Topic: BITCOIN AS GIFTS FOR TEENAGERS (Read 691 times)

The only problem is that most parents themselves can hardly distinguish between what is good and what is bad. This requires a certain amount of critical thinking and resistance to the stupid public opinion of others, who are exactly the same as them.

As a result, such parents, through their unreasonable guardianship, try to protect their children from a useful and unique financial instrument.


It is not difficult to predict the result. Any parent who has dependent children (minors who don't live independently) will be against their children investing in bitcoin. This is only possible if these conditional “children” have a personal source of income and can manage it themselves. Then, parents will not be able to prohibit investing in btc.

Only a few will approve of children's decision to invest in bitcoin the money they received from their parents. But these will have to be very progressive parents. For example you, reader. How would you react to such a desire of your children?

And that's natural. To be honest, I'd prefer having overprotective parents, who might buy misinformation in the process of protecting their kids, than careless parents. The overwhelming majority has bought that bitcoin is bad. It's natural for parents to reinforce that opinion to their children, even though it's bullshit.

If it pushes away parents themselves, imagine what their response would be if their children asked for permission to hold bitcoin, provided that they live with pretty much their parent's money.  

You are right, the project was done in Europe not USA.

It's normal parental behavior to keep children safe. Especially from what these parents themselves don't understand and which for them is something like a bubble or a fraudulent scheme. Of course, they will try to “protect” their children from bitcoin.

Tell me, when was the media objective? Never. But despite the deceitful way they present information, in the mass consciousness the media still remain a source of “true” information and have a very strong influence on the minds of their viewers. It seems that the media is deliberately demonizing the bitcoin, trying to alienate as many people as possible from it.

Listen to the media and do the opposite, this is how you can reformulate the famous expression.

Here it’s not so much about the bitcoin, but also about the financial literacy of people in general, which is the basis for investing in general. Add the negative perception of the bitcoin in the public consciousness, the fear of learning and learning new things, not to mention the fact that this requires cash injections, which undoubtedly pushes people away from their passion for the bitcoin. Also, there is one more point - fraudulent schemes and ways to deceive people in order to get their money. Let's not lie, there are a lot of such types of activities, after encountering which, people will be afraid to get involved with something like the bitcoin.

Most parents behave protectively towards their children, and I have already written that the mainstream media mostly write and speak negatively about Bitcoin, although often without any basis, considering that Bitcoin has nothing to do with Bankman, Kwon or that scammer from Turkey and many others who are guilty of tens of billions of damages because they behaved like arrogant kids who thought that no one could do anything to them.

Because of such people, Bitcoin gets a bad reputation, and I personally in my environment often hear very negative comments when people talk about this topic. Recently, a fraudster (or just an incompetent kid) disappeared in my country with around 70 million euros that he got from clients to invest in cryptocurrencies, and I don't even have to tell you what kind of media fuss was created about it. In its primetime news program, state television made a feature about it and showed the Bitcoin logo, that is, the logo of a domestic exchange, which has nothing to do with the specific case.

I want to say that I am not at all surprised that in general less than 5% of people today own cryptocurrencies, and even less Bitcoin - the general perception of Bitcoin is mostly bad to very bad.

I agree that since op's project was for teenagers, they should probably have requested the consent of their parents first, and if the parents had rejected on this ground then it would make sense to me, but they rejected all of this because according to them BTC is associated with money laundering and illicit activities, when these same parents still use fiat currencies and payment options that are far more associated with illicit businesses that BTC will ever be, it only shows a lack of understanding in my honest opinion.

I stand in agreement with Lucius on this one. Even for adults, that's a difficult thing to convince, let alone when that person has a parent who needs conviction beforehand. I can imagine most of the parents hearing "bitcoin" and depicting this as the "bad darkweb money" or as a bubbled-stock.

In addition, parents use them, and so will their children. You're obviously raising good points, but just be that parent for a sec.

At the op if opsec is not an issue could you let us know what country did you have the contest in?

I suspect somewhere in europe or the USA.

It's not really your duty to promote bitcoin and talk people about its pros, you shouldn't really try to convince anyone because there is absolutely no pro that you get, instead, people blame you for promoting it and if anyone buys or gets involved in bitcoin because of your influence, then they'll blame you for their loss. Also, if these teenagers start talking about Bitcoin in family and invest their savings in Bitcoin, their parents may reach to you and it can turn into a problem.

But that doesn't change the fact that people think Bitcoin is used for illicit activities, right NotATether?

