How Students Can Benefit from Bitcoin

Several surveys have shown that young adults are particularly interested in Bitcoin and other digital currencies—more than any other age cohort. For university students, in particular, the large expenses associated with tuition, rent, and other costs of living make the question, "Why Bitcoin?" an important one. We had our marketing intern, Parsa Sadat Tehrani, ask friends and fellow university students about any questions they had about Bitcoin.

Here are the most common questions from students:

Bitcoin can offer several benefits to students. For one, it can be a way to save money on expensive international wire transfer fees when sending money home to family or friends. Students from around the world attend college internationally, and Bitcoin can be a way to avoid costly fees when sending money between countries.

For example, let's say you're an Argentinian student attending college in the United States. If your parents want to send you money from Argentina, you would typically have to use a service like Western Union, which can charge high fees—sometimes as much as 10% of the total amount you're sending. With Bitcoin, you can send the same amount of money for a fraction of the cost.

Bitcoin final settlement also happens much faster than traditional methods like wire transfers, which can often take several days. With Bitcoin, the recipient can receive the funds within ten minutes when sending on the Bitcoin base layer. Lightning makes this even faster, with most payments taking only a few seconds.

We get it—the Bitcoin price looks daunting. But remember, you don't have to buy an entire Bitcoin. You can purchase a fraction of one BTC, all the way down to one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin (also called a satoshi). So even if the price of a whole Bitcoin is out of your budget right now, you can still buy and hold any amount of Bitcoin you're able to afford.

Maybe you can set aside a small amount of money each week or month to slowly build up your BTC holdings. Buying one less drink at a bar or cooking one meal more a week at home can add up to significant savings over time that can be put towards purchasing Bitcoin. Even if it's $5 or $10 at a time, those small investments can add up quickly.

Buying a little bit here and there also allows you to dollar-cost average your Bitcoin purchases, which smooths out price volatility over time. So even if Bitcoin prices go up and down in the short term, you could still end up ahead in the long run if you're buying regularly. It also teaches you patience and discipline—two important qualities for anyone learning how to save and invest.

Buying isn't the only way to get your hands on some bitcoin. If you're a student with some extra time on your hands, you can also earn bitcoin by writing articles or completing small tasks online. There are several freelancing websites like cryptogrind.com and bitgigs.com that pay people in bitcoin.

But there are also other ways to earn. A more recent development in the crypto space—called Play to Earn—offers gamers the opportunity to earn cryptocurrency while playing games. For example, ZEBEDEE and THNDR have transformed the gaming world by allowing players to earn Bitcoin while playing games such as Counter Strike and Mario Kart (on desktop) or Lightning Crush and Snake (on mobile). It's easy to use, pays directly into a Lightning wallet of your choice, and requires no deposit—meaning you can start earning Bitcoin right away.

Whether you’re playing Lightning Crush from ZEBEDEE or Bitcoin Bubble Shooter from THNDR, you can earn Bitcoin while having fun. There’s no shortage of games, and the Play-to-Earn space is just getting started.

Play to Earn is developing at a rapid pace, with more and more games and platforms implementing bitcoin rewards. So if you're a student who loves to game, keep your eye on the Play to Earn space (just don't forget your studies).

Any investment comes with risk, and Bitcoin is no different. But Bitcoin is a unique asset with several characteristics that make it different from other investments, like stocks or real estate.

For one, Bitcoin is decentralized, which means it isn't subject to the whims of governments or central banks. When you invest in Bitcoin, you're investing in an asset that isn't controlled by any one entity. This makes Bitcoin much more resistant to manipulation or seizure than other investments.

Additionally, Bitcoin is scarce—there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in existence. This makes Bitcoin a deflationary asset, which means that it trends toward increased value over time.

Of course, no investment is risk-free, and Bitcoin prices can and do go down as well as up. It's important to never invest more than you're willing to lose (as the saying goes) and to educate yourself as much as possible about Bitcoin before buying any. But if you're comfortable with the risks, Bitcoin can be a great investment for students.

No one has a crystal ball. Bitcoin prices could go up or down tomorrow, or even in the next hour. So it's impossible to say for sure how much money you could make from investing in Bitcoin.

However, Bitcoin has seen incredible price growth over its short 10-year history. From its humble beginnings as a niche asset worth only a few cents, Bitcoin has surged to over $60,000 per coin. And while prices have come down from their all-time highs in recent months, Bitcoin is still up significantly from where it was even a few years ago.

If Bitcoin continues to grow at even a fraction of its past rate, it could be an incredibly profitable investment. Saving Bitcoin and stacking sats throughout your college years could lead to a hefty nest egg by the time you graduate. With the exorbitant cost of tuition, high inflation rates, and mounting student debt, Bitcoin could be a key part of supporting your financial future.

You're young. You're in university. You have busy days in class, and busy nights studying or working to support yourself. You don't have a lot of time or money to invest. So why Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the fastest and most secure financial instrument in history. It's also decentralized, scarce, global, and deflationary. Bitcoin also offers students a way to send money around the world for relatively low fees compared to other methods—without requiring any intermediary financial institutions. This can be especially useful for students who are studying internationally.

Every single dollar you save and every sat you stack shows you the value of saving for your future. By using Bitcoin, you're building a necessary financial tool that can help you thrive in a risky and uncertain economy. Furthermore, by participating in the Bitcoin ecosystem, you're learning a new technology that will likely become a key player in the global economy.

With a great deal of time and effort, your investments could end up paying off big time. And even if not, the knowledge and discipline you gain from buying Bitcoin early in life can easily transfer to other areas of your life, like investing (and hopefully studying) when you get older.

The Bitcoin rabbit hole goes deep. The more you learn, the more you realize how much there is to learn. But thankfully, Bitcoin is built in a way that makes it easy for anyone to get started. All you need is a little time, some patience, and a willingness to learn. So what are you waiting for? Dive in.