Laiburarari ya Mishumo

Additional Socratic Questions

Therisano

Participants use Socratic questions to examine education, self-directed learning, centralized power, decentralization, and Bitcoin. The discussion asks participants to consider whether an informed public can evaluate the money system and why decentralized systems may be difficult for those in power to control.

Alternative Time Preference Questions for Discussion

Therisano

Participants use guided questions to connect time preference with money, entrepreneurship, consumption, saving, and interest rates. The discussion treats money as a way people communicate value in a free market and considers how understanding present and future preferences can inform personal decisions.

Auction

30 min · Bitcoin Diploma

Fandisi

Learners take part in a three-round auction using play money, rewards, and a shared tracking table. Between rounds, the educator changes the number of tokens in the classroom model. Learners record the total tokens and winning bid, then consider what their result does and does not show.

Back In My Day

20 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U fanyisaVutsila ha u sikaTherisano

Students match older analogue technologies with their modern digital equivalents. Through visual matching, colouring, and discussion, learners explore how tools evolve over time and how innovation changes the way people live, work, and communicate. The activity builds early awareness of technological progress and time-based change.

Bank balance sheets and lending

35 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U tamba tshipiḓaMulinganyiso

Participants build a simple bank balance sheet with cards or a shared table. They compare a customer deposit, a bank loan that creates a deposit balance, and a reserve balance. The model is intentionally limited. It does not describe every banking system, establish a current reserve rule, measure a national money supply, or predict bank failure.

Barter Game

Mutambo

Participants trade paper cards showing goods they have and goods they want, attempting to find matching exchange partners before time expires. They repeat the activity with macaroni as a common medium of exchange, then compare the ease of trade and the limitations of using a commodity as money.

Bitcoin transactions in action

20–30 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U tamba tshipiḓaMulinganyiso

Participants use transaction notes, tokens, and a classroom ledger. The sender creates and authorizes a simulated transaction. Nodes check the model's stated rules. A miner places a valid transaction into a candidate classroom block. Dice represent repeated attempts to find proof of work, not node validation or a method for choosing valid transactions.

Consensus

45 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U tamba tshipiḓa

Participants first track simple transfers, then compare a single designated record keeper with a group in which everyone keeps a copy of the same record. The educator introduces an entry that conflicts with the scenario's initial supply rule. Learners decide what the stated rules permit and compare the two recordkeeping arrangements.

Consensus Building in a Peer-to-Peer Network

Mulinganyiso

Participants pass messages around a circle while selected participants alter or misinterpret an encrypted instruction. When the group acts on the message, the conflicting responses make the lack of consensus visible and lead to a discussion of cryptography, malicious actors, the Byzantine Generals’ Problem, and Bitcoin’s consensus layer.

Consequences of the Fiat System

Therisano

Participants take part in a Socratic discussion about possible consequences of the fiat system for individuals, society, and their country. They connect broad ideas to local history and personal examples, listening to differing perspectives and considering how monetary systems shape everyday life.

Creating Your First Bitcoin Wallet

U guda nga tshenzhelo

The educator guides participants through a prepared wallet demonstration or simulation so they can explore how wallet setup, receiving information, and recovery readiness work. Participants follow the clues, compare public and private information, and make safe choices in realistic-looking examples. This is a learning demonstration, not personal wallet setup: no real secrets or funds are used.

Cypherpunks Write Code

45–60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

Vutsila ha u sikaU guda nga tshenzhelo

Students are introduced to the idea of codes as a way to hide and protect information. Through a hands-on craft, learners build a simple cipher wheel and use it to encode and decode Bitcoin-related vocabulary. The activity combines fine motor skills, logical thinking, and early cryptographic concepts while reinforcing new terminology in a playful and concrete way.

Energy Economy

35 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U elekanyaU ola / zwi vhonwaho

Students explore how their energy changes throughout the day by plotting common activities on a shared class graph and a personal Energy Tracker. By visualizing energy highs and lows across time, learners build early self-awareness about effort, rest, and how energy is spent. This activity lays the foundation for later lessons on time preference, value, and intentional decision-making.

Evaluate Bitcoin Wallets

Therisano

Participants examine prepared, locally relevant Bitcoin and Lightning wallet information, recording when sources were checked. They compare options using custody, recovery, payment compatibility, privacy, cost, maintenance, support, and open-source inspectability, then explain which option may fit a stated fictional or learner need without presenting a global recommendation.

