Jay-Z & Jack Dorsey’s First Iteration Of Their Bitcoin Academy Concluded w/ Participants Receiving $1,000 In Bitcoin

Jay-Z, Jack Dorsey

Jay-Z & Jack Dorsey’s First Iteration Of Their Bitcoin Academy Concluded w/ Participants Receiving $1,000 In Bitcoin

Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey’s educational initiative– Bitcoin Academy just concluded and it looks like the programs’ participants received a big gift!

The 12-week initiative started in June and was free and available exclusively to residents of Marcy Houses– the public housing complex where Jay-Z grew up.

The mission statement for the program reads:

“This program aims to provide education, empower the community with knowledge, and get rid of some of the barriers so that residents can learn more about Bitcoin specifically and finance in general.”

On Wednesday (Sept. 7), the program’s first iteration concluded with an unanticipated parting gift for its participants. Reportedly, adult Marcy residents who enrolled as students, opted into the program, and consented to receive a grant were each airdropped around $1,000 in bitcoin. Reportedly, the program and the $1,000 in bitcoin were personally funded by the New York rapper and Jack Dorsey–the former CEO of Twitter.

Jack Dorsey

Jay-Z

The academy courses — taught in person, recorded, and available online only to Marcy residents — included titles like “Wealth Building and Assets,” “Why Decentralization Matters,” “Staying Safe from Scammers,” “Bitcoin & Taxes,” and “Careers in Crypto,” among others.

Along with providing childcare for the participants, the Academy served dinner at each of its biweekly nightly courses. Through a partnership with T-Mobile, the program also gave out more than 100 MiFi devices to students and provided smartphones to residents who needed devices to participate.

In describing The Bitcoin Academy, Marcy resident Mariela Regalado and academy instructor Lamar Wilson both made a point to stress that students in the program weren’t pressured into buying or selling bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Regalado framed the program as

“purely this fun, educational journey that I got to do with my neighbors,”

and described the classes themselves by saying,

“It always felt like we’re at a family dinner, and like that cousin that discovered Bitcoin is telling everybody else about it.”

The Bitcoin Academy follows a series of other philanthropic endeavors from Jay-Z and The Shawn Carter Foundation that have aimed to promote financial inclusion and education for underserved groups.

In a 2021 collaboration with Tiffany & Co., The Shawn Carter Foundation (SCF) and Beyoncé’s BeyGood gave $2 million to five HBCUs as part of an “About Love” campaign and scholarship program. Earlier this year, SCF helped launch the Josh Dubin Fellowship, an intensive and experiential social justice program where $10,000 are awarded to five students annually. SCF also has an ongoing collaboration with Bridges to Wealth to provide financial literacy and wealth-building workshops for disadvantaged college students and communities.

Following the conclusion of its summer courses at Marcy Houses, The Bitcoin Academy is reportedly

“looking to expand to other neighborhoods soon.”

What are your thoughts on The Bitcoin Academy? Let us know in the comments below!

[VIA]