Cryptocurrency for Kids (and adults)

Strip away its digital aspect, and cryptocurrency transactions are monetized barter exchanges between two people. Or, you can think of cryptocurrency exchanges as one person deciding how much of a new kind of money he or she has and is willing to pay for an item or service. No paperwork is involved in what is essentially a secret transaction between two people.

    In a regular barter trade, a young person might try to find a student willing to trade a Pikachu card for one or more Pokemon cards. But in a cryptocurrency-like system, a young person offers to buy the Pikachu card with, let's say, some Monopoly money (or money students themselves design and distribute). A student is willing to sell the Pikachu card for a certain amount of Monopoly money, because she or he needs that amount of Monopoly money to buy a bag of chips from a student willing to accept that amount of Monopoly money. A student could, for example, use created currency to make a major trade, or a number of smaller trades, to receive items that could be sold, maybe at a yard sale, for a lot of real, government-issued money.

     Unless all Monopoly money is going to disappear from all Monopoly games, families, students, and classrooms need to begin designing their own currency and agreeing how much each person receives in his and her accounts. It can be lots of fun to begin listing the items that can be sold: candy and cookies; unusual pens and pencils; socks; hair accessories; little stuffed animals; friendship bracelets and key chains. Services also can be exchanged for new currencies. Students can be paid to teach others to make different types of paper airplanes, braid hair in a certain way, throw a football or Frisbee, solve a math problem, or fold an Origami crane. Around the home, parents and children might sell services for new currencies to buy privileges. Of course, it is unlikely that services, purchased with created currency, could be resold for real money.

     A do-it-yourself cryptocurrency system exposes some of the problems associated with cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, in the real world. You have to find another person who has what you want; who is willing to accept your particular kind of cryptocurrency (There is more than Bitcoin); who is willing to create no paper trail of the transaction; who will accept no changes, such as merchandise returns; and who wants to keep the transaction secret. Basing a subscription service on cryptocurrency is unlikely. Who would be wiling to hand over currency to receive a cupcake every moth or a weekly classroom newspaper, if they received no receipt showing they were entitled to the cupcakes or newspapers? Then, there is the problem of someone stealing your currency. In real life, cryptocurrency systems based on digital transactions currency has been known to disappear with the click of a key before a transaction is confirmed. Unlike savings held in a bank and protected by a government agency, cryptocurrency funds enjoy no such guarantee.

     Bitcoin cryptocurrency uses the SHA256 algorithm to confirm each transaction as part of a blockchain, to notify all participants in its network of each transaction, and to enable participants to keep track of the balances in each other's accounts. But, before a transaction is confirmed, it can be altered. 

It Takes a World to Raise a Child

When I saw umbrollers in London over 40 years ago, I couldn't wait to get back to the U.S. to tell my sister who just had a baby how easy they were to maneuver and collapse compared to traditional strollers. Since then, many U.S. parents also have adopted the baby slings and wraps that working mothers have worn when they were taking care of babies in Mexico, Peru, Ethiopia, Korea, China, Japan, and elsewhere. And what mother with a new baby wouldn't want to visit one of Japan's cat cafes? There, she and her baby could be among the customers, many who can't have pets at home, who come to talk to, play with, and chill out among cats while they drink tea. Hillary Clinton once wrote that it takes a village to raise a child; perhaps it takes a world.

     As an international marketing student at American University in Washington, D.C., I had a professor who told us one of the benefits multinational corporations enjoy is access to new products and ideas in one country that they can adapt for use in other countries. In these days, even without world travel, mothers have online access to global innovations.  To give just two examples, there is Internet information on international adoption and crowdfunding websites that finance or even find volunteers for their projects.

     On trendwatching.com, I was reminded of how women have expanded the yard sale concept to become sellers on eBay, Amazon, and other platforms. Kids in Nigeria, like they could in other countries, now play local versions of Monopoly. According to trendwatching.com, the "City of Lagos" version has local locations and, to reflect Nigeria's challenges, chance cards that say things like, "Pay a fine for attempting to bribe a law enforcement agent."

     In my earlier blog post, "Hope for the Future," you may have seen how the Grameen Bank and Kiva have helped women start businesses to support their families and finance their children's educations by providing micro-loans. When I read on trendwatching.com that the idea of selling meals through Thuisafgehaald in the Netherlands is spreading to the US, UK, Germany, and Sweden, I realized, with or without a micro loan, that mothers who are good cooks have an opportunity to specialize in selling nutritious home-cooked, peanut- and gluten-free, birthday party, and other types of meals.

     Mothers who do volunteer work for child-centered, not-for-profit organizations, like the March of Dimes, might be able to adopt a version of what trendwatching.com reports "The Exchange" is doing in South Africa. Consumers only are allowed to shop for its clothes and accessories donated by designers if they first sign up with an Organ Donor Foundation.

     T-shirts proclaim the slogan, "Changing More Than Diapers," on mothers who visit momsrising.org. Though mainly focused on the United States, the site promotes activities mothers around the world could adapt to work for fair wages, flexible workplace schedules, maternity and paternity leave, better childcare, and environmental health.

     The site, vitalvoices.org, already identifies women's issues, works toward solutions, fosters connections across international boundaries, and awards progress. On vitalvoices.org, viewers can see how women in Africa increase the continent's economic potential, how Latin American women strive for gender equality, and how female leaders in Eurasia are combating human trafficking. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani woman who recovered from being shot in the head because she wants girls to attend school, currently is featured on the site.

     Making international connections that foster innovation in education is the aim of the WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Educational Leadership Program in Qatar. The leaders in education from the more than 100 countries who attend WISE summits discuss ideas about funding, curricula, assessment, and improving the quality of education, ideas that could suggest new directions worth considering by parents, guardians, and teachers around the world.