Exploring the mempool

30 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U guda nga tshenzhelo

Participants examine an educator-prepared public block, transaction, or screenshot. They identify confirmation status, inputs, outputs, fee information, and block information without using personal financial data. A live explorer can support the activity, but the printed route is equivalent and should be the default when connectivity, devices, or privacy are a concern.

Final Class Discussion: How Did Your Perspective Change?

Therisano

Participants revisit the questions they answered in the first Chapter 1 activity, compare their original ideas with their current views, and discuss what changed. The final reflection asks participants to identify a next step and consider how they can use their new knowledge about money and Bitcoin to empower themselves.

From Problem to Protocol

45–60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

Tshifhinga tsha nganeaTherisanoU elekanya

Students listen to the story of Satoshi and the Genesis of Bitcoin. Through guided pauses and discussion, they connect the narrative to prior lessons on value, scarcity, time and energy, analogue vs digital systems, and safety and privacy. The teacher uses a printed “white paper” prop to dramatize the moment Satoshi presents his idea to the world. Students reflect on how Bitcoin began as a proposal, required hard work to build, and depends on participants to keep the network alive.

Gatekeepers

30 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

TherisanoU dzudzanya / u khethekanyaU elekanya

Students explore the difference between public and private spaces and information through guided discussion and visual examples. Using familiar everyday situations, learners practice classifying what is usually public or private and reflect on the idea that individuals can choose what information they keep private or share. The activity builds early awareness of privacy, boundaries, and personal responsibility.

Generate SHA-256 Hash

U guda nga tshenzhelo

Participants use the My First Bitcoin SHA-256 Hash Generator to hash a message, repeat the same input, and then alter the message slightly. Comparing the results shows that identical inputs produce identical fixed-length outputs while small changes produce very different hashes, supporting later discussion of one-way hash functions and proof of work.

Going, Going, Gone!

45 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U tamba tshipiḓaFandisi

In this activity, students take part in a classroom auction using “shells” (or tokens) as a simple form of money. The class runs a live auction where everyday objects are sold one at a time to the highest bidder. As prices emerge in real time, students observe how scarcity (limited items and limited money) and demand (how many people want the same item) shape what something “costs.” A guided reflection links their auction outcomes to core ideas in value, exchange, and price formation, emphasizing that prices are not fixed and that different people value the same object differently.

Invent The Future

45–60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U ṅwala ha vhusikiNetshedzoTherisano

Students imagine the future of technology by inventing a new product or system and pitching it in a “Dragons’ Den” format. Learners reflect on how technology evolves, identify real problems to solve, and practice explaining ideas clearly. The activity encourages creativity, critical thinking, and communication while reinforcing the idea that innovation responds to needs over time.

Is Bitcoin Sound Money?

Therisano

Participants return to the money comparison table and assess Bitcoin alongside cows, cigarettes, diamonds, and euros. Using characteristics such as durability, portability, uniformity, acceptability, scarcity, and divisibility, they complete the comparison and discuss whether Bitcoin meets the characteristics of sound money.

It's Mine!

45 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MulinganyisoMutambo

In this activity, learners simulate Bitcoin mining using playing cards as hashes and vocabulary words as transactions. Teams flip cards to find matching pairs. When they find two identical cards, they say “It’s mine.” A valid pair gives them access to the mempool, where they collect one Bitcoin vocabulary word. Words are grouped into blocks and only count after confirmation. The number of cards in the mining pool represents difficulty and is adjusted between rounds. Final scores are calculated by counting the total number of letters in confirmed words stored in each team’s wallet.

Iterative Barter Game

60 min · Bitcoin Diploma

Mutambo

Participants trade playing cards across three rounds that progressively change what each group wants. They experience direct exchange, the difficulty of matching wants, and the emergence of a widely accepted good, then compare the role of the most saleable good with the historical role of money.

Lightning payment relay

30–45 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U guda nga tshenzhelo

Participants create fresh Lightning invoices, receive a small real payment, and relay the funds to the next participant. Before every payment, they check the invoice, amount, unit, destination, expiry, and status. The activity supports a discussion of routing, fees, and payment failure through the actual payment experience.

Money Matters

90 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MulinganyisoU tamba tshipiḓaU guda nga tshenzhelo

Money Matters is a classroom economy simulation where each learner operates from a personal Home base. Each student begins with an individual HOME tile displaying their name, challenge card, and financial objective. Learners move through a shared economic system using dice-based movement rules to earn, save, invest, borrow, and trade. The economy is introduced progressively before opening into autonomous role-play, where learners pursue individual goals under shared rules, time constraints, and access limits. Optional extensions allow the system to scale into a richer economy with businesses, infrastructure costs, and education.

