About Us

My First Bitcoin is a nonprofit education organization founded by John Dennehy in 2021. We publish free and open-source Bitcoin education for learners and educators around the world.

The project began with small in-person classes in El Salvador in 2021, after the country passed a bill making bitcoin legal tender. In 2022, the first Bitcoin Diploma cohort began in one public school in San Marcos. The pilot developed into an open-source curriculum that independent educators could translate, adapt, and teach through the Bitcoin Education Network. My First Bitcoin's public history records the project's milestones and organizational accountability.

Our work is independent, community-driven, and Bitcoin-focused. We focus on financial literacy, careful thinking, and practical safety - not trading, speculation, or promoting other tokens. We do not ask you to accept a belief. Instead, we provide concepts, questions, and practical knowledge so you can form your own conclusions.

Our mission: independent, open-source Bitcoin education

Our mission is to empower people through independent, impartial, and open-source Bitcoin education.

Independent education is not controlled by a government, company, or financial service. Impartial education explains evidence and trade-offs without requiring a learner to reach a predetermined conclusion. Open-source education can be read, shared, reviewed, translated, and improved by anyone under its license.

This approach matters because money affects every person. People should be able to study the systems they use without needing permission. They should also be able to inspect the educational material, question its claims, and help improve it.

What we stand for: accessibility, critical thinking, community, and self-sovereignty

Accessibility means that Bitcoin Diploma content can be taught in person, online, or through print/PDF delivery. Limited technology should not prevent participation in learning or certification. Local examples may change, but the required competencies and competency criteria remain the same.

Curiosity means being willing to ask why, admit what you do not know, and investigate an unfamiliar answer before accepting or rejecting it.

Critical thinking means asking clear questions, checking evidence, and comparing trade-offs. Bitcoin makes strong claims about money and ownership. These claims deserve careful study. During this course, distinguish facts from opinions, and possibilities from guarantees.

Community means that education becomes more useful when people discuss ideas and connect them to local life. Your educator and classmates may have experiences that no global book can contain. Listen carefully, ask questions, and explain your reasoning with respect.

Self-sovereignty means having meaningful control over your own choices and resources. With Bitcoin, greater control can reduce dependence on institutions. It also creates greater personal responsibility. Control without knowledge can be dangerous, so practical safety is a central part of the Bitcoin Diploma.

Learn beyond the Bitcoin Diploma

Your book, educator, and group activities provide the complete learning path for the Bitcoin Diploma. You can fully participate and receive a certificate without a personal device or internet connection.

When you are ready to continue learning, explore the Introduction to Bitcoin or the student journey. These are optional resources and do not count as assessment or certification. Check explanations against this guide and discuss anything unclear with your educator. Never enter seed phrases, private keys, or personal financial information into an online tool.

Register for the Bitcoin Diploma

Your educator may invite you to register for the Bitcoin Diploma. Registration helps My First Bitcoin offer support and future learning opportunities, and improve the Diploma for learners like you.

Why the Bitcoin Diploma exists

Most people use money before they learn how money works. They may earn it, save it, borrow it, and spend it without studying who issues it, how its supply changes, or why its purchasing power changes.

Bitcoin introduces a different system. It has no central issuer, it follows public rules, and it allows direct digital ownership. These ideas can be difficult to explain clearly without first examining money and the problems that can arise in modern money systems.

The Bitcoin Diploma therefore follows a simple path:

1. Explain the problem Bitcoin was designed to address.
2. Explain Bitcoin's main response.
3. Explain and practice the responsibility of holding and using bitcoin.
4. Explore how Bitcoin may function as money in your community.

The aim is not to make you an expert in eight hours. The aim is to give you a reliable foundation, help you avoid common beginner mistakes, and prepare you to continue learning.

How you can use this course as a starting point

Treat the Bitcoin Diploma as the beginning of a longer learning process. By the end, you should know enough to ask better questions and to recognize which topics require more study.

