Teaching children the A to Z of bitcoin? There's an app for that

From A is for Alternative Currency to Z is for Zero-Confirmation Transaction, iPad app explains cryptocurrency to kids


Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still a mystery to most adults, so teaching children how they work may seem a strange ambition.


Nevertheless, that's the aim of a new app, The Bitcoin Alphabet – for Kids and Everyone Else, released for Apple's iPad tablet this week by author Chris Bozak and publisher iKandy.


The app is a mixture of illustrations and text explanations in plain English, and as its title makes clear, it has an eye on parents who don't know their block chains from their hash rates, as well as their children.


It's a no-frills affair, without the voice narration or interactivity that have become standard features in book-apps for children. On the plus side, it does have a jazzy soundtrack.


"This is a movement that forces the world to re-learn all that we thought we knew about money – and more importantly – your money," writes Bozak in the introduction.


"This book is for those of you, young and old, who have not yet gone down this wonderfully inevitable rabbit hole. My hope is that it whets your appetite to learn more."


iKandy is selling the app for £1.99 on iPad's App Store – the equivalent of 0.01 bitcoins, although you'd be advised to check those maths with a passing child.


The Bitcoin Alphabet joins other iKandy apps on Apple's store including Jake the Juggling Octopus, Skate Punk Bird Massacre and Snowboard Penguin Smack down.


iKandy is also responsible for Twenty Pussies – an app about cartoon cats – with this Apple-baiting App Store listing: "Who says you can't get pussies on the Apple iTunes store? Apple now carries shaved pussies, expensive pussies, wet pussies, hot pussies, tight pussies, sick pussies, hairy pussies and many more."


Suffice to say, all-ages cryptocurrency education is likely to be a safer bet in the apps world than laboured vagina/cat japes. Or, at least, so you'd hope.