Teen Bitcoin Investor Designs 'Marvel,' a Virtual Reality Headset

A teenage entrepreneur named Erik Finman founded a social media company called Botangle after turning $1,000 USD worth of bitcoin into $100,000 at the age of 13. Now, at 17 years old, he is creating a virtual reality headset called the Marvel.

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Teenager Makes $100,000 From Bitcoin and Creates Virtual Reality Headset

When Finman was only 13 years old, he turned $1,000 worth of Bitcoin into $100,000 and started his own business. Finman was homeschooled early on, but attended public school when his parents didn’t have time for his lessons. Later in life, he dropped out of high school because of bullying and poor treatment from teachers. Since then, Finman has been featured in many publications such as Time Magazine, Wired, NYmag, BBC and countless more. Finman says dropping out was one of the best decisions he ever made.

Erik Finman believes in the unschooling environment, explaining his schooling experience to an audience at last year’s Wired NexGen Hub event. The young entrepreneur told the crowd, “I will never send my kids to school.” Finman bought bitcoin when it was roughly $10-12 per BTC, and sold his holdings for a cool hundred grand two years later. With his new earnings, Finman started Botangle, a community driven social media app that educates people on subjects they want to learn about.

Now, Finman is designing a virtual reality headset much like Oculus Rift, but works with Android smartphones and applications instead of PC platforms. The purpose of Marvel is to provide a 360-degree view of your smartphone’s operating system and tethered platforms. Marvel will operate with any Android phone as using Lollipop OS or later.

Users attach the phone directly into the headset itself, and the person will experience all of their applications in a semi-circle landscape. Using motions with your head toggles which particular app you choose, and you can run multiple programs at the same time.

Currently, Finman is running an IndieGoGo campaign with the goal of raising $500,000. His team already has a company that will manufacture the device as soon everything is tested and ready. The headset will sell for $250, and Finman hopes the machine will be ready for launch in December 2016. The Marvel headset aims to replace the desktop and laptop computer experience, creating an environment that relies on the headset’s emulated operating system. Wireless keyboards and mice can be tethered to the OS by Bluetooth technology built into the Marvel device.

Finman is doing what most kids at seventeen only dream about — and investing in Bitcoin early must have helped. With fresh new capital and the foundations of an unschooling philosophy, the teenager has made his visions become a reality. And now he wants to take his dreams further by creating a virtual reality headset that brings the computing experience to whole new level.

What do you think about the young Bitcoin investor’s dreams coming true without traditional schooling? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Erik Finman’s IndieGoGo campaign, Harmonic Blog.