Firm Identify: Mi Primer Bitcoin
Founder: John Dennehy
Date Based: August 2021
Location of Headquarters: El Salvador
Quantity of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: Roughly 0.5 BTC
Variety of Workers: 21
Web site: https://miprimerbitcoin.io/
Public or Non-public? Non-public (Non-profit)
John Dennehy desires to alter the world — and he believes that Bitcoin training is a method to take action.
Dennehy sees Bitcoin as a device to assist people reclaim company of their lives, and he understands that training is integral to serving to folks use this device.
So, in late-2021, he created a Bitcoin training platform referred to as Mi Primer Bitcoin (My First Bitcoin) as a method to empower on a regular basis Salvadorans.
He believes that for the Bitcoin revolution to really succeed, Bitcoin customers should completely perceive the know-how with which they’re partaking.
“Schooling naturally will push again towards any makes an attempt to co-opt the revolutionary spirit of Bitcoin,” Dennehy advised Bitcoin Journal.
And whereas Dennehy doesn’t hesitate to think about higher Bitcoin adoption as something lower than a revolution, take into account that his strategy is extra like Gandhi’s and fewer like Guevara’s.
Dennehy is a soft-spoken, introspective and kind-hearted one that’s notably considerate in his strategy.
The Inspiration For Mi Primer Bitcoin
In early 2021, like many people in the course of the COVID lockdowns, Dennehy was involved with how powerless folks felt and wished to do one thing about it.
“I used to be in New York in the course of the pandemic, and I spent lots of time on lengthy walks considering the state of the world and the route that society was heading in,” mentioned Dennehy.
“My conclusion was that the foundation of the issue was that we had collectively misplaced company, we had misplaced sovereignty — the person had misplaced company in their very own life — and that had lots of unfavorable second and third order results,” he added.
“The answer was Bitcoin training. The answer was to carry extra folks into Bitcoin and do it in a approach that empowers and encourages folks to assume for themselves, to assume critically, and to take management of their very own life and their very own future.”
Using the wave of inspiration, Dennehy booked a flight to Ecuador, a rustic through which he’d beforehand lived and a spot that “wasn’t nicely served by the present system,” as he put it, to start his Bitcoin training mission.
A First Try
Dennehy arrived in Ecuador in June 2021. There, he tried to coach associates about Bitcoin, however struggled to get folks to satisfy in individual due to the pandemic. With out in-person conferences, he discovered it troublesome to attach with folks.
“Mistaken place, flawed time,” mentioned Dennehy of his expertise in Ecuador.
Whereas in Ecuador, although, Dennehy acquired phrase of President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele’s announcement that bitcoin was to grow to be authorized tender in El Salvador.
After snapping out of his close to disbelief, Dennehy booked his subsequent flight, a one-way ticket to El Salvador, to assist the nation make historical past.
“I made a decision to promote my possessions, get a one-way ticket to El Salvador to attempt to see how I might assist make it profitable,” Dennehy recounted. “As the primary nation on the planet to undertake Bitcoin as authorized tender, for higher or worse, El Salvador was going to be an instance for the world, and I assumed it was of the utmost significance that it was a very good instance.”
Humble Beginnings
Dennehy landed in El Salvador and rapidly drafted Mi Primer Bitcoin’s mission assertion in addition to some lesson plans. He additionally started to recruit each college students and academics.
“The tactic was to speak to each Salvadoran I met — the Uber driver, the waitress on the restaurant, the individual standing subsequent to me ready to cross the road — about Bitcoin,” mentioned Dennehy.
“Earlier than the primary class, there have been a few conferences of this very random group of individuals. They got here to my Airbnb and talked about [Bitcoin] as a bunch,” he recounted.
“Of that group, a few folks would volunteer with the challenge.”
Regardless of his years of expertise as an ESL trainer and bicycle using teacher, Dennehy knew from the onset that he wasn’t the appropriate individual to show in this system he aimed to create. As a substitute, he wished locals to play that position.
“From the beginning, one of many founding ideas was that it ought to be group led, which signifies that the academics ought to be capable of relate to their college students in a approach that I simply by no means would be capable of,” Dennehy defined. “So, as a tough and quick rule, all of the academics right here in El Salvador are Salvadoran.”
