Lomond School’s move to accept Bitcoin as a form of tuition payment is quite clearly a canary-colored approach. It’s the type of headline that draws you in, making you want to read more and perhaps even be impressed. Hold on before we start hailing this as some bold new step. It’s time we start to do some hard soul searching. Is this really a great breakthrough, or are we about to really go off the deep end into a field of unintended consequences?
A Real Case Study?
Lomond School to publicize this unique opportunity as a “real-world case study” for their students. They tie Bitcoin to powerful ideas such as independence, innovation, democracy and inclusion. That sounds fantastic on paper. If we’re going to be real, I don’t know that making scholarship students’ tuition payments a real life, waking, breathing economics lesson hits the mark. Are we prepared for this emotional ride of things to come? Poor little Timmy’s education fund might go down the tubes if there’s a sudden devaluation of Bitcoin. Will parents be subjected to some degree of FOMO now too, forced to learn about crypto just to follow along? Moreover, it really just shows a sense of privilege. Not everyone has the time and resources—or frankly, the inclination—to go down the crypto rabbit hole.
As a teacher, I believe in bringing the real world into the classroom. When teaching on the backs of people’s life savings, that’s crossing the line. I distinctly recall one point in my childhood when my parents flushed an inordinate amount of money down the rathole of a tech company. It was supposed to be the next big thing! It was a spectacular crash and burn. The financial anguish it put my family through was intolerable and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. So, let’s not pretend that all this wouldn’t add a lot of anxiety to the process.
Who Really Benefits?
The school points to demand from parents and international agents as reason number one for this growing trend. Okay, fair enough. I can't help but wonder: who are these parents and agents? In each case, are we referring to tech-savvy early adopters who are already submerged in the crypto universe? So, are we talking about people who are just soft-headed enough to fall for vaporware? In the process, they are likely endangering their own financial health.
Lomond's approach of immediately converting Bitcoin to GBP mitigates the school's direct risk. What about the parents? They’re still faced with Bitcoin’s volatility prior to completing the transaction. If they use their money to purchase Bitcoin at a peak price, only to watch it crash right before tuition is due, are they just eating that loss?
Think about the optics. Private Lomond School, meanwhile, is creating a payment system that will make it easier for crypto-savvy people to pay. This can significantly improve their experience compared to users lacking cryptocurrency knowledge. Is this truly inclusive? Or would it just institutionalize a two-tiered system that increases the divide between the crypto-haves and have-nots?
Stacking Sats, Stacking Risks?
The notion of a future Bitcoin treasury, though framed as a distant goal, is even more head-scratching. "Responsible accumulation (stacking sats)" sounds cute, but it's essentially saying the school wants to gamble with a volatile asset. What happens if the value of that treasury drops through the floor? Will it affect the school’s capacity to offer scholarships, keep their buildings up, or pay their professors?
I understand the allure of Bitcoin. The promise of decentralization, the potential for bottom-up financial independence – it’s an intoxicating narrative. Let’s not be naive about the peril we’re facing. By making Bitcoin their preferred currency, Lomond School is not simply accepting it – they are endorsing it. That responsibility is rooted in the obligations to educate and protect every student. We should not have to endanger them and their families’ lives—test them in a crypto experiment.
Now take the case of El Salvador, the nation that made Bitcoin legal tender. Supporters rejoice at their promise to increase financial inclusion. The project is much more challenging, grappling with issues of high price volatility, slow adoption rate and illicit use. The debacle has led to their country’s economic collapse, definitely not something any school would want to follow in the footsteps of.
Maybe the leadership at Lomond School should start providing financial literacy training for parents and their children. Perhaps they ought to create some kind of price stability reserve fund to guard against Bitcoin’s price volatility. Lastly, they should avoid creating confusion by restricting alternative payment options. This ensures that those not quite ready for cryptocurrency can still make their purchases in a user-friendly manner.
Lomond School’s decision paves the way for what we hope is an exciting new step into the future. It’s a big challenge to us, to find that sweet spot between innovative freedom and community benefit. Let’s all just get in the habit of making sure we aren’t so dazzled by the reward that we fail to recognize the equally real risks. After all, what’s at stake is a child’s education—the one thing that shouldn’t be a bet in the first place.
