The Wellcovered Curriculum

Four audiences. Three levels. One true story.

Foundations answers why. Fluency answers how. Sovereignty answers what can I build. The 21-day course is the Foundations-and-Fluency path for individuals; workshops draw on the same library for businesses, organizations and governments.

Tracks

Who it's for

Track A

Individuals & Youth

Own Your Keys

  1. Foundations — why: First wallet with test sats; explains Bitcoin to a friend in 2 minutes.
  2. Fluency — how: Self-custody with a tested backup; sends Lightning; survives the scam quiz.
  3. Sovereignty — build: Runs a node or completes the BIP'ing ladder; earns first sats; onboards two people.
Track B

Small Businesses

Accept the Future

  1. Foundations — why: Understands why customers want to pay in bitcoin and what volatility means.
  2. Fluency — how: Accepts a live Lightning payment; chooses hold vs convert; knows tax basics.
  3. Sovereignty — build: Runs BTCPay; becomes an anchor merchant in the local loop.
Track C

Governments

Public Money, Public Good

  1. Foundations — why: Staffer describes Bitcoin accurately; names three peer-government precedents.
  2. Fluency — how: Evaluates a real proposal — fee acceptance, reserve, mining pilot — eyes open.
  3. Sovereignty — build: Drafts a pilot: accept bitcoin for a fee category, or publish a custody policy.
Track D

Organizations

Mission Meets Money

  1. Foundations — why: Board-level literacy: what it is, why donors and members are asking.
  2. Fluency — how: Accepts bitcoin donations/payments under a written custody & conversion policy.
  3. Sovereignty — build: Holds a governed treasury allocation, or runs sats-denominated programs.
The knowledge library

Eight domains — every part of Bitcoin

D1

Origins — Why Bitcoin Exists

Why does this exist?
1.1 What Is Money?
“Money is a technology — and it can be upgraded.”
Three functions of money; ledgers before coins; hardness; gold vs paper.
1.2 The Fiat System
“Inflation isn't weather. It's policy.”
Central banks; money creation; Cantillon effect; 1971 and the end of gold convertibility.
1.3 2008 & the Genesis Block
“The first block contains a newspaper headline about bank bailouts. On purpose.”
Bailouts; Jan 3 2009; 'Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'; printed vs mined.
1.4 The Cypherpunks & the Whitepaper
“Nine pages solved a problem computer science chased for 30 years.”
DigiCash → Hashcash → b-money → Bit Gold → Satoshi, Oct 31 2008; double-spend without a referee.
1.5 Sovereignty & the Philosophy of Flow
“'Receive the currency, distribute it to the community' was written in Oakland.”
Self-sovereignty; BPP Ten-Point Program Pt 3; Dao De Jing on flow; money as energy.
D2

The Protocol — How Bitcoin Works

How does it work?
2.1 The Ledger & Double-Spend
“A ledger everyone holds is a ledger no one can forge.”
Blocks, hashes, immutability; the problem digital cash couldn't solve before.
2.2 Proof of Work & Mining
“Mining is a lottery you win with electricity — and that's the security.”
SHA-256; difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks; rewards + fees; honest energy debate.
2.3 Nodes & Consensus
“A $200 computer can audit the entire money supply. Yours.”
Don't trust, verify; full nodes vs miners; decentralization as the security model.
2.4 Keys, Addresses & Ownership
“Owning bitcoin means knowing a secret.”
Public/private keys; addresses as one-time invoices; not your keys, not your coins.
2.5 Transactions, UTXOs & Fees
“Bitcoin doesn't have balances. It has digital cash and change.”
UTXO model; the mempool; sat/vB; confirmations.
2.6 Monetary Policy in Code
“You know exactly how many bitcoin exist in 2140. Nobody knows how many dollars exist next year.”
21M cap; halvings every 210,000 blocks; 2024 → 3.125 BTC; over 95% already mined.
2.7 Upgrades & BIPs
“Bitcoin has no CEO — it upgrades by argument.”
BIP process; rough consensus; SegWit 2017; Taproot 2021; anyone can submit → feeds BIP'ing ladder.
D3

Custody & Security

How do I hold it safely?
3.1 Wallet Types & Tradeoffs
“An exchange balance is an IOU. A wallet is the thing itself.”
Custodial vs non-custodial; hot vs cold; Mt. Gox and FTX as case studies.
3.2 Seed Phrases & Backup
“Twelve words can carry your savings across a border in your head.”
BIP-39; metal backup; passphrases; never photograph a seed; test your restore.
3.3 Threat Models & OpSec
“Most bitcoin isn't hacked. It's handed over.”
Phishing; SIM swaps; fake support; the $5 wrench; privacy basics.
3.4 Multisig & Inheritance
“Two keys out of three — no single point of failure, not even you.”
Multisignature; collaborative custody; inheritance docs; spending vs savings separation.
D4

