This afternoon I saw a tweet from Arnold (@arnolnymous): “1 donation fuels 51 projects.” It is about Bitcoin education, and I immediately donated 10,000 sats from BitcoinStuffStore. In this blog you can read what the Bitcoin Education Fund is, where your sats go and why I support it.
What is the Bitcoin Education Fund?
The Bitcoin Education Fund is an experiment by My First Bitcoin, a non-profit that trains people to teach Bitcoin in their own community. The course material is free and open-source. According to its own site, the network now includes 99 local communities in 44 countries.
The idea behind the fund is simple: half of every donation goes to My First Bitcoin and the other half goes straight to 50 local communities. One donation, 51 projects.
Those 50 are not a random list. They are ranked on public proof of work: what a community can show it actually does is what counts. The list includes Bitcoin Victoria Falls in Zambia, Soweto BTC in South Africa, Bitcoin Paraguay and School of Satoshi in Uganda. And a Dutch name too: Kirscha, currently in 29th place.
How your sats are split
I think this is the best part, because you can simply do the maths yourself. This is what happens to our 10,000 sats:
| Who | Per recipient | Total |
|---|---|---|
| My First Bitcoin | 5,000 sats | 5,000 sats |
| Places 1 to 5 | 550 sats | 2,750 sats |
| Places 6 to 20 | 100 sats | 1,500 sats |
| Places 21 to 50 | 25 sats | 750 sats |
Not a big amount, and it does not have to be. Sats (the smallest unit of bitcoin) add up. It works because a lot of people each give a little.
To be fair: it is still an experiment. The ranking freezes on 31 December 2026, communities then have to sign up themselves (1 to 20 January 2027) and the payout is planned for 15 February 2027. So we will only see how it turns out next year. That the split is public in advance is something I do trust.
Why Bitcoin education?
Bitcoin is an open network. Anyone can join, but you do need to understand what you are doing. What is a seedphrase? Why do you hold your own keys (self-custody)? How do you recognise a scam? That knowledge does not come by itself.
That is exactly what these communities do. Teaching, in their own language, to the people around them. Often in places where inflation quickly eats into savings and a bank account is not a given. There, Bitcoin is not a hobby.
And that matters to us in the Netherlands too. Here as well, people first come across Bitcoin through someone who calmly explains it, at a meetup or at the kitchen table. That is how it works everywhere.
Who is Arnold?
I know Arnold from the Dutch Bitcoin scene, and he does so many good things for Bitcoin that I am happy to mention him here. He is co-founder of Bitcoin Focus, which made the first Dutch Bitcoin magazine. He works on Bitcoin education at My First Bitcoin. And together with Emily he made Blockhunters, a board game about Bitcoin. They spent four years on it. WoW.
That game is also in our shop: Blockhunters, the Bitcoin board game. I mention that for clarity, we like working together. Our donation is separate from that. It comes from appreciation for what he does.
Want to join in?
You can donate until 31 December 2026, with any amount. That can be via Lightning, on-chain or by credit card, also monthly. The current addresses and the full ranking are on the fund page. I deliberately do not list them here: always check an address at the source.
No sats to give yet? In Buying Bitcoin in the Netherlands you can read where and how to start.
Go to the Bitcoin Education Fund
Do you know someone working on Bitcoin education, or a community that belongs on this list? Please pass this on.
From the shop
Ready to get started?
Everything covered in this guide is in the shop.
