In exchange for chores above and beyond his usual scope, though he is seemingly unable to decide on the best means of payment, a Bloomberg contributor will be paying his son Bitcoin.
For the boy helping him with competitive pricing benchmarking for a rental property, Eddie Yoon said he would pay his seventh grader 0.00055 Bitcoin (BTC) — roughly $23.50 at the time of publication in his opinion piece today. A choice of “cash, candy, or Bitcoin” for the work, closing the deal with a handshake, was given by Yoon to his son Luke.
Rather than jumping in on any craze, the Bloomberg contributor said the move was based on giving his children a role in their own financial decisions. He said he helped Luke purchase Tesla stock in 2016 and his daughters buy into Apple and Alphabet.
“We’ve told our kids that we will fund any investment that we collectively agree on between now and the age of 25,” said Yoon. “We don’t plan to leave them an inheritance, so we want them to be equipped for a future in which their own investments give them financial security.”
Yoon added that he has “yet to figure out which cryptocurrency platform allows minors to open accounts.” There are few, if any, laws that prohibit children under the age of 18 from HOLDing or trading cryptocurrency, but many exchanges still require verification to ensure their users are of legal age. Alternatively, adults can gift minors crypto with paper wallets or through Bitcoin ATMs.
“We don’t want our kids to necessarily beat the market. We want our kids to be able to think independently about money. We want them to manage their money, not let it manage them. We want them to find the right balance between ignorance and obsession with money.”
Though many children — and adults — may not always be able to understand the complexities of the market, some crypto enthusiasts have already taken the first steps toward them becoming more financially educated. Three-year-old Lily Knight, born during the 2017 bull run, meets both criteria by teaching others about crypto and blockchain on her YouTube channel.