The primary class was taught in a yoga studio between lessons and had a whopping complete of 1 scholar attend. However by the tip of the primary month, a complete of 5 had attended lessons, which had been held in that very same yoga studio or in cafés or eating places.
Growing Mi Primer Bitcoin’s “Bitcoin Diploma” Program
By February 2022, Dennehy and the rising workforce at Mi Primer Bitcoin began to construct a correct curriculum, which it might time period its “Bitcoin Diploma” program.
“We went by way of the 2022 calendar yr with three variations of [the program],” mentioned Dennehy.
“We had been simply iterating in a short time. We did not begin to construct it till February, and the third model was full in September,” he added.
Dennehy additionally shared that suggestions from college students on what was and wasn’t working enormously knowledgeable the method.
In talking with Dennehy, I acquired the impression that constructing a curriculum was hardly one of many greatest challenges the group has confronted.
The Challenges Of Operating Mi Primer Bitcoin
A persistent problem Mi Primer Bitcoin has confronted since its early days has been establishing the non-profit’s independence and impartiality.
Dennehy mentioned what number of Salvadorans affiliate Bitcoin with the Salvadoran authorities, an establishment about which many within the nation have polarized emotions.
“Early on, there was a robust affiliation right here in El Salvador with the federal government and Bitcoin,” mentioned Dennehy.
“Folks that loved the federal government tended to love Bitcoin. Folks that did not like the federal government tended to not like Bitcoin. There have been even folks that thought that Nayib Bukele invented Bitcoin. That was a standard notion in these early days,” he added.
“So, there’s a robust affiliation that Bitcoin had with the federal government. An early battle was to indicate folks that Bitcoin is separate. Bitcoin is unbiased. And so are we.”
Dennehy identified that this problem nonetheless stays, particularly as Mi Primer Bitcoin now works throughout the public college system in El Salvador.
“We’re at all times making an attempt to claim our independence and never simply in deed, however in notion,” he defined.
“Working with the federal government simply amplifies that problem of separating ourselves within the notion of others from the federal government,” he added.
“One of many ways in which we meet that first problem of not being depending on the federal government is, as a degree of precept. We by no means settle for funding from the federal government.”
One other problem Mi Primer Bitcoin faces is protecting its 21 staff paid through a donation-based system, a problem that’s amplified by the truth that the group doesn’t settle for donations that include strings hooked up.
“We flip down most presents for sponsorships,” mentioned Dennehy. “4 out of 5 presents for sponsorships we flip down, as a result of 4 out of 5 include strings hooked up.”
Nevertheless, notable establishments within the Bitcoin area have begun to alleviate a few of Mi Primer Bitcoin’s monetary burden.
“We get grants from HRF, OpenSats and Block,” mentioned Dennehy.
“All of these come with out strings hooked up, which is nice,” he added.
“I feel grants may begin to take up an even bigger slice of the pie, however from the beginning till now, nearly all of our funding has come from grassroots assist.”
Mi Primer Bitcoin Goes World
Mi Primer Bitcoin’s training supplies and curriculum are free to obtain and use. This has made it simple for academics world wide to undertake the non-profit’s curriculum.
And Mi Primer Bitcoin additionally helps its worldwide academics that head Bitcoin academic efforts of their respective residence international locations, members of Mi Primer Bitcoin that the group refers to as “Gentle Nodes.”
“Now we have 33 nodes in 22 international locations, and all of us get collectively and share finest practices,” defined Dennehy.
“Possibly a trainer in Argentina will visitor educate for a challenge that began in Columbia. Now we have a node in Cuba and a node within the Dominican Republic, and so they’re really co-teaching,” he added.
After I requested Dennehy how rapidly Mi Primer Bitcoin’s mannequin is spreading on a scale of 1 to 10, he responded with a “10,” with little hesitation. He additionally identified that making an attempt to increase Mi Primer Bitcoin extra rapidly would solely trigger the establishment to stray from its mission.
“I feel the one approach that this spreads sooner is that if we compromise our values, if we centralize and dictate quite than decentralize and empower,” Dennehy said.
“We try to reimagine what’s potential for the subsequent technology and that always means we now have to forge a brand new path. If we…