This is just a lack of knowledge and nothing else. Usually, people show trust in things which are approved by the government and usually, we see the government not accepting Bitcoin, resulting in this type of mindset for those who do not research further.
As far as money laundering is concerned, it is more convenient to use fiat money to launder money than you use the transparent blockchain and think that your actions won't be noticed. Again, this is the feed by the media to keep people away from Bitcoin and crypto currencies.

Cash and bank credit have government oversight and approval yet are used for money laundering 100x more than Bitcoin.

Even custodial fiat services such as CashApp, Venmo, Zelle and Paypal are not so much better in terms of illicit usage. Also as private companies they have the right to seize your money whenever they want. But at least there's an 18+ age limit earmarked on these platforms.

That's very correct, countries that are friendly to Bitcoin  and Blockchain are mostly were we have bitcoiners in their politics. We need to encourage those fiends that have political ambitions to promote legislation and political policy that increase awareness and true protection of blockchain adopters.

Yes, that's one of the lesson I learnt from the project, that it is very important to seek the consent of the parents or guardians before introduction of such projects that may generate controversy. Thanks for your advice.

Maybe you went in the wrong direction from the beginning, which is that you went directly towards the children, and you bypassed their parents, who still take care of these children and behave protectively. If you take into account all the scandals that have passed through the media and in which Bitcoin is mentioned in the past few years, then maybe you can understand why parents react in such a way.

Of course, it is not Bitcoin's fault that someone is not capable of running his company or has dishonest intentions from the very beginning of a project, but the media you mentioned write what people want to read, and bad news sells far better than good news.

Politics and banks are only (still) fairly static observers who do not need to make any big moves, because the average person is already instrumentalized to such an extent that he does not easily (or at all) accept anything that deviates from established norms of socially responsible behavior.

It seems that it is still difficult to make people aware to really open themselves up to new things. Even though there is the internet, it doesn't guarantee that people will look for as much information as possible about Bitcoin.

It seems that the government is also "restricting" the movement of Bitcoin in society by continuing to spread the news that Bitcoin is just a tool for carrying out illegal activities without telling them that Bitcoin is actually a valuable asset for them. The government does not want to lose the power it has built long ago and continues to try to spread rumors or bad news to the public.

And it seems that the presence of a government that is truly willing to "open up and accept new things" is very necessary but unfortunately, they are still controlled by people who have higher power. So the key is in the hands of the government and if they really allow it, they will educate the public about bitcoin/crypto.

You've  rightly recognized the roles of the anti-bitcoiners in this present case, It seems that these detractors can often be viewed as a "Trinity" composed of three influential entities: The Bank, The Media, and Political Power. Against these detractors it's important for us to continue the engagement of the public opinion in constructive dialogues and educating them of the multiple perspectives surrounding this trans-formative technology. Hoping that with our persistence and perseverance in the public awareness process we can get the mainstream public opinion on our side.

I could guess that was the problem, it is sad that at a time when it should be very easy for people to do their own research and get the right information, they make their decisions based on what they read online from anti-bitcoiners who constantly attack the network. BTC with its public ledger and transparency in tx's isn't as good for money laundering as people think, except it is done by someone with a very good understanding of the network. Laundering money with cash is so much easier, but people think BTC is the problem.

Mainly most parents hold the belief that BTC, lacking government oversight and approval, is primarily associated with money laundering and illicit business activities.

I'm sorry that your project failed.

What exactly were the parents concerns and reservations about BTC and the blockchain technology? Did they complain that BTC is not a currency that they want their children to get involved with or is the lie that BTC is for crime and illicit activities popular in your area? I would like to know why exactly the parents rejected the offer and what they think about BTC.

This goes to share my experience about this teenagers motivational project. I hope this message finds you all well.
I wanted to share some updates about the project I embarked on recently, which aimed to introduce Bitcoin to the teenage footballers at our football academy as a form of positive reinforcement for their training progress.
While the project had noble intentions and was driven by a belief in the potential benefits of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency for young individuals, I was able give out bitcoins to more than half of the teenagers, before I had some resistance by parents. I regret to inform you that it did not succeed as planned, despite the enthusiastic interest and cooperation of the teenagers themselves. The main obstacle that I encountered was the strong opposition from the parents of the teenagers. Many of them expressed concerns and reservations about Bitcoin and blockchain technologies, which ultimately led to the project's failure.
I respect the parents' viewpoints and understand that these concerns stem from a place of care and caution for their children. It is essential to prioritize the trust and confidence of parents in any educational initiative involving teenagers. Therefore, I have decided to discontinue the Bitcoin gifts project at this time.
While this project may not have achieved its intended goals, it has taught me valuable lessons about the importance of considering the broader perspectives and concerns of all stakeholders when implementing such initiatives. It has also reinforced the significance of clear communication and transparency in any educational endeavor.
I remain committed to providing the best training and support to our teenage footballers. Moving forward, I will continue to explore innovative ways to inspire and motivate them to excel in their training, always with the best interests of both the teenagers and their parents in mind.
It was not all bad news as we won the league and it was a fantastic season for my boys. They only won 3 matches the previous season to invert the trend, as they only suffered one defeat the season I tried to motivate them with bitcoin.
Thank you for your support and understanding throughout this journey. Your encouragement has meant a lot to me, and I look forward to sharing more successful endeavors in the future.
If you have any suggestions or ideas for future projects, I would be eager to hear them. Let's continue to work together to make a positive impact on our teenagers' lives.

