Art by: Jing Jin
The Bitcoin MIT giveaway was a big news story in 2014. Students from arguably the nation's most prestigious computer science school were given US$100 worth of Bitcoins with the hope that the bright young minds that attend that university will become interested in the currency and create something for the rest of us.
With an eye to that, another organization is giving another group of college students free bitcoins. Montreal's Bitcoin Embassy will be giving bitcoin to 600 Students attending McGill University, also in Montreal. The amount is significantly lower, compared to the MIT project, down to 30 mBTC or roughly US$7 at current prices, but the idea is still the same: get young, potentially intelligent people interested in Bitcoin and see what they can come up with.
The distribution model is a bit different than the MIT project. Students will be given an envelope filled with information about Bitcoin, a paper wallet and instructions describing how to get those coins onto a web or online wallet. On the outside of the envelope will be a public key, which the organizers will use to fund the paper wallets in front of the students. For the bitcoin uneducated, this could be their first time seeing a transaction and should help solidify some of the basic concepts in their minds.
In addition to providing bitcoin and basic information, The Montreal Bitcoin Embassy will be providing students with free workshops and lectures on the digital currency, information on the locations and times of these events will be included in the packet.
Bitcoin's success depends almost entirely on its adoption. Random giveaways are great, but a more surgical approach also has its advantages. Montreal is an ideal place to run such an experiment, as it has 57 total bitcoin accepting businesses and 17 BTMs within the surrounding area, according to coinmap.org and coinatmradar.com, respectively
The event is scheduled to take place this spring, but the Montreal Embassy has yet to provide an exact date. We will keep an eye out for more developments.
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