You can use the course to:

• explain common terms about money and Bitcoin
• compare modern money systems and Bitcoin in plain language
• discuss claims using evidence and trade-offs
• identify wallet and custody choices
• recognize common safety risks
• choose a safe next learning step
• connect with a local learning community
• prepare for more advanced study

Knowledge comes before action

You do not need to buy or otherwise acquire bitcoin to complete the Bitcoin Diploma. You also do not need to install a Bitcoin wallet or use personal funds. Required practical skills may be assessed with a prepared training wallet, simulation, test environment, physical model, or an educator-approved low-stakes activity.

If you have limited time or would like a first introduction to Bitcoin, begin with Introduction to Bitcoin. It is a shorter course that introduces the basics. After the Bitcoin Diploma, you may continue to the Educator Training Program if you want to develop teaching practice. These are separate, optional learning paths: Introduction to Bitcoin is a short primer, the Bitcoin Diploma builds a broader beginner foundation, and the Educator Training Program develops teaching practice. None is required to complete the Bitcoin Diploma. For the Bitcoin Diploma, you need this Student Guide, an educator, and the materials and resources your educator specifies. Explore the student journey to see how these opportunities connect and choose your next step.

What learners will be able to explain and demonstrate by the end

After completing the Bitcoin Diploma, you should be able to:

• explain why people use money, compare two forms, and explain one realistic modern-money trade-off (C1)
• explain Bitcoin foundations and rules at a beginner level, including digital copying, shared verification, what users, nodes, miners, and developers do, how Bitcoin's supply is limited, and how a Bitcoin property could help or limit its use as money (C2)
• compare Bitcoin with another digital asset using relevant criteria and distinguish learning from speculation or promotion (C3)
• explain wallets, custody choices, public and secret information, wallet types, and a safe response to a scam or error (C4)
• compare on-chain and Lightning payments and explain the risks of different access or exchange pathways (C5)
• safely complete supported wallet access and receipt with checks, then show recovery readiness using prepared or simulated materials (C6); and
• safely complete one educator-selected local Bitcoin-as-money task and explain its purpose, alternative, trade-offs, possible failure, and next step (C7).

These competencies are a foundation, not proof of expert skill. Completing the Diploma does not mean you are ready to manage large amounts of bitcoin, advise other people, or solve advanced technical problems without support.

Flexible learning

Bitcoin Diploma content may be taught in person, online, through a blended course, or with print/PDF materials. The book provides the shared knowledge path. Your educator adds discussion, guided activities, demonstrations, local context, and any required assessment.

Each module follows the same rhythm:

You will learn more by participating than by reading silently. Some questions do not have one correct answer. What matters is whether you can explain your reasoning, examine evidence, and revise your view when you learn something new.

Discussion and privacy expectations

Use discussion to test ideas, ask questions, listen carefully, and explain your reasoning. You do not need to agree with every claim or every person in your cohort.

During discussion:

• describe ideas in your own words
• ask for clarification when a term is unclear
• separate personal experience from general evidence
• challenge ideas without attacking people
• state uncertainty when you are unsure
• remember that financial access, security, and opportunity differ; do not assume that everyone shares your circumstances
• protect other people's private financial information
• treat personal stories shared in the cohort as private unless the person gives permission to repeat them
• do not photograph, record, or share another person's screen, work, or identifying information without permission
• do not pressure anyone to buy, sell, or reveal how much money they hold

Your educator will explain any required assessment activities. Theory is mainly developed in Modules 1 and 2, where your educator observes you explain, compare, justify, or apply an idea. A statement of confidence is not evidence by itself. Practical competency is mainly developed in Modules 3 and 4, where an educator observes the relevant actions under safe, supported conditions.

Your educator uses an assessment grid to record one result for each of the seven competencies above. C1–C5 are assessed through your own explanations and decisions; C6–C7 require direct observation. Both the wallet/receipt task and the recovery-readiness task are required parts of C6.

Required prior knowledge: none

No prior knowledge is required. The course introduces each required term before using it in greater depth.

Basic reading and everyday arithmetic are useful. The most important calculation is that one bitcoin (BTC) can be divided into 100,000,000 smaller units called satoshis, usually shortened to sats. BTC is the common abbreviation used for amounts of bitcoin. A calculator may help, but advanced mathematics is not required.