Note that sat2.io is utilising "Lightning Network"... not necessarily a problem, but something to be aware of. These transactions are generally "off-chain"... and really designed for "small" amounts.

Also, check out BlueWallet here: https://bluewallet.io/

I've used BlueWallet, it's not too bad. Probably worth checking out for your purposes.

Note: When/If you eventually want to withdraw the bitcoins to a "normal" Bitcoin wallet, it will create an "on-chain" transaction... unfortunately, BlueWallet doesn't currently actually have a withdraw feature implemented, so you need to use an "exchange" (they currently redirect to zigzag.io).

This looks cool and awesome, really easiest way to get them onboard. How does it works no detail information on the website. Can you tell me more or any reference for detail inforamtion on how it works. I CAN'T WAIT TO TEST THIS.
Many thanks

use sat2.io, gives you a link people can redeem in bluewallet

Yes, the time was not very helpful but as you rightly put it is part of the learning opportunity.
I think it is a positive obstacle as it will allow preparation for future cases when the bitcoin is getting to the massive adoption stage and the price starts to fly up and goes mooning...

I suspect that it might just be a case of "bad timing"™... with the BTC price nudging USD$10K, and the halving approaching... the network has become quite chaotic and very busy. As such, there are a LOT of transactions occurring and with that, a sharp uptick in fee rates

It is a little disappointing to see that BRD doesn't support fully customised fees... and only has a "Low Priority/Normal/Priority" system in place

Still, this could be treated as a learning opportunity to educate the recipients on how the bitcoin network works and how fee rates work with respect to the number of unconfirmed transactions and confirmation times etc.

The experiment is worth while so far, such that I've won attention of some friends around here to expand the scope and keep the ball rolling...
The BRD wallet is the most interesting to most of the tenenagers but the  transaction fees is high. Taking into consideraton that they are receiving small amount of bitcoin. There is an instance where the transaction fees was more than the 0.0005BTC that was a consolation prize to the participant.
"BRD: IMPORT WALLET: Transaction fees would cost more than the funds available on this private key"
I had to withdraw back the paper wallet and send the coins directly to the participant BRD WALLET. Meanwhile, the blockchain wallet is also easy to setup and it has a low transaction fees. I am trying to make this the introductory wallet for them.
I want to encourage them to send coins between themselves, as a good practical usage, I think this is a good approach to achieve a good Peer to peer digital currency transaction...
I am going to focuss on blockchain wallet because of the transaction fees but I'll let them understand and be aware of the different between the cold  storage and the hot storage etc...
Thanks for your contributions, I'll keep updating.
Best regards

It's like all those "Here are my answers, now copy to your timeline and post your answers!" posts that do the rounds on Facebook... and they ask questions like:

- Name of first girlfriend/Boyfriend
- Street where you lived as a child
- First school
- First Pets name
- Favourite Colour
- Mother maiden name
- First Car that you owned

etc etc... which all look like "Password Recovery Security Questions" or a commonly used password components... and you're tying it directly to your public facebook profile!

It's basic social engineering... genius in it's simplicity.

I see your point. We need to invest more time in motivating joiners to learn by impulsing tehm to taking steps on their own as well, so we don't just limite all to giving out fund but to make them takes positive steps to explore the Blockchain potentialities. Great contribution Coolcryptovator! many thanks

I understand that it is quiz and I generally agree with your post, except the part which I quoted. Some users will find it more difficult to understand a new technology and they will need more time. Rushing them might lead to mistakes.

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Teenagers, mobile phone security, and Bitcoins, all in one place. Somehow I am skeptical about this.
How many unknown apps does a usual teenager keep on his phone and what exactly do they do? All kinds of games, social media, porn, funny videos, and other links circulating around. All those find which friend visits your profile most often type of services are a great front to steal data, private info, etc.
   

