“Trick or treat! Trick or treat! Boy, this bitcoin can’t be beat!” That’s probably the little rhyme a lot of trick or treaters in Canada were saying to themselves and to each other after they received $100 in BTC each this year on Halloween.
Halloween Isn’t Just About Candy Anymore
The digital treats were handed out by Canadian author and partner at X Squared Ventures Brad Mills, who instead of candy this holiday season, decided to pass out bitcoin to all the kids who came by his house on October 31. Halloween was spiced up in his neighborhood with some bitcoin gift cards that brought all the little kids who came by his front door closer towards the digital age.
Typically, Halloween is a holiday centered around costumes, bobbing for apples and gathering as much candy from your neighbors as possible. However, candy – as good as it is – doesn’t last forever. It’s not an investment, and it doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table once it’s eaten and the wrappers are disposed of.
Mills truly did all the kids in his area a favor. He made them investors, to a certain degree. They all now own a piece of what’s becoming the future of finance, and by teaching them the value of what they have and by showing them how to store it, perhaps these young bitcoin earners can start learning the value of a dollar.
What’s particularly interesting about the whole situation is that Mr. Mills recorded the entire trick or treating session on his video camera, and to his surprise, it looks like a bunch of the kids who received the bitcoin were familiar with it and knew what they were receiving. This is a positive sign that children have been given financial education early.
Eventually, more children began coming to his house as they learned of the giveaway. On his Twitter account, Mills gave a detailed account of what happened when a group of young girls showed up to get their fingers on some gleaming bitcoin gift cards:
I put some $100 @RiseWallet #Bitcoin cards in my box of Halloween candy and captured the moment when some random trick or treaters found them. ‘Dude, I just got bitcoin!’ It gives me hope that these Zoomer kids know what bitcoin is.
Setting Up the Financial Minds of the Future
Reactions to the news were mostly positive, with several analysts and industry experts praising Mills for working to educate the young people in his neighborhood – even on a night dedicated to having fun. Willy Woo explained in a recent interview:
Remember the days when nobody believed it was worth anything? The best way was to give them a little and wait for number-go-up to do the rest.
At the time of writing, bitcoin has backtracked a bit and is now trading for just under $13,500.