Payments & Lightning

How do I spend and accept it?
4.1 Why Layers Exist
“Gold had notes. Dollars have cards. Bitcoin has Lightning.”
Base-layer tradeoffs; settlement vs payments; layered money.
4.2 Lightning 101
“The payment settles before the card machine would finish dialing.”
Channels; routing; invoices & Lightning addresses; near-zero fees.
4.3 Merchant Tools
“A coffee shop can accept bitcoin tonight with zero volatility risk.”
BTCPay Server; hosted processors; instant-convert vs hold; US tax basics.
4.4 Remittances & Global Payments
“Legacy remittance rails average ~6% in fees. Lightning charges fractions of a cent.”
Cross-border corridors; families as the original use case; honest stablecoin comparison.
4.5 Emerging Layers, Honest Tradeoffs
“Every convenience is a trust tradeoff. Name it before you use it.”
E-cash (Cashu/Fedimint) custody caveats; sidechains; who holds the keys?
D5

Bitcoin as an Asset

How do I value and hold it?
5.1 Scarcity & Valuation Frameworks
“A price target is a scenario, not a promise.”
TAM × capture-rate modeling; bear/base/bull; critique every model — including ours.
5.2 ETFs & Institutions
“An ETF is bitcoin exposure. It is not bitcoin.”
Spot ETFs; supply absorption; paper vs keys; convenience vs sovereignty.
5.3 Corporate & Sovereign Treasuries
“Balance sheets are voting.”
Corporate strategies; miner treasuries; nation-state holdings.
5.4 The Sovereignty Index
“Price tells you what it costs. These 13 metrics tell you what it IS.”
Nodes; mining concentration; self-custody ratios; ETF absorption; circular-economy count.
5.5 Risk, Volatility & Sizing
“The asset has survived multiple 70%+ drawdowns. Will you?”
Time horizon; DCA; never rent money; taxes on disposal.
D6

Circular Economies

Who lives on it today?
6.1 What Makes an Economy Circular
“Watch where a dollar goes after you spend it. Does it ever come back?”
Earn–spend–save loop; local multiplier; extraction vs circulation.
6.2 Case Studies: The Global South
“These aren't pilots. People get paid, buy groceries, and save — in bitcoin.”
El Zonte, Ekasi, Jungle, Lake, Praia; Cuba & Peru under inflation.
6.3 Case Studies: Cities & Islands
“What changes when city hall joins the loop.”
Lugano Plan ₿; F.R.E.E. Madeira; Bitcoin Island Boracay.
6.4 Building One Locally
“Every circular economy started with ONE merchant and ONE paid program.”
Anchor merchant strategy; onboarding sequence; sats-paid community work; the Oakland application.
D7

Policy & Government

Why should city hall care?
7.1 The Regulatory Landscape
“Property for taxes, money for people — know the difference.”
Tax treatment; KYC/AML; money transmission; self-custody rights language in federal bills.
7.2 Why Cities Should Care
“About 1 in 24 US households has no bank account (FDIC, 2023). The network doesn't ask for one.”
Payment savings; inclusion; treasury debate — both sides; talent attraction.
7.3 The City Ladder
“Every rung has already been climbed by a real city.”
Educate → Accept → Hold → Build; Lugano, Colorado, Detroit, Fort Worth precedents.
7.4 The State Playbook
“Three states have reserve-related laws. One has a bitcoin-backed bond.”
NH HB 302; AZ HB 2749 (unclaimed-crypto reserve fund; broader reserve bill vetoed); TX SB 21; NH's $100M muni bond; bills tracked live at bitcoinlaws.io.
7.5 Federal & Global Context
“A US executive order created a bitcoin reserve. Congress hasn't finished the job.”
Mar 2025 EO; BITCOIN Act; ARMA 2026; El Salvador's rise and 2025 IMF retreat; CBDCs as the opposite.
D8

Building, Careers & Skills

How do I get paid?
8.1 Open Source: How Bitcoin Is Built
“Your first contribution can be fixing a typo. It still counts.”
GitHub basics; review culture; grants: OpenSats, Spiral, Brink, Btrust.
8.2 Developer Pathways
“A solo builder in Oakland is shipping a Bitcoin-native marketplace right now.”
App layer vs protocol layer; building in public; ICESPO as the live local example.
8.3 Non-Code Careers
“The ecosystem needs designers, teachers, and organizers more than it needs another trader.”
Design, video, education, community, events, policy.
8.4 Earning Sats Pathways
“Your first sats should come from work, not luck.”
Freelance in bitcoin; value-for-value; Ekasi pays surf coaches in BTC; bounties.
8.5 From Bipping to BIP'ing
“Same energy. New payout.”
The Oakland ladder — see From Bipping to BIP'ing on this page.
Proof, not promises

Circular economies living on Bitcoin today

El Zonte, El Salvador

Bitcoin Beach

Began 2019 with an anonymous donation on one condition: circulate it locally. Earn-and-spend loops inspired the 2021 national law; El Zonte now hosts the annual Bitcoin Circular Economies Summit.

