According to Node Nation, an educational program that operates in El Salvador, for the fifth and last time in 2024 a Bitcoin node was installed by primary school children. The same kids are mining bitcoin with a Bitaxe machine. It happened in a public school in El Salvador. Those responsible for the initiative are the education organization DecouvreBitcoin with the support of the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador (ONBTC).
In it video documenting the eventa group of children can be seen collaborating in the installation of the Bitcoin node. Unpacking materials, connecting devices, using software to program the node and installing BitcoinCore version 27.1.0, to make it operational.
After the experience, the children would have become little Bitcoin “experts.” According to Node Nation,
“These kids know how to run and manage a Bitcoin node and a Lightning Network node. They are also mining Bitcoin with a Bitaxe configured by themselves and they know how Bitcoin works and of course they learned it by playing.”
Node Nation, Bitcoin educational organization.
A Bitaxe It is a miniature Bitcoin mining device. One of them is the Bitaxe Ultra, an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) designed for Bitcoin mining. This open source, low-power device can reach a hashrate of 0.5 terahashes per second (T/s).
According to Stacy Herbert, director of the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, these children are from the “Bukele generation”. He comments that “in just five years, their country became a success story and now they believe that they too can dream big, go big. And they know that where El Salvador is going, in fact, is the place they want to get to.”
The director made the comment in reference to the specific case of a girl, named Isis Cruz, who now working with ONBTC after learning how to set up a Bitcoin node and after studying at Cuboplus and Planb.network, two pedagogical initiatives in the country.
Technical education in Bitcoin has already begun in El Salvador
As reported by CriptoNoticias, in May some public school children from the Usulután region, eastern El Salvador, installed a Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) node. At that time, it was the second node installed by public school children in the country. ONBTC intends for 6,000 Bitcoin nodes to operate in public schools in the country that in 2021 declared the crypto asset as legal tender.
Bitcoin education in El Salvador appears increasingly integrated with traditional teaching programs. Node Nation, on October 30, showed on social networks a pensum on finance, philosophy and technology of Bitcoin for public schools that would come into effect in 2025.
“We are not going to stop, we are working hard on our new curriculum for 2025. Children deserve to have fun while learning Bitcoin. Thank you all for your support. This is just the beginning,” they posted on their social network.
Node Nation, Bitcoin educational organization.
After the activation of the new device, El Salvador appears in 64th place on the list of countries with Lightning network nodes. The 4 assets They have a total capacity of 4.52 BTC, equivalent to 0.03% of total Lightning liquidity at the time of writing. as seen through Mempool Space.
Thus, El Salvador surpasses countries like Uruguay and Peru in Lightning nodes. It is surpassed in this category by Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
