Bitcoin should be taught to children from an early age: This 11-year-old boy wrote a book about Bitcoin

Tencent Technology News According to foreign media reports, like most sixth-grade students, Andrew Courey also likes to participate in various sports activities. He also likes to play with his iPhone in his spare time. However, unlike most other 11-year-olds, he is also a Bitcoin expert.

He has just written a book called Early Bird Gets The Bitcoin: The Ultimate Guide To Everything About Bitcoin, which he self-published in January as an e-book for $2.99 ​​on Amazon Kindles; a paper version has just been published for $9.99.

As the child of a technology investor, Curry loves math, likes to tinker with mobile applications, and often comes up with various business ideas. During a baseball game, he was very depressed about the fouls of his teammates, so he suggested to his father who was watching the game outside to build a "referee recruitment website similar to Glassdoor".

Last year, he had an ambitious plan to make $20 million before he turned 14, and began actively pursuing various investment opportunities. According to his agreement with his parents, this plan might require him to drop out of school. Curry thought of Bitcoin and began to read a lot about it, watching YouTube videos about miners and early investors who made a lot of money in digital currencies.

After learning that his son was looking for a source of "passive income", Curry's father Jeff Curry persuaded him to write a book about Bitcoin and blockchain, explain the relevant concepts in simpler language, and then sell the book.

“Anyone willing to spend 70 to 80 hours researching cryptocurrencies can learn a lot about it,” said Curry, who lives in Wellesley, Mass., with his parents and sister. “It’s very easy to read and understand in the simplest language possible.”

The 57-page book includes chapters on the history of Bitcoin, Bitcoin wallets, cryptocurrency Ethereum, and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The title of the book has a dual meaning: first, the book can serve as an early reference for young readers; second, the sooner people get in touch with Bitcoin, the sooner they can make money.

A wallet is like a mailbox

One of Curry’s goals in writing the book was to use real-life analogies to explain Bitcoin and blockchain so that even newcomers (children) can understand the complex concepts. For example, he compared distributed ledger blockchain technology to a Google Docs document that can be “shared with anyone and can only be edited by buying and selling Bitcoin.”

In describing a Bitcoin wallet, Curry wrote that it has two keys: a public key, which can be given to anyone, and a private key, which can only be used by the owner. He used the following analogy: "Imagine there is a mailbox. The postman can deliver mail to any mailbox, but only those who have the mailbox key can get to it."

In each chapter of the book, Curry includes “fun facts” related to the subject matter. For example, at the end of the chapter on Bitcoin mining, he writes that Bitcoin mining now uses “more electricity than 159 countries combined.”

Curry said he spent three months researching, writing and editing the manuscript with the help of his parents.

“On vacation, he would lock himself in his room and just work on his art,” said his father, who has been investing in stocks for 16 years and now works for a firm in Waltham, Mass.

Curry said he now owns 0.00222 Bitcoin (about $22.50). He bought it before Christmas. The price was higher than it is now. He also bought some Ethereum. However, he is not going to buy any more cryptocurrencies, preferring to hold Amazon stock. At the end of the book, Curry said he has been reading Brad Stone's book "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon", and it was from this book that he learned about Amazon's self-publishing platform Kindle Direct Publishing.

But Curry has other plans to help him reach his $20 million goal, including a math flashcard mobile app.

At the same time, he is still studying in middle school.