Nostr

50–60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MulinganyisoMutamboVutsila ha u sika

Building on earlier activities about trust, message passing, and interception, students now compare open information transfer with encoded communication. Learners first experience how relaying information requires trusting intermediaries and how messages can be overheard or altered. They then introduce cipher wheels to protect messages, discovering that information can remain private even when passed through untrusted or public channels. ### Pre-requisites

Satoshi, Where Are You?

60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U ṅwala ha vhusikiTherisanoU tamba tshipiḓa

In this lesson, students construct a story using four independent ideas written on sticky notes. They begin by recalling the earlier story in which Satoshi disappeared and speculate about where he might have gone. Students then generate four ideas from guided prompts and organize them into a beginning, middle, and end structure. Through structured sharing and a sticky note swap, they revise their narratives to include new constraints. The lesson concludes with either a written or illustrated final draft, or a short dramatic role play using a class-generated story arc.

Ship Rekt

60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MulinganyisoU tamba tshipiḓaMutambo

In this whole-class simulation, students roleplay as shipwrecked survivors who must secure essential resources to “survive” a week on a desert island. Using playing cards to represent tools and supplies, learners begin with pure barter, practicing negotiation while encountering common trade barriers such as surplus, scarcity, and the coincidence of wants. A timed “Shell Hunt” then introduces commodity money, as students collect tokens that can be used to simplify exchange. With shells in circulation, the class enters a guided marketplace where students set prices, respond to supply and demand, and experience price discovery. The activity culminates in budgeting and either a short trade round (the 60-minute core route) or a structured auction (the 70-minute advanced route) for “treasure” wishlist items, bridging to why money exists.

Smart Choices

60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

TherisanoNetshedzoVutsila ha u sikaMutambo

Students explore how everyday choices affect long-term outcomes by connecting time preference to food, health, work, play, and education. Through discussion, a visual time-preference axis, creative superhero design, and a lighthearted comparison game, learners reflect on how small daily decisions build strength, focus, and future success.

That's Not Fair (Story Time)

30–40 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

Tshifhinga tsha nganeaTherisano

Students listen to a teacher-read story in which characters receive rewards that may or may not match their effort. At key moments, the teacher pauses the story to invite discussion and judgment. Learners reflect on fairness, effort, luck, and unequal outcomes, building moral reasoning and vocabulary that supports later lessons on work, reward, and Proof of Work.

That's Not Fair!

60 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MutamboTherisanoU guda nga tshenzhelo

Students explore the idea of fairness by participating in a sequence of short games that distribute rewards in different ways. Through direct experience, learners compare unfair systems, random systems, effort-based systems, and Proof of Work. Emotional responses are welcomed and used to support structured reflection. The activity builds a foundational understanding of fairness, reward, and equal opportunity.

Time Preference

20 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

Tshifhinga tsha nganeaTherisano

Students explore the concept of time preference through a familiar story, _The Three Little Pigs_. By listening to the story, discussing character choices, and comparing building materials, learners reflect on short-term convenience versus long-term strength. The activity helps children understand that effort and patience can lead to better outcomes later.

Time Preference

Therisano

Participants choose between a smaller reward immediately and a larger reward later in the class, then receive the reward at the time they selected. They reflect on the reasons for their choice and discuss how time preference influences consumption, saving, and the consequences of present-focused or future-focused decisions.

Transactions in action

30 min · Bitcoin Diploma

U guda nga tshenzhelo

Participants use real Bitcoin wallets to create a fresh on-chain receiving address, check the payment details, approve a small real payment, and check its status. The educator connects the observed wallet steps to the distinct roles of a sender, recipient, node, and miner. Learners do not try to create invalid transactions or expose wallet information in order to learn why those transactions are rejected.

Verification

10 min · Bitcoin Diploma

Netshedzo

Participants roll dice to model repeated attempts by miners to find a block-header hash that meets a target. After a successful roll, the class checks the stated result. The dice exercise is an analogy only. It does not reproduce hashing, targets, difficulty adjustment, block construction, or node validation in full.

Vote With Your Feet

20–25 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

NyambedzanoU guda nga tshenzhelo

Students physically position themselves in the classroom to show whether they prefer older or newer technologies. By moving, debating, and explaining their choices, learners compare analogue and digital tools, consider trade-offs, and practice respectful disagreement. The activity reinforces prior learning on technological evolution while increasing engagement through movement.

