The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Youngsters learn about digital money
In addition to designing their cruptocurrencies, the students took part in a crypto scavenger hunt...
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have made a lot of news lately as they balloon in value, but the technology behind them can appear indecipherable.
With this in mind, Get with the Program, an educational group, held a learning event Jan. 15 at the Oberlin College Science Center, 119 Woodland St., to teach children between first and fifth grade the fundamentals of the possible future of finances.
According to The New York Times, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies by extension, are a purely digital form of money that can be transferred to anyone in the world electronically.
It is built on a network of computers around the globe. This concept came to prominence as criminals used the nearly untraceable currency to purchase illicit materials or services on the dark web, according to The Times story.
Since then, it has become mainstream and interest has exploded with a single bitcoin being valued at $13,799, according to charts.bitcoin.com. But the value may change quickly.
Jason Williams, founder and CEO of Get with the Program, said the students who attended the camp learned how to make their own digital currencies.
Vivian Harasty, 11, of Vermilion, explained how she came up with her own digital
currency: Vilotation.
“Its symbol is like a heart-eye emoji,” Vivian said. “Five thousand, five hundred and fifty of them equal one U.S. dollar.”
She said she has enjoyed learning about the science behind things like bitcoin
because she wouldn’t be able to learn it in school.
“If we do start using bitcoin instead of U.S. dollars, I think it would be a lot more safer and easier because you could keep it to yourself,” Vivian said.
In addition to designing
their cryptocurrencies, the students took part in crypto scavenger hunt, encrypting and decrypting secret messages and a relay based on the process for validating bitcoin transactions.
Throughout the session, participants were able to earn STEM Coins, a cryptocurrency devised by Williams, which they could spend at a special store at the end of the session for prizes.
As complex as the whole system seems, when Williams asked the students to explain it to The Morning Journal, the children rattled off the specific elements behind the cryptocurrencies.
Williams said this session fits in with the organization’s desire to prepare children for science, technology, engineering and math (or STEM) jobs in the future.
“It’s not only just the digital currency, because there are other digital currencies,” he said. “I don’t know what the ultimate fate of bitcoin is going to be, but the technology that’s involved, the cryptography, the finance, the math that’s involved in that, those are all import skills for kids to have,”