Gangsters, cats and Bitcoin: 9-year-old Henry takes BTC to the classroom

A young Andreas Antonopolous in the making, a nine-year-old in the United Kingdom, tried to orange pill his classroom.

A nine-year-old boy’s efforts show that Bitcoin (BTC) is for everyone and Bitcoin education is for all ages.

Henry, who lives in the United Kingdom, gave a talk on Bitcoin to his classmates in an engaging and funny presentation. Cointelegraph spoke to Henry’s mother, an author and Bitcoin advocate who goes by Decentrasuze on social media, to find out more.

My son orange pilling Year 5!

Teacher feedback:

‘It was very informative, engaging and he really knew his subject knowledge well.’#Bitcoin  #Education #Environment pic.twitter.com/EVfWEejfVE

— Decentra Suze (@DecentraSuze) January 31, 2023

Decentrasuze, or simply Susie, explained that Henry gave the talk to his classmates to help them learn about a subject that he finds fascinating, probably because his Mum and Dad are infatuated with Bitcoin:

“Henry is surrounded by Bitcoin. His father and I talk about it all the time. There are always Bitcoin podcasts on in the background, and Henry often asks questions like ‘How does Bitcoin go up and down?’”

A curious and inquisitive child, Henry was “unscrewing his cot at the age of 18 months to see what’s inside,” so naturally, he asks a lot of questions. But whereas kids in Henry’s class had given talks on coding or space, Henry settled on Bitcoin.

Susie explained that the talk was a success: “He was buzzing when he came out; so so pleased. His classmates enjoyed it because it was funny.” The presentation is a quirky example of Bitcoin’s growing popularity and understanding among younger generations.

Henry had included a gif of his cat Molly and pictures of himself dressed up as a gangster — much to his classmates’ amusement — to demonstrate that Bitcoin is not for criminals.

However, was Henry successful in “orange pilling” his classmates about Bitcoin? Susie said that when he asked her son how it went, Henry replied:

“I don’t really know. You never really know with kids!”

Henry will be reassured by the efforts of organizations like My First Bitcoin, the El Salvador-based education program for kids, or even the Bitcoin toys, books and games that are available to help children learn about money and Bitcoin. 

Unfortunately, despite Henry’s best efforts, his friend Willliam said he might be interested in Dogecoin (DOGE). William joins Elon Musk in supporting the crypto token created for fun but still pumps every time multibillionaire Musk mentions the meme in his tweets.

As for Henry, he doesn’t have a phone, so he cannot stack sats (save in Bitcoin) just yet. “His older sister does have a Wallet of Satoshi account, but the only place she can spend sats is at her dad’s osteopath,” Susie joked.

The osteopathic practice is one of the few places that accept Bitcoin in the Chelmsford area, as shown on BTCMap.org. Nonetheless, more and more merchants are joining the network as the U.K. slowly warms up to the decentralized currency. 

Henry’s teacher shared encouraging feedback on his presentation, and there’s now some discussion on whether Henry could deliver the Bitcoin talk to the students in the year above as a real test of his skills.

Related: UK Bitcoin community reacts to incoming CBDC and digital pound rollout

The teacher even left an encouraging note saying that Decentrasuze should be “very proud” of her son’s activities. Judging by the Bitcoin community’s reaction on Twitter, they are too.