A school based in Indonesia is using Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and the blockchain to teach a group of 10-year-old children about environmental sustainability.

A school that teaches Bitcoin and environmental-savvy? Absolutely, but Green School is no ordinary school. Set near the Ayung River in Bali, Indonesia, the campus is covered in fascinating bamboo architecture, and features a giant mushroom-domed building, which further reflects the curriculum's emphasis on nature and sustainability.

More than 400 international pre-kindergarten to high school students currently attend Green School. Students are taught to grow organic plants and many of the activities are hands-on. The goal is to develop “a new paradigm for learning,” which is how the founders John and Cynthia Hardy describe their one-of-a-kind approach to education on the website.

In one unit at Green School, they are teaching the economics and personal responsibility required of a green lifestyle and land ownership. The unit “Land Management” focuses on pressing issues like politics, immigration, and clean energy.

“The concept was to try to replicate some of the dilemmas that people who own land face, and how being environmentally friendly may mean that you need to sacrifice your freedom to do whatever you want,” said Noan Fesnoux, Green Studies teacher at Green School, in an email to Cointelegraph. “Naturally, we needed a medium to act as our currency.”

The students make transactions with other students and are always thrilled to discover random donations in their accounts. Fesnoux added:

“It brings pride to think that I was able to set up 10 year old students with their first bank accounts.”

The students are using a Bitcoin wallet offered by Block.io, which Cointelegraph has covered a couple times before. The multi-signature wallet recently rolled out instant confirmations powered by green addresses. They settled on the platform in part because the instant transactions suit the short classes.

With Bitcoin transactions added to the mix, Fesnoux described the progress of the Land Management unit, which is a part of an integrated studies course:

“So far, the kids have faced rising sea levels, discovery of new species, dictatorships, carbon taxes, anarchy, and the threat of war. They have kept up with their complex budgets via spreadsheets and offline budgeting tools. They are also making websites to promote their tourism industries.”

Dogecoin has been useful for the course too. “Dogecoin made the most sense because they have good denominations for kids to trade in,” Fesnoux said. Indeed, the fractional denominations of Bitcoin are a little tricky. Many adults aren't too fond of them either. With the unit’s activities about to be wrapped up soon, Fesnoux called it a “huge hit.”

Block.io Founder Atif Nazir offered another takeaway from the experiment. Bitcoin and accompanying wallets are getting easier to learn. “When we started off on Block.io's journey, we never thought our platform would be simple enough for 10 year olds to learn from and use,” he said.

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