Bitskwela’s Jiro Reyes on CoinGeek Backstage: Bitcoin is more than just money

Bitcoin is popularly known as a digital currency that could, at some point, be likened to stocks, with some even seeing it as a “get rich quick” scheme, a far cry from what it was originally intended when Satoshi Nakamoto created it decades ago.

Bitskwela CEO Jiro Reyes admitted that what got him into Bitcoin in the first place was the money that he could potentially generate from selling, trading, and investing in digital currencies. But things changed when he started learning more about the space.

“Bitcoin and everything else is not just about trading, not about investing, but everything underneath it solves different problems in our society today on a fundamental level,” Reyes told CoinGeek Backstage.

Reyes’ eagerness to share his learnings with others, particularly the youth, led to the development of the edutech platform Bitskwela, an idea that started as a “passion project” when he was an undergraduate student.

Bitskwela has been operating in the Philippines for about seven months since it was launched in May 2022, giving youths nationwide an opportunity to learn the basics of Bitcoin and the technicalities surrounding it and other emerging technologies.

“We also offer different other angles in the Web3 market, like marketing, social media, branding, design—things that people need to succeed in the space as a professional,” Reyes said.

Bitskwela is also the platform behind the Bull or Bear program, a debate event that pushes youths to take on a different perspective on topics revolving around emerging technologies.

“You wanna give people that sliced opinion on things to give them that space to create their own thoughts and knowledge on topics,” Reyes pointed out.

The Bull or Bear event held in the province of La Union last March 17 was the third Web3 debate program of Bitskwela, with the first one held in Taguig City followed by the one in Davao City.

Reyes said his team is pushing to help onboard more youths as they can to support them in their Bitcoin journey, announcing another Bull or Bear debate set to be organized in the province of Cebu sometime in June. He added that while their focus for now is educating the Filipino youth, they are working toward expanding their program internationally.

Watch: Blockchain technology is more fun in the Philippines!