├── OS Everything ├── BITCOIN DIPLOMA QUESTION PAPER .docx ├── Bitcoin Education - Getting Started │ ├── How to start a Bitcoin Education project.docx │ ├── Napo and Victor making their first lightning transaction.jpg │ └── README.md ├── Meetup Blueprint │ ├── Guide for Organize a Bitcoin Meetup.docx │ └── README.md └── README.md └── README.md /OS Everything/BITCOIN DIPLOMA QUESTION PAPER .docx: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Node-Network/ceee41170b3a0056deacae1add67cdc971f9e371/OS Everything/BITCOIN DIPLOMA QUESTION PAPER .docx -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/Bitcoin Education - Getting Started/How to start a Bitcoin Education project.docx: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Node-Network/ceee41170b3a0056deacae1add67cdc971f9e371/OS Everything/Bitcoin Education - Getting Started/How to start a Bitcoin Education project.docx -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/Bitcoin Education - Getting Started/Napo and Victor making their first lightning transaction.jpg: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Node-Network/ceee41170b3a0056deacae1add67cdc971f9e371/OS Everything/Bitcoin Education - Getting Started/Napo and Victor making their first lightning transaction.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/Bitcoin Education - Getting Started/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # How to Start a Bitcoin Education Project 2 | 3 | **Example: Mi Primer Bitcoin (El Salvador)** 4 | 5 | This is just one experience in one local context. But together with other singular experiences, each with their own local context, best practices may begin to emerge. 6 | 7 | ## Before: Inspiration, Motivation & a False Start 8 | 9 | I was in New York visiting my parents and recovering from hernia surgery when the pandemic lockdowns happened in 2020. My physical therapy was just to walk a little farther each day, and on those walks, I would ponder the state of the world and where we went wrong. My conclusion was that the problem was a lack of self-sovereignty and critical thinking skills, which led to a negative incentive structure and negative second and third-order effects. The solution was to push the world toward individuals having agency in their own lives, and that once people felt in control of their own lives, they would feel more confident about not just accepting whatever future may come but creating and building it. The means to that end was mass independent interactive Bitcoin education, especially in locations that benefited the least from the existing financial order. 10 | 11 | That was the theory. 12 | 13 | At the start of 2021, I moved to Ecuador, a place I had previously lived, and attempted to begin. I tried to teach friends who could, in turn, teach their contacts and even sponsored an online stranger to teach in his own community. The stranger was a scammer, and teaching friends was difficult, and them teaching others proved impossible. Showing rather than telling and making the learning interactive was an important part of the methodology, but the pandemic was still ongoing, and there were still fears (and laws) that made forming in-person groups difficult. 14 | 15 | It wasn’t the right time; it wasn’t the right place. 16 | 17 | Then El Salvador announced they would adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. 18 | 19 | Within a week, I decided to move there. Over the next two months, I spent a lot of time thinking about the why and trying to learn from the experience in Ecuador. I fleshed out a plan and got great feedback from friends. They mostly told me I was crazy and the project wouldn’t work, but the best feedback is often that which challenges. They did sharpen ideas. They did help me workshop names. They genuinely helped. 20 | 21 | Perseverance is something that comes up over and over with My First Bitcoin from before it even really existed. I was deeply committed, open to new ideas but committed to the core mission. 22 | 23 | ## Beginning in El Salvador 24 | 25 | By the time I landed in El Salvador with a one-way ticket in August 2021, one month before the Bitcoin law would go into effect, a few things were already set up. I had sold whatever possessions I could in anticipation of not having income for a time. The project had a name, website, mission statement, discord group, and basic curriculum for an intro class. Two friends from faraway places—one who I met in jail and another while hiking the Himalayas—arrived in El Salvador around the same time, and being bitcoiners really helped sharpen some ideas and recruit others. 26 | 27 | I wanted to land in El Salvador with as solid a plan as possible but also estimated there was a significant chance that Mi Primer Bitcoin would fail for unanticipated reasons. A second presumption was there would be lots of other great projects starting, and if MPB failed, then I would join a better-organized effort toward the goal of making El Salvador into a positive example of Bitcoin adoption for the world. That positive example would speed up adoption elsewhere with the long-term outcome of reimagining the dominant and failing incentive structures. 