can.
If you want to know more about SmartCash, check out my previous posts on it:
- $0.02222 (0.00000463 BTC) My SmartCash Story
- $0.03416 (0.00000648 BTC) I Bought Some More SmartCash
- $0.08218 (0.00001485 BTC) I Finally Took the Loss
- $0.12584 (0.00002270 BTC) SmartCash is Blowing Up! Social Capital and the Warm Feeling of Being Lucky!
The price is back down to $0.05627 (0.00000692 BTC) right now after the big spike to over $0.16. If you end up buying a 1,000 or more and put it in your wallet before the 25th, you'll be eligible for some Christmas SmartRewards as well. I don't know where the SmartCash project will go, but it seems to have a motivated team and some cool ideas.
What are your thoughts about teaching cryptocurrency to children?
Do you think STEEM and SmartCash are good examples to get them started?
Hah! The SmartCash community is awesome. I woke up this morning and saw this:
His balance almost doubled due to donations from people like @decentralizd and @msg768 who liked this story. I showed him first thing, and he was so stoked! Thank you all. :)
(going to upvote this comment for visibility)
And someone added another 1,000 last night! Devon is so stoked. He's talking about saving up to buy his own computer now. :)
Lucky boy. My parents barely had the fiat skills to pass along, much less this. I wish I had recorded my breakdown of crypto talking to my mother the other day when I filled her in on my Steemit life...
It can be a lot like speaking another language to those who just don't get it yet.
Sometimes my notes to myself on crypto for the day look like another language the next day! Glad I got on this train rather than pulling out my old state quarter map haha ;)
@lukestokes your son must be proud of you. Im sure in near future he appreciates more and more :)
@smartbot tip @spectrums 50
Σ$$$ Tipped @spectrums
Σ50 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$2.80 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.@smartbot tip @spectrums 20
Σ$$$ Tipped @spectrums
Σ20 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$1.12 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.and now I’ve got something else to learn! after seeing all of the flag wars and stuff, I’m more than a minnow on here before accepting anything lol; I’ve become a straight up apologetic plankton/bottom feeder.... 🦐 I believe, for now, I will say thank you, bot/human/cyborg(?)
Is that the web wallet you have shown? My wallet on my Mac doesn’t look like that. I like how it shows the US dollar amount which mine doesn’t show.
Yep! I use https://wallet.smartcash.cc
Thanks.
@smartbot tip @lukestokes 300
Oh heck yeah, man! Thanks. Now I'll have plenty of ammunition to tip around. :)
Σ$$$ Tipped @lukestokes
Σ300 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$16.80 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.balance
@lukestokes has
Σ408.98 SMART(unconfirmed:Σ0 SMART).@smartbot tip @lukestokes 1000
HAhah! Now you're just showing off. :) :)
Thanks.
Lol no way! I just don't login to Steem enough lately and want you to have some Smart to pass around to interested parties. Besides i think i just killed the bot LOL
Noooo, not the bot.
Please don't be dead @smartbot
We still need you.
balance
@lukestokes has
Σ108.98 SMART(unconfirmed:Σ0 SMART).balance
@lukestokes has
Σ1078.98 SMART(unconfirmed:Σ0 SMART).address
Your deposit address is
SMWGMve61ft1JYi6H8VuGRuvZjYoiVm9S1.Wow, that's cool!!! Thanks for the hint :-)
Wow, thanks for the post @lukestokes, it warmed my heart! Glad you teached your son about SmartCash, hopefully he will be in the generation where using it is common. This will be my first resteem and i'm sure we can polish his 'Christmas Money' up a bit!
Wow, your first resteem!? I'm honored. :)
Yeah, I left a comment already, but the SmartRewards community already dropped some donations his way! He's so excited about it. Pretty cool thing to wake up to. He's going to be telling his friends about it, for sure.
Love the concept of teaching kids about money that's based on a "proof of work" instead of the FRN route. Personally...I'm a late comer to this game and have a LOT of catching up to do. It sickens me to know that I could have invested one or two thousand dollars in bitcoin back in 2008 and ended up not doing it because I didn't understand it.
Peace man...glad to see there are good dads out there like you. Upvoted!
Also, you say your trading cryptos now? By what means? Through what platform? Do you day trade or are these long term holds. I just recently opened up a coinbase and Poloniex account, but I have literally NO IDEA what I'm doing.
Thanks!
Yeah, I've been trading off and on since 2013. Coinbase is a good fiat on-ramp, but ultimately you want to keep your cryptocurrency stored in paper wallets or hardware wallets like a Ledger Nano S or Trezor. As for trading, I had some issues with Poloniex a while back, so I'm avoiding them for now. Bittrex is pretty good and if you have Coinbase you can also use GDax (owned by the same company). For SmartCash I've used HitBTC and Cryptopia. I have a lot of exchange accounts. I'd also highly recommend getting into the BitShares world as it's a decentralized exchange meaning you own your own cryptocurrency because you control the private key (no centralized third party you have to trust). Here's my referral link if you want to create an account there: https://wallet.bitshares.org/?r=luke-stokes (scroll down on my latest post on BitShares to see links to all my old BitShares posts with tons of information, including how you can short the USD using bitUSD. Definitely check that stuff out.)
