Beyond Borders #10: Voices of Impact and Inspiration
Independent educators are changing the world. They unite once a month in a General Assembly of the Node Network, an initiative from My First Bitcoin, to create a thriving ecosystem…
Independent educators are changing the world. They unite once a month in a General Assembly of the Node Network, an initiative from My First Bitcoin, to create a thriving ecosystem of educators around the banner of “independent, impartial, and community-led bitcoin-only education”. The GA from September 26 was attended by a record of 34 individuals, excluding some special guests!
Welcome to this fifth write-up of all progress that has been made in the past month. Welcome to the stories from 14 countries!
The After School Club begins next week and Bitcoin Policy UK will launch a Geyser affiliate program, open to anyone in the Node Network. This initiative is designed to help participants raise funds for their own projects and it allows them to be boosting the amount of Bitcoin Core nodes worldwide too!
Additionally, students who graduated last year received a Crypto Cloaks space heater case and an S9 miner, which they will work on building during lunch breaks next week at school.
In the meantime, Huxley continues to give Training Onboarding classes, every second Saturday of the month.
A new online cohort of the Bitcoin Diploma in Spanish has started with 40 participants, primarily from El Salvador and Central America. Meanwhile, the local team continues the collaboration with the Ministry of Education on projects with visits to over 45 public schools, supporting teachers after Bitcoin Diploma trainings.
Furthermore, introductory classes are also being offered twice a month at Fulanos coffee shop. In Costa Rica, the first cohort concluded with 31 students, and a second cohort of 37 will begin soon. The Bitcoin for Business course is expected to be completed by 2025. Additionally, the updated Bitcoin Diploma 2025 will be available by December.
Lastly, an unconference is planned the day before the Adopting Bitcoin conference—tickets are available now.
Felix from The Core continues to impress. His team celebrated the fifth graduation last month!
A total of 40 students have completed the Bitcoin Diploma, marking the first graduation using the Learning Management System (LMS), with Felix being the first node to implement it. A physical graduation was held too, where students received certificates and merchandise.
The team from The Core is also planning a rebrand, and will begin intake for the next cohort tomorrow. Updated resources, including flyers and stickers, are now available on GitHub. Open Source Everything!
The first graduating class for the Bitcoin Diploma was originally planned for July 5th, but the ceremony had to be postponed by a week due to an incoming hurricane. Ultimately, four students successfully graduated. And now it’s time for a second cohort!
Delgados Fuego, a hot sauce brand, even came to the island to support the event by providing goodie bags to the students. The new cohort of the program started on September 27th with nine participants.
Additionally, a new show titled “BTC Isla” was launched. The show aims to document the entire process of building a Bitcoin circular economy, highlighting both the ups and downs. The focus is not only on education, but also on developing merchants and creating a sustainable ecosystem, all while documenting the experience for others to follow.
Finally, Isabella started a new Twitter account to show all the progress happening in Isla de Mujeres, Mexico.
At one of the local town festivals, the team of Pacific Northwest Bitcoin set up a booth to engage with the community and promote the first cohort of their project, which is set to begin in mid-October. The team is aiming for most of the cohort’s activities to take place in person, allowing for a more interactive and hands-on experience.
This initiative marks an important step in connecting with the local community and further developing educational programs.
The team has successfully completed the translation of their workbooks into Bahasa Indonesian, enabling them to offer classes in both English and the local language. These sessions are being conducted in person as well as virtually, with cohorts currently active in Bandung and Bali.
The team is excited to see the progress their students have made over the past few weeks, noting that Bitcoin is having a transformative effect on their lives.
In August, SABC received approval to join MPB and has since completed the nonprofit formation for their entity. They are currently working on finalizing bank accounts and other administrative details.
But there is more good news! The new class will begin on Tuesday, with 8 people signed up so far and more showing interest. The team plans to document the experience as thoroughly as possible, including taking pictures to share their learning journey. Efforts are ongoing to further promote and expand their program.
Additionally, they will participate in the Satoshi Trail Run for Hal in Austin at the end of October, coinciding with the White Paper release party. During this event, they will present their work with the San Antonio Bitcoin Club and the MPB Program to attendees.
Bart from Bismarck Bitcoin recently attended an AI Summit and traveled to Newtown, North Dakota, a tribal reservation area, for outreach activities at the local high school, collaborating with AI companies. They presented their project at the energy center, which had a good turnout from the community, though student participation was limited. This effort was part of the continuing bitcoin education program offered through the local college.
Bart also plans to distribute flyers to local communities to further spread awareness. Their September class had a successful meet-up the previous Saturday, where participants covered Chapter 7 of the Bitcoin curriculum. Additionally, a local cybersecurity and critical infrastructure conference is scheduled for October 1st and 2nd. Well done, Bart!
Milfort Papouche and the rest of the team in Haiti received a grant from the Human Rights Foundation, which will support the sustainability and long-term viability of their projects. Recognizing the importance of building a targeted social media presence, they are working on creating accounts specifically aimed at their audience. To enhance engagement and gather valuable feedback, Yes Bitcoin have also established a Telegram group to receive advice and input from their community.