28 | 29 | My first week was in El Zonte (Bitcoin Beach). With the law coming into effect soon, there was a lot going on, and I found it difficult to connect with the Bitcoin Beach project but easy to connect with other Bitcoiners visiting and wanting to witness history. That second group, including my two friends, gave great feedback and added tangible work, such as creating a logo and helping to recruit Salvadoreans to get involved. It was always the goal that the teachers should be local and the education community-led, but they were bursting with ideas of how to facilitate that and eager to support. 30 | 31 | Another recurring trend is the help and support of others. 32 | 33 | I moved to San Salvador a week before the law went into effect. The largest city and capital seemed like a logical place to get started. I spoke with every Salvadoran I could about Bitcoin and if they might be interested in learning more and teaching others. 34 | 35 | Napo and Victor making their first lightning transaction 36 | 37 | I invited groups of Salvadoreans to my AirBnB to learn about Bitcoin. The first group that came was four people: two invited by a Bitcoiner I met in El Zonte, a third was Napo, my Uber driver earlier that week, and the fourth was Victor. A friend in New York had introduced me to her work colleague who was based in San Salvador after hearing my intentions over coffee. That person referred me to her yoga instructor for another coffee and more chatting. Victor was the brother of the yoga instructor. 38 | 39 | The first days of the project were casting a random and wide net to try and involve a diverse cross-section of curious Salvadoreans. 40 | 41 | I wouldn’t recommend this for others; it’s worth highlighting that the local context was that the nation was the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, so while the knowledge base was near zero, there was a lot of curiosity. El Salvador in late 2021 was a unique place. 42 | 43 | ## First Class 44 | 45 | The first official class was soon after the more informal meetings at my AirBnB. Victor was the teacher; the venue was his sister’s studio in a break between yoga classes, and only one student showed up—Napo. 46 | 47 | Again, perseverance was key. 48 | 49 | Within two months, we had hundreds of students a month, and within two years, thousands a month. 50 | 51 | The original idea was to have paid classes in the US and Europe which would subsidize free classes in El Salvador. I had recruited friends for the first part, but while a couple managed to hold a class or two, no funds were ever raised. Early costs were paid by donations—the very first were from myself and friends. In any case, early expenses were low. 52 | 53 | The original design was to have a flat hierarchy and make each teacher responsible for not just teaching but finding a venue and recruiting students—they would be paid based on per student taught. The first classes were just a 90-minute intro that explained what money was, why it was, then what Bitcoin was and how. Every student downloaded a lightning wallet as part of the class, practiced receiving and sending sats, and kept the sats at the end. The first class was a $10 bonus, which we then dropped to $5, then $2, then $1. Each teacher initially got $5 per student taught with a max of $30, so a class of 6 would cost $90 at first and then quickly dropped to $60. 54 | 55 | [Now we pay many teachers a monthly salary, and our cost per student is much, much lower] 56 | 57 | In those first weeks and months, everyone was a volunteer. 58 | 59 | ## Some Lessons 60 | 61 | There were a variety of others in El Salvador at the time interested in starting new Bitcoin projects. Every single one failed. Every other attempt prioritized fundraising and legal structure while MPB prioritized getting started and worrying about the rest later; to put it another way: proof-of-work was the only winning strategy. 62 | 63 | Having a good structure is meaningless without first putting in the work. Successful complex systems are never born; rather, they evolve out of successful simple systems [Gall’s law]. Also, if we want to create a better future, we have to reimagine success. Prioritizing sponsors and legal structures might be recommended in the fiat world, but in the new one we are creating, proof-of-work is what matters. 64 | 65 | Fiat is permissioned; Bitcoin is permissionless. The path of least resistance would be to follow the fiat playbook of prioritizing sponsors and legal permissions, but that would change nothing. We will only change the world if we pioneer new paths and resist cooption by the world we are trying to replace. 