Many thank O_E_L_E_O !, for your contribution. I really like that of using airgapped device. I will surely adopt that as good practice.
Best regards

Fully agree, that what I have tried to explain in my above post..I believe that would more beneficial if they could learn more about bitcoin technology rather than just received funds.

Again, I won't agree with you. Giving them seen seed will not force, but it is very easy step to send money. Forcing them to create their own wallet and teach them about wallet, seeds, private keys, hash, clients, change address and so on would be more beneficial as I said above. You just send 10$ to your friends but this isn't good practise. By this way they would misunderstood from the beginning. They might think their seeds could compromised with friends since you already know their seeds. Is this really good practice? I don't think so. Do right things with newbies to they will learn right. Share seeds wouldn't good practice ever either with friends or families.

This. I often see people asking for advice on how to gift bitcoin, and my answer is always that the first thing you should gift is your time - time spent with the other person teaching them how to set up their own wallet. Handing someone who has no idea about bitcoin a paper wallet or seed phrase is more than likely going to result in them misplacing/losing/damaging it, or making a mistake when trying to spend the coins and either having them stolen or sending them to a change address they can't access. A much better idea is the person learning the basics about wallets and general security, and then you sending them some coins to their own addresses. This also removes the third party trust aspect, in that the receiver of the coins doesn't have to trust that you generated the paper wallet securely and aren't secretly holding a copy of it yourself.

Ideally, you should also have booted in to a live OS (such as a Linux distro on a USB stick) and generated the wallets there, rather than from your usual OS, and you should use a permanently airgapped device. You also need to make sure the printer you used is airgapped, and you have wiped its cache/memory too.

Yes, you are right, I USED bitaddress.org to creat the paper wallet, but created the wallets offline and cleanup the cache and elimate the history of the pc, before connecting back the pc online. I think that is secured. Please don't hesitate to let me know it that methos has loopholes, I followed some guide made in 2004.
Meanwhile, I will be adopting a more motivational method that will encourage the participants to create their own wallet as recommended by some other contributors.
Thanks for your contribution

Really appreciate all the contributions.

JONIBOINI is really right in that observation, any method that allow 3rd parties control of the BITCOIN plays down the PURELY PEER TO PEER OBJECTIVE, I will work towards eliminating that in a bitcoin specialized quiz like CRWTH recommended.

Great recommendation from HCP! BRD is very interesting, I will make a small video on howtodo for them.

Thanks  BITMOVER, I will adopt the seed methods for the specialised quiz for BITCOIN QUIZ (CRWTH recommendation).

Many thanks ETFbitcoin you rightly summarised the best options, I will work on them and keep you all informed about the progress.
I really appreciate all the support and recommendation, together we can carry along the younger generation. Best regards

If assuming they never used Bitcoin previously, it'd be better to advice them to use Electrum (PC), Mycelium (Android) or Bread Wallet (iOS).
Bitcoin Core and Armory requires you to download hundred GB of Bitcoin blockchain. Wasabi and Samourai are good option for those who want better privacy, but it's slightly more difficult to use than wallet i mentioned on 1st sentence.

It'd be great if you make guide how to create, use and secure the wallet as well, since people who just started use Bitcoin usually neglect security or backup.

What if you have started another online quiz, not the sports kind, but the cryptocurrency knowledge type of quiz. Then maybe as part of their test, create their wallet? This would be educational for them and start them young with these types of investments and the important part is "Why should they do it?".

Preparing the young generation with these types of exposure would probably be beneficial for all of us. You will never know, but there could be another invention that would make things easier just because of technological exposure.

If you want to educate them from the bottom, then forcing them to create their own wallet is better. The OP can then send the coins to their address and remove the prize for anyone who doesn't make it in time. Everyone should know that you have to make your own seed and not accept it from somebody else. Who knows what will happen in the future if they keep that practice, they could get scammed. Even OP can scam them if they have bad intentions by transferring the money here and there and say "oh we don't know, maybe your phone or computer got a malware" and it will be difficult for those guys to prove who the theft is.

I think giving them the seed will force them to do some research and search the wallet on their own. They will choose the wallet that fit their needs.

Giving them the seed is the same of giving them a paper wallet. For small amounts there is no problem at all.

I have gave a few gifts to friends like this. Like 10 usd in bitcoin... I just gave them the seed which have addresses with balance.

It is a nice and good practice imo, as it will incentive people to make research about it and learn more interesting aspects of bitcoin

Additionally,  as electrum has no iOS support there might be problems for many of those teenagers.

