I am Jamie Redman and I am a big believer in Bitcoin. My family revolves their lives around Bitcoin and there is not a day that goes by without us not talking about the virtual currency.
As a cryptocurrency and fintech journalist, my wife hears my preliminary stories and she is my number one proofreader. My wife and two lovely sons, Joshua, 6, and Franklin, 2, could tell you a thing or two about Bitcoin and blockchains and they most certainly know more about this technological revolution than most adults.
Joshua and Bitcoin
"Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency. It's a kind of computerized money you use online...Like numbers being traded."
Joshua knows that the numbers cannot be duplicated. He will also tell you that Bitcoin is a big orange B from seeing me make Bitcoin memes.
Every night Joshua and I also design some of the most popular cryptocurrency memes and visuals.
I first introduced Joshua to Bitcoin when he was 4 during our drive to the local Bitcoin ATM in Boston. Arriving at the MIT co-op around noon, we walked to the Bitcoin ATM where I added some bills into the machine with Joshua eagerly watching the whole time.
When I was done, Joshua asked me the following, "Dad, where are the bitcoins?", expecting to see some actual coins coming out from the machine. I told him that there will not be any physical bitcoins coming out as they are now stored as digits my phone.
Joy of Homeschooling
My children are homeschooled and get a different education than most. Joshua and Franklin are taught arithmetic and reading well before normal schooling starts publicly. We believe learning happens all the time, at any age and even during play time.
Technology is allowed in our home and Joshua is especially crafty with Minecraft and computers. While listening to me ramble about Bitcoin everyday, he often takes a keen interest in the subject at hand.
Together with me, he watches charts on BitcoinWisdom and sees transactions being sent when we purchase something. He gets really excited when we received our Trezor and wanted to learn how the virtual currency was stored there. We talked about the whole process of setting up a hardware wallet and it gives me great joy to see Joshua adapt so fluidly to emerging technologies.
Phasing out Fiat Currency
Our family has begun phasing out the use of fiat currency. We still use it, but we are cutting back drastically. This means being paid in bitcoin, as well as buying groceries and paying bills with it.
This is not a dreadful experience as some bill paying is, but a fruitful learning experience filled with excitement and adventure. We are the kind of family that tries our very best to build our surroundings by living counter-economically. This means we do things like barter and pay bills using bitcoin.
We believe that fiat currencies are meant to drive our extended family into a debt spiral which leads to dependency and the loss all individuality. We believe that we are all natural sovereign humans, who want the best for our futures. Bitcoin offers the solution to achieve our goal as family unit.
My kids are very much acclimatized to Bitcoin around their everyday lives. Joshua is losing a tooth and knows that under his pillow there may be a paper QR code containing bitcoin. As each day goes by, both my children will learn the basics of economics through the use of Bitcoin.
We are a very passionate family ideologically but using Bitcoin can happen to any family. We owe it to ourselves to offer financial inclusion for all the children of the world, free from borders and divisive methods of force.