If you already use Bitcoin, support your educator, share your experience, and explain ideas to peers in plain language. Teaching others is one way to consolidate your own learning. If you enjoy supporting learners, contribute feedback or local community support, and explore the Educator Training Program to develop teaching practice.

Required materials and technology expectations

For the Diploma, you need:

• this book in print or PDF form
• a notebook and pen, or another way to record answers
• an educator or study group where available
• time to discuss and reflect

A personal phone and continuous internet connection are not required for learning, practical preparation, assessment, or certification. Do not install a Bitcoin wallet or create a seed phrase only because another learner tells you to. Use practical tools only under clear guidance and only when the purpose and risk are clear.

When it is time to practice with a Bitcoin wallet, your educator will guide you step by step. You can learn without using your own money. These simple habits will help:

• use a device you control, and ask your educator if you need help choosing one
• ask your educator to help you check the download source before installing a wallet
• practice with a test environment, simulation, or other prepared training material; if your educator plans a low-stakes live activity, understand the purpose and risks before choosing whether to take part
• use sample recovery words provided for practice, rather than words from someone else's real wallet
• keep real recovery words (also called a seed phrase) private: they restore access to a wallet, so do not show them to the class, photograph them, or enter them into a website or message

Safety, responsibility, and no financial advice

Learn first; this is not a recommendation

The Bitcoin Diploma is for educational purposes only. It does not provide financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. It does not promise that bitcoin will increase in price or recommend that you buy, sell, borrow against, or hold any amount of bitcoin.

The Diploma is Bitcoin-only. Other tokens, trading products, and broader cryptocurrency promotion are outside its scope. This boundary defines the subject of the course; it is not a guarantee about Bitcoin or a recommendation to acquire it.

Bitcoin's market price can change quickly. Transactions can be difficult or impossible to reverse. A lost seed phrase, exposed private key, dishonest custodian, software error, or scam can cause permanent loss.

Use three rules throughout the course:

1. Learn first. Do not act only because of excitement, fear, or pressure.
2. Start small. Test unfamiliar tools and processes with an amount you can afford to lose.
3. Don't Trust, Verify. Check addresses, amounts, fees, sources, and people before you approve an action.

Responsibility also includes knowing when to ask for help. Seek help before moving meaningful funds, but never reveal a seed phrase or private key to the person helping you.

The four-module Diploma

The Diploma consists of a four-stage learning arc: Problem → Solution → Action → Connect. All four modules are part of the Diploma. Modules 1 and 2 develop the shared Problem and Solution through explanation, comparison, and reasoning. Educators can adapt practical examples, tools, resources, and delivery in Modules 3 and 4 while preserving the required safety and competency standards. Module 4 is the educator-curated Connect stage, where learners link the shared learning to a local need or opportunity, a realistic alternative, safe practice, and a responsible next step.

Module 4 is a required part of the Diploma, curated by the educator. Educators are the subject-matter experts on their students' local constraints, solutions, tools, resources, laws, language, infrastructure, and needs. The educator-curated Connect experience may include earning, saving, receiving, spending, Layer 2 solutions, local exchange pathways, merchants, or circular economies.

Advanced Learning is outside the Diploma. It may examine deeper economics, cryptography, mining, privacy, transaction structure, Lightning operations, business use, or security. Advanced material is kept separate so the beginner Diploma remains clear and safe.

A topic is not unimportant because it is outside the Diploma. It may simply require more time or prior knowledge.

How the learning path is organized

The four modules provide the required Problem → Solution → Action → Connect learning path, not a fixed class timetable. Modules 1 and 2 develop theory-based competencies through explanation, comparison, and reasoning. Module 3 develops safe practical action. Module 4 is educator-curated but required: it connects that shared learning to a local need, realistic alternative, safe task, and responsible next step.

The Diploma takes at least eight hours. Four two-hour sessions are the shortest planned format, not a time limit. Your educator may divide a module across more sessions, revisit an earlier idea, or change the order of individual sections when your cohort needs more time for discussion, practice, review, or assessment. There is no upper time limit: the educator remains responsible for giving learners the time they need, covering all required competencies, and making the connections among the modules clear.