BitPolito, a group of students from Politecnico di Torino University who seek to address training, research and development on Bitcoin in Italy, have announced “BitGeneration,” a project that aims to bring Bitcoin education to Italian high schools.
According to the press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine, the university will host 10 meetings of three hours each for 30 third, fourth and fifth year students at a local high school.
“Experts and teachers had already talked about Bitcoin in the past to some classes through small independent initiatives,” describes the release, “but BitGeneration has a whole different tenor. For the first time, [an Italian] public school welcomes Bitcoin training in a formal way: the 30 hours are part of what is called Pcto (which in Italian means Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation), a 300-hour course of compulsory work over a three-year period for all students throughout the country.”
Lessons taught cover various aspects of Bitcoin, from financial inclusion, economics and structures of society to computer science and game theory. There are also practical lessons focusing on showing the ease of using Bitcoin. Subjects include “creating a seed phrase and a wallet, downloading and managing a full-node, timechain analysis and mining (with a real Antminer S9 ASIC provided by BitPolito).”
Speakers involved in this initiative include some of the best known names in the Italian Bitcoin sphere, such as Giacomo Zucco, Riccardo Giorgio Frega, Alekos Filini, Daniela Brozzoni and Riccardo Masutti. BitPolito has previously been funded by Conio, which will also fund the first edition of the course, while ShiftCrypto will provide signing devices for the lessons.
Giacomo Zucco, who gave the first lecture on January 31, said that “The teachers were enthusiastic. When they asked me some questions after the lecture, about one-third of the students gathered around to listen. I found bright faces despite the three-hour lecture.”
Nicolò Terranova, a member of the group and one of the main people responsible for the initiative, explained its plans for expansion, saying “We would like to expand the project in the future. In the next edition we will make a documentary that will tell the story of the students’ education, from the students’ perspective. We hope that other schools will take the initiative as an example, we are ready to help.”
According to the press release the 10 lessons will be posted on BitPolito's YouTube channel so that anyone can watch the course for free.