Teaching point: A circular economy starts with paying people in bitcoin for real work — not speculation.

Mossel Bay, South Africa

Bitcoin Ekasi

Founded 2021 alongside The Surfer Kids: coaches' salaries paid in bitcoin while township shops were onboarded to accept it.

Teaching point: Anchor the economy to an existing trusted community program.

Uvita, Costa Rica

Bitcoin Jungle

Open-source community wallet and merchant network across the Costa Ballena — farmers' markets and small businesses transact daily.

Teaching point: Open-source tooling lets a small team serve a whole region.

Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

Bitcoin Lake

Merchant adoption in Panajachel paired with experimental mining powered by used cooking oil — tying the economy to cleaning the lake.

Teaching point: Mining can be a community energy story.

Jericoacoara, Brazil

Praia Bitcoin

A fishing village turned 'living Bitcoin classroom': families and street vendors onboarded, self-custody taught in small groups, social programs paid in sats — despite local government rejection.

Teaching point: Grassroots adoption can outrun unsupportive officials.

Lugano, Switzerland

Plan ₿

City partnership (2022) making bitcoin de-facto legal tender for the city: taxes and fees payable in BTC, a merchant network, an annual forum, and university programs.

Teaching point: The institutional mirror image — what happens when city hall leads.

Madeira, Portugal

F.R.E.E. Madeira

Island association driving merchant adoption and education with regional government goodwill.

Teaching point: Education-first adoption at island scale.

Boracay, Philippines

Bitcoin Island

Tourism-driven adoption with hundreds of merchants accepting Lightning via local wallet infrastructure.

Teaching point: Tourism corridors are natural first circular economies.

Cuba · rural Peru

Adoption Under Inflation

Where currency collapse or unbanked exclusion is daily life, bitcoin serves as savings and payment of last resort. Educators there say volatility is the hardest honest objection — so teach it.

Teaching point: Adoption follows need. Teach the objection honestly.

Oakland, California

The Oakland Loop (in progress)

Anchor merchant live (Queen Hippie Gypsy), education engine running (Bitcoin Wellcovered), and a deeper lineage of community economics than any case on this wall — the Ten-Point Program was written here.

Teaching point: Every case above started with one merchant, one paid program, one teacher.

Public money, public good

The city ladder

1 · Educate

Staff briefings, library workshops, a neutral public explainer.

Every successful adopter started here.

2 · Accept

Take bitcoin for one fee category via a converting processor — zero volatility exposure.

Lugano · Colorado (state taxes, 2022) · Detroit

3 · Hold

Retain a small published percentage instead of converting 100%, or a reserve fund.

NH · AZ · TX reserve laws

4 · Build

Mining pilots on city energy assets; Lightning at city venues; grants; host events.

Fort Worth mining pilot (2022) · Lugano Forum · Miami

Policy facts last verified October 2026. Live trackers: bitcoinlaws.io · bitcoinreservemonitor.com

Oakland · youth & adult skill ladder

From Bipping to BIP'ing

In the Bay, bipping means breaking into cars. In Bitcoin, BIP'ing means breaking into the future — a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal anyone can write, no credentials required.

  1. 01
    First Keys
    Open a wallet, secure a backup, receive first sats. (Modules 1.1–1.3, 3.1–3.2)
    earn: Starter sats + First Keys card
  2. 02
    Plugged In
    Read the chain, send Lightning, explain mining to a peer. (2.1–2.6, 4.2)
    earn: Sats bounty per module + Plugged In card
  3. 03
    Merchant Ambassador
    Help onboard a real local merchant to Lightning acceptance. (4.3, 6.4)
    earn: Paid onboarding stipend in sats + Ambassador card
  4. 04
    Builder
    First open-source contribution, or education content that ships. (8.1–8.4)
    earn: Bounty + Builder card + portfolio piece
  5. 05
    BIP'ing
    Capstone: write an Oakland Improvement Proposal (OIP) — a real proposal in BIP format (Abstract · Motivation · Specification · Rationale · Activation) for the neighborhood economy — and present it publicly.
    earn: Event presentation slot + Legendary card + letter of completion
Start the 21-day courseBring this to your city