This is an opinion editorial by Hector Alvero, a Bitcoin educator who serves as co-host of the Broward County Bitcoiners meetup.
As Bitcoiners, we love the exhilarating feeling of bringing a new person into the Bitcoin lifeboat. Many of us constantly work to orange pill our friends, our coworkers and our neighbors, trying to save as many as we can before the fiat ship sinks. We’ll even try to orange pill the waiter at our favorite local restaurant, helping them download a Lightning wallet and offering to give them a bigger tip to help them “get off zero.”
But what about your mom? Have you given her the same gift that you’ve given to the Uber driver who took you home from your last conference or meetup? Have you taken the time to help her understand the impact that inflation is having on her economic security, and how Bitcoin can protect her from the financial earthquake that is coming? Have you helped her understand what money is and why Bitcoin is the greatest savings technology ever discovered?
If you have, I applaud you. If you haven’t gotten there yet, this Mother’s Day is the perfect time to show her that you love her enough to spend the time it takes for her to understand Bitcoin.
You might be thinking, “I already tried, and she didn’t get it.” I can sympathize with that. My mom didn’t get it right away, either. She said it sounded like a Ponzi scheme and that it couldn’t be money because it wasn’t real or backed by anything.
Maybe you have heard some of these same objections. Maybe you are frustrated and figure you should just let it go. If so, ask yourself this question: How many times has your mom explained something to you that you didn’t understand at first? She likely did not just give up on helping you learn and grow. Are you going to quit on her now when her entire future is at stake? Of course not… you’re a Bitcoiner.
Think back to when you first heard about Bitcoin. Did you get it right away? I didn’t. A friend told me about Bitcoin at a Halloween party in 2015, and while I didn’t dismiss it, I certainly did not understand its importance at first. Life was busy, and so I forgot about it for about a year until he tried again in late 2016 and helped me learn enough to buy a small amount and begin my journey. Maybe you have a similar story of someone who kept trying until you understood this revolutionary technology enough to take your first step on the path to economic freedom and sovereignty. Imagine how different your outlook on the future would be if they had not kept trying.
Remember, Bitcoin is hard to grok. It was for me, and maybe it was for you, too. It is also generally harder to understand the older someone is because they have lived in their economic circumstances for longer than a younger person has, and are often more reluctant to accept a new paradigm. Change can be scary, especially for someone that might be feeling confused about why the world seems to be spinning out of control. It might take more patience. It might take a few more conversations or the breaking up of big topics into smaller ones before the light bulb goes on for your mom. Try to find something she can relate to that Bitcoin fixes and focus on that aspect alone. Relevance is a powerful tool for persuasion.
For my mom, what made the light bulb go on in her head was when I related one piece of Bitcoin’s value proposition to something she understood from her own life. In her case, it was Bitcoin’s resistance to censorship and confiscation.
My mom grew up in Cuba and was a teenager when Fidel Castro rose to power in the late 1950s. She remembers how her family’s meager cash savings, which my grandfather kept in a glass jar hidden in the house, was demonetized when the new regime took power. My grandfather refused to turn in the money and buried the jar in the backyard. He trusted that eventually, everything would go back to how it was before and the old currency would be accepted again.
This never happened, and my grandparents had to flee the island with my mom soon after. They also had to leave behind the valueless pieces of paper buried in the backyard of the house, which they also no longer owned thanks to the new government’s abolition of private property rights.
They lost the money, the house and they barely escaped with their lives. When I talked with her about Bitcoin in terms of it being property that no one can take from her, she got it.
This Mother’s Day, I encourage you to consider trying again. Try again like your mom encouraged you to do when she taught you to ride a bike, trying again even when you kept falling. Try again like my mom did when teaching me to parallel park, even after I ran over the garbage can… twice.
She never gave up on you, and now it is your turn to believe in her and return the favor. Now is the moment when you can show her that those lessons of persistence, patience and love took hold. This Mother’s Day is your chance to save her life and future, and to repay her for giving both of those things to you.
This is a guest post by Hector Alvero. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