Cryptocurrency trading is a wild and crazy ride. You can learn a lot, but only play with what you're willing to lose. As for learning, I suggest searching for some popular YouTube videos to get started.
Thanks @lukestokes I appreciate the reply back.
@smartbot tip @highimpactflix 50
Σ$$$ Tipped @highimpactflix
Σ50 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$2.80 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.@smartbot tip @highimpactflix 50
Σ$$$ Tipped @highimpactflix
Σ50 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$2.80 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.Good stuff Luke. Just sent some love over to your son :)
Thanks so much! He was so excited to hear about the gifts he received this morning.
My pleasure!
Would you mind taking a look at the comments on this post? @decentralizd tried to tip me a large amount but it didn't go through the first time and the second time went to a non-existent steem account due to a typo. Third time didn't go through (I don't think).
Yeah sure. I'll have a look now. Sorry for the late reply. Busy day!
Your son is a lucky one. Wished I was his age when I got into crypto (Oh yeah, at that age there was no crypto). I can imagine how fast he'd grab the concept and in ten years time he'd be a wealthy cryptocurrency guru. Doing a lot of great things, but not too late for me, we are still early adopters, greater things still ahead. It is an adventure worth taking. No regrets. Thanks for sharing, now I'd show it to my cousin who thinks he's too young to learn about cryptocurrency :)
Awesome post Luke. I've been teaching friends at work and my wife about Crypto, and it is like a foreign language sometimes. Explaining it to one co-worker I ended up making him consider why our fiat paper money having value is so different than BTC or other cryptos. He still had a hard time accepting it, haha.
Thankfully my wife has a better grasp, so we've recently been talking about how we want to integrate crypto into our kids savings. My son has been working and saving every fiat dollar he earns to buy a kayak, but your post got me thinking to maybe start teaching him about crypto too. He's 7, my daughter is 4 (so not quite earning the same principles yet).
I'm looking forward to getting my first smart rewards in a couple days; I bought Smartcash when you first starting talking about it. Now seems like a good time to buy more, and it could be an encouraging one for kids because of the Smart rewards.
I remember when I was younger buying a CD would give a good return on savings after one year. We looked into CDs for our kids and I couldn't believe how bad the interest rates were. Pointless. I figure when they're adults, crypto savings accounts I start now could be worth a lot more and a bigger part of how money functions in our world (hopefully).
As a totally off topic aside: thanks for coming by The Writer's Block. Sorry I missed you, but chatting with the other members I can tell you made an impact and helped with their understanding and current concerns. Funny thing too, how I just talked you up in my #steemitistome post on being a catalyst for community at Steemit. It speaks volumes that you demonstrated that in a personal way for them.
As I've been saying, @Lukestokesmhth for top witness people! ;)
I'm getting my first smart rewards as well. Pretty stoked about that. It happens in just over two days: https://smartcash.bitcoiner.me/ Looks like we'll be just over 13% in rewards: http://smartrewards.ccodam.dk/
I wonder if the price will dump after that as people sell off new winnings (which would invalidate them for future rewards though).
I'm so glad I was able to do that as well. I loved your post and really appreciate your support on @lukestokes.mhth :)
@smartbot tip @aksounder 50
Some smart to get you started! :)
Σ$$$ Tipped @aksounder
Σ50 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.056 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$2.80 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.@smartbot withdraw SZeBvtLeTpp9P9AzSXGjA3uJezvugisqYQ
@aksounder:
Σ49.99 SMARThas been withdrawn from your account toSZeBvtLeTpp9P9AzSXGjA3uJezvugisqYQ. You have been chargedΣ0.01 SMARTwithdrawal fee. Transactionbafde44dfdb4e03f9efd427e39c0dc19387e2a309d3675ad2d9a19cce853a8bbis now completed. To monitor the transaction status click HERE.@smartbot tip @lukestokes 1000
Since it never went through...
Σ$$$ Tipped @lukestones
Σ1000 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.055 USDperSMART. Current value of the tip is$55.00 USD. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.POOP!
@smartbot tip @lukestokes 1000
@msg768 I goofed lol @lukestones isnt real :D
I fixed it. I really need to apply a permanent fix for typos but I can only stop this if you tip someone who doesn't exist. I can't stop you from tipping someone else so make sure you ALWAYS copy and paste the username! It's easy to mistype a username...
Stones!
Heh. Maybe you did break the bot. I hope those funds aren't lost.
If it was fully decentralized and immutable, it'd be lost! :P
This story would be like the one where their dad started teaching their son about computers before they appeared in schools.
Think of the advantage he'll have over the other kids...
...and the new friends that will want to socialize with him because he knows something none of the other kids do...
Being bright about cryptocurrency is something to be proud of...
That's a great analogy. Yeah, I really like that. :)
He's already telling his friends about SmartCash and cryptocurrency stuff. Some of the dads in his scouting group have been asking me about cryptocurrency during our campouts as well. Fun stuff. :)