66 | 67 | Another lesson is perseverance. An earlier less thought-out version failed in Ecuador. The funding part of the plan failed. The very first person to arrive at my AirBnB for those early meetings was a drunk shitcoiner. The first class only had one student. All those instances would have been reasonable places to stop. 68 | 69 | Finally, in hindsight, the randomness of early recruitment would be hard to replicate in another environment. Once we started having meetups, it led to many new people volunteering—that’s almost definitely a more efficient way to recruit for a new project, to start with a meetup. 70 | 71 | So in sum, the lessons were to prioritize proof-of-work, persevere, and adapt through challenges and setbacks. 72 | 73 | John Dennehy 74 | Founder, Mi Primer Bitcoin / My First Bitcoin 75 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/Meetup Blueprint/Guide for Organize a Bitcoin Meetup.docx: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Node-Network/ceee41170b3a0056deacae1add67cdc971f9e371/OS Everything/Meetup Blueprint/Guide for Organize a Bitcoin Meetup.docx -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/Meetup Blueprint/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Mi Primer Bitcoin Meetup Guide 2 | 3 | ## Overview 4 | At Mi Primer Bitcoin, we organize a monthly Bitcoin Meetup to teach about Bitcoin and unite the Bitcoin community, from experts to those merely curious about it. 5 | 6 | ## Pre-Meetup Preparation 7 | 8 | ### 1. Set Objectives 9 | - **Goal:** Empower people and businesses through Bitcoin education. 10 | 11 | ### 2. Choose a Date and Venue 12 | - **Date Selection:** Pick a day of the week that maximizes community attendance. 13 | - **Venue:** Choose a location that can accommodate all attendees and accepts Bitcoin. If not, prepare to discuss its benefits with the owner. 14 | 15 | ### 3. Promotion and Sponsorship 16 | - **Social Media:** Start promoting on platforms highlighting the date, time, and place. 17 | - **Sponsors:** Contact potential sponsors for financial or in-kind support. 18 | - **Flyers:** Design and distribute event flyers both digitally and physically. 19 | 20 | ### 4. Language Consideration 21 | - **Languages:** Provide information in both Spanish and English to cater to all attendees. 22 | 23 | ## Event Execution 24 | 25 | ### 1. Venue Setup 26 | - **Arrival:** Arrive early to prepare the venue. 27 | - **Equipment:** Ensure all necessary presentation equipment is ready. 28 | 29 | ### 2. Engage with Attendees 30 | - **Welcome:** Greet attendees and facilitate networking. 31 | - **Attendance Tracking:** Use platforms like Eventbrite or Meetup for registration and tracking. 32 | 33 | ### 3. Educational Sessions 34 | - **Topics:** Cover Bitcoin fundamentals, benefits, and practical applications. 35 | - **Local Business Value:** Discuss how local businesses can benefit from accepting Bitcoin. 36 | 37 | ### 4. Community Building 38 | - **Environment:** Create a supportive space for sharing and learning. 39 | - **Diversity:** Encourage diverse participation to enrich community interactions. 40 | 41 | ### 5. Promotion Assistance 42 | - **Venue Collaboration:** Work with the venue for promoting the event to their audience. 43 | 44 | ### 6. Consistency and Rewards 45 | - **Regular Schedule:** Host meetups on the same day each month (last Thursday). 46 | - **Incentives:** Negotiate discounts or offers for Bitcoin payments to enhance value. 47 | 48 | ## Post-Meetup Follow-Up 49 | 50 | ### 1. Feedback and Reflection 51 | - **Feedback Collection:** Gather attendee feedback to evaluate the event. 52 | - **Reflect:** Assess promotional and sponsorship effectiveness for future improvements. 53 | 54 | ### 2. Continued Outreach 55 | - **Relationships:** Keep in touch with sponsors and attendees to maintain engagement. 56 | - **Collaborations:** Seek partnership opportunities with local businesses for Bitcoin promotion. 57 | 58 | ### 3. Documentation and Planning 59 | - **Documentation:** Record key outcomes and lessons from the meetup. 60 | - **Checklist Updates:** Revise pre-event preparations to enhance future meetups. 61 | 62 | ## Conclusion 63 | Join us in fostering a knowledgeable and inclusive Bitcoin community through our monthly meetups. Everyone interested is welcome, from newcomers to seasoned experts. 64 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /OS Everything/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # 🌐 What is the Node Network? 2 | 3 | The Node Network is an initiative by Mi Primer Bitcoin aimed at decentralizing education. It's a global network of grassroots Bitcoin communities and educational initiatives, each teaching the [Bitcoin Diploma](https://github.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Bitcoin-Diploma-2024) and using educational resources that are created and provided by Mi Primer Bitcoin in an open-source manner. 4 | 5 | The nodes commit to respect the network’s consensus rules. 