And maybe even more special: the translation of the workbook to Haitian Creole continues!
Rikto Xonghoti from India has been awarded a grant from the Human Rights Foundation in recognition of their efforts, which they are thrilled to receive. They have also welcomed a new team member, a former alumni from a previous cohort, who is passionate about the mission. He is eager to contribute!
In the meantime, in-person classes are currently ongoing, and Palab, Basanta and Anurag are planning to write and publish articles in the local language to address the lack of available content and further support education in their community.
Bitcoin Sranan has successfully onboarded 80 merchants who are now accepting Bitcoin, with growing excitement and eagerness from the community to learn more about bitcoin. Additionally, around 45 individuals have signed up for their first MPB course, and they plan to start the first cohort with 20 participants while continuing the course long term.
The course is set to officially begin on October 5th and run through December 7th, with hopes to maintain its momentum beyond that. In November, they are also preparing for the upcoming “Suriname Decentralized” conference, which will take place from November 7th to 9th.
Things are speeding up in Paramaribo!
Destiny and Blessed successfully completed their first-ever online cohort, with 10 students finishing the seven-week course out of the initial 20 registrants.
Moving forward, they plan to share more business-related knowledge by conducting Bitcoin workshops for their graduates. The upcoming workshop, titled “Getting Started with Bitcoin,” will demonstrate how Bitcoin can be implemented in everyday life, whether as an individual, business owner, or organization.
Additionally, the next cohort is set to begin in mid-October, and intakes for this just started. Things are moving fast in Nigeria..!
Moving on to a new node in the network: School of Satoshi. They received a grant from Bitcoin Beach, which has helped them streamline their operations, including hosting a successful physical graduation ceremony for their first cohort on August 31st.
They are currently accepting registration applications for their next cohort, which is scheduled to begin on October 2nd. Additionally, they are focused on enhancing their social media visibility by opening various media accounts to create and share content, aiming to reach a broader audience. Looking ahead, they are planning to conduct physical meet-ups within their communities to further educate both adults and children about Bitcoin and its applications.
Welcome to the network, Angella and Angela!
The Ekasi-team recently embarked on a 1,500-kilometer cross-country road trip to visit the family of a person who tragically passed away in a fire accident at one of their local onboarded shops. During the trip, they connected with the local villagers, demonstrating how easily sats can be used across the country. A highlight of the trip was successfully onboarding two new shops in the same village, and they are now maintaining remote contact with the shop owners to support them.
Additionally, the team has reached out to local schools, sending emails to request permission from school management to conduct presentations aimed at recruiting students for the Bitcoin Diploma program. They value maintaining strong connections with other nodes to exchange helpful information and insights for continual improvement.
Lastly, on October 18th, they will host a second movie night, following the success of the one held in July on Marina Day. The event will invite attendees to learn about Bitcoin, including practical demonstrations of wallet usage and more.
Humphrey and coworkers successfully established a translation team to translate key Bitcoin materials into local languages in Zambia. This initiative aims to reach a broader audience, particularly in local areas where English is not widely spoken.
Meanwhile, the second cohort currently has 22 students who are actively engaged and enthusiastic, downloading wallets, sending sats, and exploring the practical aspects of Bitcoin. In a new approach, the team is incorporating Bitcoin-themed movies into their meet-ups to enhance the learning experience, like God Bless Bitcoin.
They are also planning to create Bitcoin-related games, focusing on topics such as protecting seed phrases with a treasure hunt, and other important concepts for explaining the importance of securing Bitcoin.
Moving on to Motiv, in Peru, where the organisation has been actively educating and equipping communities with Bitcoin for the past four years, focusing on building circular economies.
Currently, they have 70 students from various communities near Cusco, close to Machu Picchu, who are learning Bitcoin in both Spanish and Quechua. Next month, they will expand their efforts to Lima, the capital city with a population of 11 million, where they will start with 80 students from different districts. They have also opened doors in schools and major universities to further promote Bitcoin education.
The team is working to set up new teachers and develop innovative teaching methods to effectively expand their outreach across Peru, in collaboration with Mi Primer Bitcoin.
Based in Honduras, AmityAge is engaged in Bitcoin mining in Paraguay using renewable energy. The Bitcoin generated through this mining initiative is used to provide free education across islands, supporting both private and public schools.
Recently, they launched a new cohort for teachers from a school where the Bitcoin Diploma had previously been taught to students. After witnessing the impact on the students, the teachers expressed interest in taking the diploma themselves to deepen their understanding.
Additionally, the team is working with the “Miners for Kids” project, where they donated a miner, and children who perform the best using the Weiser app are rewarded with Bitcoin mined through the initiative.
If you are a community leader and bitcoin educator and want to be part of the Node Network, check out our GitHub page.
If you want to use our open source Bitcoin Diploma workbook, you can! It’s available on GitHub as well.
For any questions about the Node Network or any other international collaboration, feel free to reach out to Arnold Hubach ([email protected]).
