Key points to remember
- Mother’s Day is here, and there’s no better time than the present to talk to your mom about cryptocurrency.
- For the brand new to crypto, crypto can be overwhelming, but there are a few simple metaphors that can help you navigate the introduction.
- May the next priceless family heirloom in your home be a crypto-stacked hardware wallet.
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Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! This year, Crypto Briefing honors the matriarchs in our lives by doing something moms everywhere pray their kids never do: talk to them about cryptocurrency.
We have our reasons, though, and it’s not just because we want to start cool projects or show off our great NFT collections to our parents like the kids we are. No, the reason we want to talk about crypto with mom is because we care. We care about their financial well-being in the face of an uncertain future, their fluency with technology in an increasingly digital world, and their ability to operate safely online, all of which can be strengthened by a candid conversation. on cryptocurrency.
Let’s dive into it.
The conversation
The Web3 landscape can be a daunting place even for seasoned digital cowboys, and introducing our loved ones there can seem daunting. And while there are certainly mothers out there who are real degens, let’s assume for our purposes that most mothers in the world – like most of its general population – know about crypto but generally don’t. not much. This is where you come in.
The world is full of charlatans, and your mom has probably heard of the variety of scams, phishing attacks, hacks, exploits, and crashes associated with the crypto market. If she’s self-aware, she won’t quite know who to believe at first, so she needs to have someone she trusts who knows the subject she can turn to. This person, my friend, is you.
Now, you might be tempted to introduce your mom to all the degen small caps you’re stacking up on right now, but you have to be careful not to put the cart before the horse. If she’s new to crypto, she really only needs a basic understanding of two things at this point: Bitcoin and Ethereum. Introducing more than that into the first conversation would be intimidating and overwhelming.
We recommend starting with Bitcoin. For the seasoned crypto user, explaining Bitcoin is fairly simple, but for a newcomer it can quickly become overwhelming. So, while you may be tempted to give her a hard copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper as a Mother’s Day gift, you shouldn’t, because no one likes to receive a homework while expecting a present.
Instead, you can simply describe it as a ledger of accounts and transactions that can track itself without the need for an overseer, because that’s exactly what it is. Most adults will be able to grasp this description. You can go into great detail about how the blockchain works if you feel like it wants to go there, but strictly speaking, a basic knowledge of public and private keys is enough to engage with Bitcoin.
If your mom is more tech-savvy, you can start with Ethereum instead, Turing’s most compelling and comprehensive successor to the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin is ultimately not much more than a ledger, but Ethereum should be explained as infrastructure to rely on. While Bitcoin only does one thing, Ethereum, like the internet itself, makes a number of new things possible.
At this point, you can gauge their level of interest to see if it’s worth introducing the concepts of dApps, DAO, ERC-20, etc. But even if she has no interest, she should at least walk away from the conversation after hearing about Ethereum, because it certainly won’t be the last time she does.
In custody or not in custody
Among the attractions of blockchain technology has always been its promise to free us from legacy financial systems. But it’s worth remembering that for many people, including many baby boomers, the old financial systems worked. It’s okay. Some people want to other people hold their money for them, both because they may be better equipped to do so safely and because they can be held responsible if things go wrong.
Therefore, it is crucial that you explain to him about non-custodial wallets and the concept of self-custodial funds, if only to give him the opportunity to dismiss them out of hand. She may very well hate the idea of being solely responsible for the safety of her money. If so, MetaMask might not be the best place to start, but an account with a licensed and reputable centralized exchange like Coinbase, Kraken, or FTX might be faster.
Finally, she may have no interest in hands-on management of her crypto and instead prefers exposure to the market the old-fashioned way, i.e., someone does it all for her. In this case, you can introduce her to something like Bitcoin or Ethereum Trusts from Grayscale, but if she is a conservative investor, you may not be able to persuade her to go further than that. Either way, she should be aware of this option to expose her wallet to crypto without having to secure her own private keys.
Gift
All that time and attention you’ve devoted to your mother is all well and good, but you’re not going to get away with it without giving her a real gift. Your instinct is going to be to buy crypto from her, but as a general rule, giving money as a gift for Mother’s Day or any other sentimental holiday is an amazing escape, so to do that you’ll need to sprinkle in a little extra magic. by giving mom her first hardware wallet.
There is no more appropriate gift recommendation for a new crypto user than a hardware wallet. As we have already mentioned, Crypto BriefingThe wallet of choice is the Ledger Nano X, which as always must be purchased new, directly from the manufacturer. Never buy a second-hand hardware wallet, because you can never tell if it’s been tampered with or not (and let’s be honest, if you bought it second-hand, you should assume it was ).
If she’s totally new to crypto, she’ll probably open that gift with the blank smile of someone who has no idea what she’s looking at and immediately thank you for the amazing thumb drive. At this point, you’ll need to explain to him what that thing you just gave him is, and while you’ll be tempted to respond immediately with technical information about blockchain machinations, you shouldn’t. Instead, just tell it it’s a key, because it is. She knows what a key is.
From there, teaching mom how to use her wallet comes down to helping her set up the device and fund her address. Once done, you know the routine.
Of course, if your mom is already into crypto, she probably already has her own cold storage wallet, so you’ll need to step up your game if you want to impress this year. In that case, you could do worse than gift him an NFT on his blockchain of choice, and if you really want to dazzle, I’d suggest jumping for his ENS name. Finally, for the security-obsessed mom, I might recommend the Billfodl Cyber Security Pack for the peace of mind that only two Faraday bags and a steel emergency key can provide.
The thought that matters
Above all, what your mom will likely treasure the most is the time you took to share with her something that’s important to you. This alone should be enough to give the hardware wallet the status of “priceless heirloom” and ensure its safeguard. Finally, you’ll be sharing valuable knowledge with someone you love, and there are few more valuable ventures than that.
Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!
Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.