6 | 7 | ⚖️ **Consensus Rules:** 8 | - Independence with zero external influence. 9 | - Impartiality. 10 | - Community-based approach. 11 | - Bitcoin-only focus. 12 | - Prioritization of empowerment over profits. 13 | - Quality maintenance. 14 | 15 | The Node Network consists of **Light Nodes** and **Full Nodes**, both having their own characteristics. 16 | 17 | ## 💡 What is a Light Node? 18 | 19 | A Light Node is a Bitcoin community that was accepted in Mi Primer Bitcoin's network, agreeing to respect its consensus rules. Any project can apply at any time and their application will be voted on by the Full Nodes on a monthly basis. 20 | 21 | ### 🎉 Benefits: 22 | - Increased impact and recognition for your community. 23 | - Access to specialized resources for operations enhancement. 24 | - Opportunities for global collaboration, including partnerships and joint ventures. 25 | - Network access and participation. 26 | - Active role in shaping independent Bitcoin education. 27 | - Direct support from existing nodes. 28 | - Participation in monthly General Assemblies. 29 | 30 | ### 🔍 Responsibilities: 31 | - Upholding the values of My First Bitcoin and the Node Network. 32 | - Adhering to the network’s consensus rules. 33 | - Providing Bitcoin education to your local community. 34 | - Committing to teach 50+ students every 180 days. 35 | - Contributing to the community via GitHub and public forums. 36 | - Promoting network growth through leadership. 37 | - Providing leadership and guidance for translators. 38 | 39 | ### 🌐 [Light-Node-Directory](https://github.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Light-Node-Directory/tree/main) 40 | Each Node has its own personalized directory for storing customized content, resources, and sharing open-source materials. It’s a hub for distributing updates, educational materials, and essential templates, and a space for Nodes to interact, collaborate, and share insights effectively. 41 | 42 | ## 💡 What is a Full Node? 43 | 44 | A Full Node is a Bitcoin community that has added responsibility in the network. Full Nodes are in charge of enforcing the consensus rules and coordinating the governance of the network. In particular, they vote on: 45 | - Applications to become a Light Node 46 | - Applications to become a Full Node 47 | - Extraordinary voting sessions 48 | 49 | Full Nodes are the pillars of the network. Their role is to safeguard the integrity and values of the entire Node Network. Light Nodes can apply to become a Full Node on a quarterly basis. 50 | 51 | ### 🎉 Benefits: 52 | On top of all the benefits of being a Light Node, the benefits of being a Full Node include: 53 | - Being a pillar of the Node Network’s growth 54 | - Uphold the network’s communities and values 55 | - Be recognized as a leader in the educational space 56 | - Increased credibility and recognizability 57 | 58 | ### 🔍 Responsibilities: 59 | On top of all the responsibilities of being a Light Node, the responsibilities of being a Full Node include: 60 | - Upholding the values of My First Bitcoin and the Node Network. 61 | - Participating in the governance of the network. 62 | - Mentoring and guiding new members of the Node Network. 63 | - Voting on new Light Node applications. 64 | - Voting on new Full Node applications. 65 | - Triggering extraordinary voting sessions when necessary. 66 | - Representing the Node Network at international events and on digital media. 67 | - Sharing fundraising best practices and contacts. 68 | 69 | ### 🌐 [Full-Node-Directory](https://github.com/MyFirstBitcoin/Full-Node-Directory) 70 | Each Full Node has its own personalized directory for storing customized content, resources, and sharing open-source materials. It’s a hub for distributing updates, educational materials, and essential templates, and a space for Full Nodes to interact, collaborate, and share insights effectively. 71 | 72 | ## 🚀 Join the Network 73 | 74 | To apply to become a Light Node, fill out [this application form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxtcIOfhm_44T8TKqVSLbO9V1-O_ZQgoMFRYY_gioqoZQ3uA/viewform). Applications are reviewed and voted on by all Full Nodes. Notifications about outcomes and feedback are sent via email. You cannot join the collective of Full Nodes without becoming a Light Node first. 75 | 76 | ## ❓ Common Questions: 77 | 78 | **Do we need to be a Node to teach the Bitcoin Diploma?** 79 | No, the Bitcoin Diploma is open source and free for everyone to use. 80 | 81 | **Is it required to teach the Bitcoin Diploma in order to become a node?** 82 | No, but it is highly recommended to show proof of work and motivation before applying. 83 | 84 | ## 🤝 Support the Node Network 85 | 86 | Support can be shown by donating to any node or directly to Mi Primer Bitcoin - El Salvador. 87 | [Donate to MPB ES](https://myfirstbitcoin.io/donate/). 88 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------