Firm Title: 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 needs to vary the world — and he believes that Bitcoin training is a method to take action.
Dennehy sees Bitcoin as a software to assist people reclaim company of their lives, and he understands that training is integral to serving to individuals use this software.
So, in late-2021, he created a Bitcoin training platform known 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 totally perceive the expertise with which they’re participating.
“Training naturally will push again in opposition to any makes an attempt to co-opt the revolutionary spirit of Bitcoin,” Dennehy informed Bitcoin Journal.
And whereas Dennehy doesn’t hesitate to consider larger Bitcoin adoption as something lower than a revolution, remember 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 individuals felt and needed to do one thing about it.
“I used to be in New York in the course of the pandemic, and I spent a whole lot of time on lengthy walks considering the state of the world and the path that society was heading in,” mentioned Dennehy.
“My conclusion was that the basis 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 a whole lot of unfavorable second and third order results,” he added.
“The answer was Bitcoin training. The answer was to carry extra individuals into Bitcoin and do it in a means that empowers and encourages individuals to suppose for themselves, to suppose critically, and to take management of their very own life and their very own future.”
Driving the wave of inspiration, Dennehy booked a flight to Ecuador, a rustic during 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 teach buddies about Bitcoin, however struggled to get individuals to satisfy in individual due to the pandemic. With out in-person conferences, he discovered it troublesome to attach with individuals.
“Fallacious place, fallacious time,” mentioned Dennehy of his expertise in Ecuador.
Whereas in Ecuador, although, Dennehy bought phrase of President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele’s announcement that bitcoin was to change into 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 may assist make it profitable,” Dennehy recounted. “As the primary nation on the earth to undertake Bitcoin as authorized tender, for higher or worse, El Salvador was going to be an instance for the world, and I believed it was of the utmost significance that it was a superb 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 gaggle,” he recounted.
“Of that group, a few individuals would volunteer with the challenge.”
Regardless of his years of expertise as an ESL instructor and bicycle driving teacher, Dennehy knew from the onset that he wasn’t the fitting individual to show in this system he aimed to create. As a substitute, he needed locals to play that function.
“From the beginning, one of many founding ideas was that it ought to be neighborhood led, which signifies that the academics ought to be capable to relate to their college students in a means that I simply by no means would be capable to,” 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 whole of 1 pupil attend. However by the tip of the primary month, a complete of 5 had attended lessons, which have 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 via the 2022 calendar 12 months with three variations of [the program],” mentioned Dennehy.
“We have 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 tremendously knowledgeable the method.
In talking with Dennehy, I bought 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 people who thought that Nayib Bukele invented Bitcoin. That was a standard notion in these early days,” he added.
“So, there’s a sturdy affiliation that Bitcoin had with the federal government. An early battle was to point out people who Bitcoin is separate. Bitcoin is unbiased. And so are we.”
Dennehy identified that this problem nonetheless stays, particularly as Mi Primer Bitcoin now works inside the public college system in El Salvador.
“We’re at all times attempting to say 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 some extent of precept. We by no means settle for funding from the federal government.”
One other problem Mi Primer Bitcoin faces is conserving its 21 workers 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 connected.
“We flip down most provides for sponsorships,” mentioned Dennehy. “4 out of 5 provides for sponsorships we flip down, as a result of 4 out of 5 include strings connected.”
Nonetheless, 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 connected, which is nice,” he added.
“I believe grants may begin to take up a much bigger slice of the pie, however from the beginning till now, the vast majority of our funding has come from grassroots help.”
Mi Primer Bitcoin Goes International
Mi Primer Bitcoin’s training supplies and curriculum are free to obtain and use. This has made it straightforward for academics all over the world 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 nations, members of Mi Primer Bitcoin that the group refers to as “Gentle Nodes.”
“Now we have 33 nodes in 22 nations, and all of us get collectively and share greatest practices,” defined Dennehy.
“Perhaps a instructor in Argentina will visitor train for a challenge that began in Columbia. Now we have a node in Cuba and a node within the Dominican Republic, they usually’re really co-teaching,” he added.
Once 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 attempting to broaden Mi Primer Bitcoin extra rapidly would solely trigger the establishment to stray from its mission.
“I believe the one means that this spreads sooner is that if we compromise our values, if we centralize and dictate somewhat than decentralize and empower,” Dennehy acknowledged.
“We are attempting to reimagine what’s attainable for the subsequent technology and that always means we’ve got to forge a brand new path. If we are attempting to show others {that a} totally different future is feasible, we should display that ourselves,” he added.
“What you say is not necessary, what you do is every thing.”
Dennehy went on to clarify that Mi Primer Bitcoin has obtained 4 Gentle Node purposes prior to now 48 hours and that he’s amazed by how rapidly issues are accelerating.
By no means in his wildest goals did he see Mi Primer Bitcoin rising so rapidly.
“I’m a dreamer. I’m an idealist. That’s why I’m right here,” mentioned Dennehy. “However in case you informed me two and a half years in the past we’d have taught tens of hundreds of scholars in individual, and we might have impressed and helped facilitate this in dozens of different nations, I would be like, ‘No means. Perhaps in like 10 years.’”
Remaining Mission-Pushed
As Mi Primer Bitcoin progresses, Dennehy believes that the group should proceed to emulate Bitcoin itself if it’s to stay true to its mission of empowering others.
“Every little thing that we do at Mi Primer Bitcoin, we attempt to study from Bitcoin itself,” Dennehy shared. “And decentralization is de facto necessary to us, as a result of we wish to empower others somewhat than management them.”
And his view on what this empowerment seems to be like appears to be extra refined than ever.
“Bitcoin training is a method to an finish, and that finish is empowerment,” mentioned Dennehy.
“When you understand that you’ve got management over your cash, that you would have extra management over your current, it flips the motivation construction. Within the fiat world, we’re disincentivized to look into the longer term, to construct, to create, as a result of the foundations of the sport may change. I may begin a enterprise at this time, however the guidelines of the sport that can tremendously affect whether or not it’s profitable or not are less than me and will change at any second. So, it encourages us to be followers somewhat than leaders,” he defined.
“Bitcoin is one thing that flips a change that ‘Okay, I may have extra management of my cash, which provides me extra management of my current which makes it simpler to construct out into the longer term, as a result of I’m not counting on the whims of another person.’ The extra we will insert ourselves into defining our personal future, the extra we’re inspired and incentivized to look into the longer term — to construct and create. That’s the tip, and Bitcoin training is the means to that finish.”