Company Name Mi Primer Bitcoin
Founder: John Dennehy
Date founded: August 2021
Headquarter Location: El Salvador
The amount of Bitcoin held in Treasury Around 0.5 BTC
The number of employees: 21
Website: https://miprimerbitcoin.io/
Public or private? Private (non-profits)
John Dennehy is adamant about wanting to change the world — and he believes that Bitcoin education is a means to do so.
Dennehy believes that Bitcoin is a way to help people reclaim their agency and understands the importance of education in helping them use it.
In late-2021 he launched a Bitcoin-education platform called Mi Primer Bitcoin (My First Bitcoin) as a means to empower everyday Salvadorans.
Bitcoin’s success will only be possible if users understand what they are doing.
“Education naturally will push back against any attempts to co-opt the revolutionary spirit of Bitcoin,” Dennehy spoke to Bitcoin Magazine.
Dennehy may not hesitate to describe the adoption of Bitcoin as a “revolution”, but his method is much more Gandhian than Guevaraian.
Dennehy’s approach is thoughtful, kind and reflective.
What Inspired Mi Primer Bitcoin?
Dennehy wanted to make a difference in the early part of 2021. Like many others during COVID, he was worried about how people felt powerless and wanted something done.
“I was in New York during the pandemic, and I spent a lot of time on long walks contemplating the state of the world and the direction that society was heading in,” said Dennehy.
“My conclusion was that the root of the problem was that we had collectively lost agency, we had lost sovereignty — the individual had lost agency in their own life — and that had a lot of negative second and third order effects,” He added.
“The solution was Bitcoin education. The solution was to bring more people into Bitcoin and do it in a way that empowers and encourages people to think for themselves, to think critically, and to take control of their own life and their own future.”
Dennehy, riding the inspiration wave, booked a ticket to Ecuador. He had previously lived in Ecuador and it was a destination that he found inspiring. “wasn’t well served by the current system,” As he said, to start his Bitcoin educational mission.
This is the first attempt
Dennehy settled in Ecuador by June 2021. He tried to inform his friends of Bitcoin but was unable to convince them to come to Ecuador because of the epidemic. It was difficult for him to meet people in person.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Dennehy recalled his Ecuadorian experience.
Dennehy heard about the death of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele while she was in Ecuador. announcement Bitcoin was going to be legal tender in El Salvador
Dennehy reacted to his shock by booking his hotel room. next A one-way flight to El Salvador is needed to assist the country in making history.
“I decided to sell my possessions, get a one-way ticket to El Salvador to try to see how I could help make it successful,” Dennehy recounted. “As the first nation in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, for better or worse, El Salvador was going to be an example for the world, and I thought it was of the utmost importance that it was a good example.”
The Beginnings of Humble Beginnings
Dennehy quickly created Mi Primer Bitcoin after landing in El Salvador mission statement As well as lesson plans. Both students and teachers were recruited.
“The tactic was to talk to every Salvadoran I met — the Uber driver, the waitress at the restaurant, the person standing next to me waiting to cross the street — about Bitcoin,” said Dennehy.
“Before the first class, there were a couple of meetings of this very random group of people. They came to my Airbnb and talked about [Bitcoin] as a group,” He recounted.
“Of that group, a couple of people would volunteer with the project.”
Dennehy, despite his experience as a bicycle instructor and ESL educator, knew right away that he was not the best person to lead the program he wanted to start. Dennehy wanted the locals to take on this role.
“From the start, one of the founding concepts was that it should be community led, which means that the teachers should be able to relate to their students in a way that I just never would be able to,” Dennehy explained. “So, as a hard and fast rule, all the teachers here in El Salvador are Salvadoran.”
In the middle of a class in a Yoga studio, only one person attended. But by the end of the first month, a total of five had attended classes, which were held in that same yoga studio or in cafés or restaurants.
Mi Primer Bitcoins “Bitcoin Diploma” The Program
Dennehy, along with the team of Mi Primer Bitcoin, began to develop a curriculum in February 2022. It would be called its “Bitcoin Diploma” program.
“We went through the 2022 calendar year with three versions of [the program],” said Dennehy.
“We were just iterating very quickly. We didn’t start to build it until February, and the third version was complete in September,” He added.
Dennehy shared with the audience that student feedback on what works and doesn’t worked greatly influenced his process.
When I spoke with Dennehy about the challenges that the organization faces, it was clear to me that developing a curriculum wasn’t one of them.
What Are the Challenges of Running Mi Primer bitcoin?
Since its inception, Mi Primer Bitcoin’s biggest challenge has been to establish the non-profit organization’s impartiality and independence.