Watch: Bitcoin Is Generational Wealth

Therisano

Participants watch “Bitcoin Is Generational Wealth,” a short film by Matt Hornick and Tomer Strolight. The viewing provides a prompt for participants to identify the film’s perspective on money, saving, and intergenerational thinking, and to distinguish those perspectives from financial advice.

Watch: Blockchain 101 – A Visual Demo

Therisano

Participants watch most or all of “Blockchain 101 – A Visual Demo” as a visual alternative or complement to generating a SHA-256 hash. The video illustrates how blocks are linked, allowing participants to observe how changes to data affect a chain and to connect the demonstration to the course discussion of blockchain verification.

Watch: Explain Bitcoin to Complete Beginners

Therisano

Participants watch a non-technical Bitcoin overview designed for complete beginners. The viewing gives the class a shared starting point for identifying the problem Bitcoin addresses, its basic features, and questions that require further discussion or verification.

Watch: Future of Bitcoin: Lightning Network

Therisano

Participants watch “Future of Bitcoin: Lightning Network” on the Hard Money show as an introduction to Lightning’s role in Bitcoin payments. After viewing, the educator can invite participants to identify the claims, questions, or examples in the video that relate to the course discussion of payment networks.

Watch: How Bitcoin Works under the Hood

Therisano

Participants watch “How Bitcoin Works under the Hood” to reinforce the technical ideas introduced in the Bitcoin Diploma. The educator can pause or follow the viewing with questions that help participants connect the video’s explanations to Bitcoin’s transactions, blocks, nodes, mining, and consensus.

Watch: How Money & Banking Work

Therisano

Participants watch “How Money & Banking Work” by Lyn Alden to reinforce the course discussion of money, banking, and the money supply. The activity gives participants a shared reference for identifying how the video explains banking processes and for comparing those explanations with concepts explored in class.

Watch: How To Setup Bitcoin Core

Therisano

Participants watch “How To Setup Bitcoin Core,” a video about setting up Bitcoin Core as a Bitcoin node, then discuss how a node validates newly arriving blocks and keeps a local copy of the blockchain. The activity introduces Bitcoin Core as one option for running a node without presenting it as the only option or a global recommendation.

Watch: Why Every Bitcoiner Should Run Their Own Node

5 min · Bitcoin Diploma

Therisano

Participants watch the first five minutes of a video explaining what Bitcoin nodes are and why running one may matter. The educator stops before the setup instructions and emphasizes that nodes are neither miners nor wallets: they independently run the Bitcoin protocol and maintain an updated blockchain copy.

What Is Money?

Therisano

Participants decide whether to trade a piece of candy for a US$1 bill or a $1 Monopoly bill, then explain the difference in their choices. The discussion examines what gives money value, how money is issued, who controls the supply, and why people may value one form of money more than another.

What is value?

45 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

TherisanoVutsila ha u sika

Students explore the concept of value by identifying everyday items from their own lives and positioning them on a shared visual chart. Through guided discussion and a collaborative wall-based activity, learners compare personal value with price and reflect on how value can change depending on perspective. The activity builds foundational understanding of value, price, and scarcity through discussion, movement, and visual thinking.

Why Do We Need Money?

15–20 min · Bitcoin Diploma

MutamboTherisano

This foundational activity is especially well suited to younger audiences. Participants first try a short barter exchange, then receive Monopoly money as payment for a small classroom task and use it to exchange for goods or services. They compare the two rounds before answering open questions about money, including its purpose, value, and control. The class identifies common questions and returns to them at the end of the Bitcoin Diploma to reflect on how their understanding has changed.

Wire Tap

40–50 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

MulinganyisoMutamboTherisanoU guda nga tshenzhelo

Students explore how information changes depending on who carries it and who is allowed to hear it. Through a series of short message-passing games with changing rules, learners experience trust, mistakes, and intentional interference firsthand. Reflection focuses on how messages can change, leak, or be protected, and who should decide who gets access to information.

Work, Rest & Play

45 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U guda nga tshenzheloU elekanya

Students explore how everyday activities can be grouped into work, rest, and play. Through a shared classification activity and individual routine mapping, learners reflect on how they use their time across a day. The activity builds early awareness of balance, energy, and intentional time use.

Worth It

45 min · Bitcoin for Juniors

U dzudzanya / u khethekanyaTherisano

Students explore the meaning of price by cutting out everyday items and placing them along a shared price line from cheap to expensive. Through comparison, discussion, and teacher guidance, learners develop a concrete understanding that price is the amount of money something costs and that prices can vary widely between items.