It’s that time of year again! When you can’t decide whether to get a pumpkin spice or eggnog-flavored latte, and your local mall reeks of cinnamon, pine needles and dirty fiat money. The HODLdays are a time for friends, family and gift-giving, but as good Bitcoiners, we already know that the best gift of all is bitcoin. But how do you convince your friends and family to go down the Bitcoin rabbit — uh, reindeer hole?
The Bitcoin space has matured so much in the last few years, and as a result, giving bitcoin is easier than ever. It used to be difficult to give bitcoin to folks without worrying that they’d lose their private keys or worse … sell the BTC for a centralized shitcoin! I could name drop some of those shitcoins now, but in the spirit of the holidays... actually screw it. XRP. That’s what I meant to write. I said it. Take that, Brad Garlinghouse!
Anyhow, it used to be difficult to give bitcoin because of the steep learning curve. It will definitely still take time for your recipients to learn about key management or the value of self-sovereignty, but educational resources have improved drastically and there are even novel options like GiveBitcoin[1] that time lock the BTC and provide education. If you want a more hands-on approach, you can always use a paper wallet[2] or help your recipient set up her or his first hardware wallet[3].
But there’s still the problem of convincing your friends and family that Bitcoin matters. I think we’ve reached a turning point though. As “The Bitcoin guy,” at all the holiday parties (or any event for that matter), I’ve noticed that where people didn’t want to know about Bitcoin