Dennehy spoke about the fact that many Salvadorans associate Bitcoins with the Salvadoran state, an institution which has divided opinions in this country.
“Early on, there was a strong association here in El Salvador with the government and Bitcoin,” said Dennehy.
“People that liked the government tended to like Bitcoin. People that didn’t like the government tended to not like Bitcoin. There were even people that thought that Nayib Bukele invented Bitcoin. That was a common perception in these early days,” He added.
“So, there is a strong association that Bitcoin had with the government. An early struggle was to show people that Bitcoin is separate. Bitcoin is independent. And so are we.”
Dennehy emphasized that the challenge remains even though Mi Primer Bitcoin is now being used in public schools throughout El Salvador.
“We’re always trying to assert our independence and not just in deed, but in perception,” He explained.
“Working with the government just amplifies that challenge of separating ourselves in the perception of others from the government,” He added.
“One of the ways that we meet that first challenge of not being dependent on the government is, as a point of principle. We never accept funding from the government.”
Mi Primer Bitcoin’s 21 employees are paid through a donation system. The challenge is made more difficult by the non-acceptance of donations which come with strings.
“We turn down most offers for sponsorships,” said Dennehy. “Four out of five offers for sponsorships we turn down, because four out of five come with strings attached.”
Mi Primer Bitcoin has been able to reduce some of its problems thanks to notable institutions within the Bitcoin community. financial burden.
We receive grants HRF, OpenSats You can also find out more about the following: Block,” said Dennehy.
“All of those come without strings attached, which is great,” He added.
“I think grants might start to take up a bigger slice of the pie, but from the start until now, the majority of our funding has come from grassroots support.”
Mi Primer Bitcoin Goes Global
Mi Primer Bitcoin is a curriculum and education material that teaches Bitcoin. free to download Use. Teachers around the globe can now easily adopt this curriculum.
Mi Primer Bitcoin supports the international teachers who are responsible for Bitcoin education in their home countries. These members, which Mi Primer bitcoin refers to, include all of its international teachers. “Light Nodes.”
“We have 33 nodes in 22 countries, and we all get together and share best practices,” explained Dennehy.
“Maybe a teacher in Argentina will guest teach for a project that started in Columbia. We have a node in Cuba and a node in the Dominican Republic, and they’re actually co-teaching,” He added.
Dennehy replied that Mi Primer Bitcoin was spreading quickly on a one-to-10 scale. “10,” Without hesitation. He said that if Mi Primer Bitcoin was expanded faster, it would lead the institution away from its original mission.
“I think the only way that this spreads faster is if we compromise our values, if we centralize and dictate rather than decentralize and empower,” Dennehy stated.
“We are trying to reimagine what’s possible for the next generation and that often means we have to forge a new path. If we are trying to teach others that a different future is possible, we must demonstrate that ourselves,” He added.
“What you say isn’t important, what you do is everything.”
Dennehy explained that Mi Primer Bitcoin received four Light Node applications within the past 48-hours and he is amazed at how rapidly things are moving.
He never imagined that Mi Primer Bitcoin would grow so rapidly.
“I’m a dreamer. I’m an idealist. That’s why I’m here,” said Dennehy. “But if you told me two and a half years ago we would have taught tens of thousands of students in person, and we would have inspired and helped facilitate this in dozens of other countries, I’d be like, ‘No way. Maybe in like 10 years.'”
Staying mission-driven
Dennehy is convinced that Mi Primer Bitcoin must keep emulating Bitcoin in order to fulfill its goal of empowerment.
“Everything that we do at Mi Primer Bitcoin, we try to learn from Bitcoin itself,” Dennehy shared. “And decentralization is really important to us, because we want to empower others rather than control them.”
His view of what empowerment is seems more refined and refined.
“Bitcoin education is a means to an end, and that end is empowerment,” said Dennehy.
“Once you realize that you have control over your money, that you could have more control over your present, it flips the incentive structure. In the fiat world, we’re disincentivized to look into the future, to build, to create, because the rules of the game might change. I could start a business today, but the rules of the game that will greatly influence whether it’s successful or not are not up to me and could change at any moment. So, it encourages us to be followers rather than leaders,” He explained.
“Bitcoin is something that flips a switch that ‘Okay, I could have more control of my money, which gives me more control of my present which makes it easier to build out into the future, because I’m not relying on the whims of someone else.’ The more we can insert ourselves into defining our own destiny, the more we are encouraged and incentivized to look into the future — to build and create. That’s the end, and Bitcoin education is the means to that end.”
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com