Coinomi or Samourai might be a better choice.

Just FYI, Electrum doesn't have an iOS version either...

If you absolutely must have an Android and an iOS solution and you'd like to keep it simple and use the same wallet on both platforms... maybe check out "BRD" (formerly known as "Bread") wallet... it also supports scanning QR codes to import paper wallets.

Thanks you AMISHMANISH. Great idea, I will check on the ENJIN, very interesting. Best regards


Many thanks BITMOVER, nice options. The electrum wallet had issues while trying with android but the Samourai is really very interesting.
I am very happy for the recommendations.
I'll be given out the priz in Paperwaller and will guide them on setting up their mobile wallets. Samourai is really fantastic, I will continue to explore other mobile wallets.


Many thanks, since the programme is going to be for long term. I'll be testing various wallet.  Mycelium is not very interesting because of tha lack of support for the iOS version.


OK Coolcryptovator, many thanks, I'll work on the ELECTRUM.

I disagree with it. They should learn to open an non custodial wallet since they are already teenagers. Sending them SEED wouldn't a good practise. If they aren't encouraged now then they will face problem near future to use of bitcoin and wallets.

I will never suggest for paper wallet any way. There is no any restriction to create bitcoin non custodial wallet. I will prefer to open Electrum wallet since they are beginner. It's easy interface, open source and secure. Just teach them how should save their seed phrase and private keys. Ask them to write on multiple paper and save them on multiple places. Electrum would use all device (mobile & PC ).

Using paper wallet quite risky for newbies especially during make first transfer regarding change address. So better option I will suggest about install Electrum.

If you're checking out mobile wallets and giving out paperwallets... Then I would recommend that you have a look at Mycelium (note: Android only, DO NOT use the iOS version of Mycelium, it hasn't been updated in ~3 years)

It has a lot of features builtin to deal with paper wallets (specifically, QR Code scanning etc). It makes it super easy to scan the private key from a paperwallet and sweep/spend the funds.

You don't need to distribute Bitcoin with the software.

You can just give them the SEED (12-24 words) and suggest them a few wallets to access their coins.

I would suggest mobile wallets, as any teenager will have a mobile phone.

Electrum, Mycellium, Samourai and Coinomi are easy to use and they have a mobile version for both Android and iOS.

Really nice of you organizing a competition and using BTC as gifts. Most teenagers would be using a smartphone for such things. The idea of a paper wallet and telling them to sweep is a good one for the educational purposes as suggested by Mocacinno.

Though if your target is to provide a basic introduction then there are mobile wallets available with multiple features like exchanges, NFT-trading etc. One of these that I have used personally used is Enjin wallet. It allows importing using BIP38 as well as Mnemonics. It also supports things like blockchain badges which was used by Microsoft for Azure developers.
Its a neat addition and would be interesting to teenagers who tend to like beautiful interfaces and creativity.

PS: This isn't a promotion. I just happen to use Enjin as i was interested in the blockchain gaming phenomena.

Please make sure to NOT use any website for that.
Doesn't matter whether offline or online. This is bad practice.

Preferably use some open source software/script to generate them (e.g. use your operating systems RNG to create a private-/public keypair or just use electrum).

With small amounts it probably wouldn't matter too much whether they get stolen or not, but its always better to not use a website.

Great MOCACINNO! many thanks for your reply, I love that of creating a properly generated, bip38 encrypted paper wallet. I have never done that before. I will try to learn howto.
I will appreciate if you can educate me on howto as well. Many thanks once again.

Any non-custodial wallet will do. There is no central authority in the bitcoin ecosystem. Teenagers are not prohibited, my 11 year old daughter has a wallet.

But, if you want names:

• Bitcoin core
• Electrum
• Wasabi
• Armory
• Knots
• Eclair

Or, you can create a properly generated, bip38 encrypted paper wallet, and give these to your winners (together with the password). This way you can even tell them to sweep the wallet, and add a disclaimer you'll sweep any leftover funds after x months... If they're not interested in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and just throw the paper wallet away, there is no use letting the funds dissapear...

Just make sure you stay away from any custodial wallets: web wallets (even non-custodial ones), freewallet, exchange wallets,... If you use those ones, underage people might get into troubles because custodial wallets have a habit of imposing their own rule-set onto their users.

I started organising online sport quiz and the prizes are in Bitcoin for winners. Muy problem, only first priz goes with ledger nano harware but the other 6 winners are to be distributed via soft wallets.
Please need soft wallet recommendation that tolerate TEENAEGER's registración and easy access to their accounts.
Thanks