Games, Bitcoin, and Coding Equals Jobs

Teaching kids to code has become quite the phenomenon in society. The iGeneration has a lot of tech trends to fill, and to the next generations, this means jobs. Coding teaches arithmetic, critical decision making, and learning to troubleshoot errors through its educational puzzles. Innovators are seeing financial tech and cryptocurrency jobs blazing through cyberspace — and they want the youth to grasp this economy. A company called codeSpark wants more children to learn the basics of computer programming skills at the preschool level, along with a ton of other businesses and nonprofits aimed at the tech-generation.

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“Regardless of their future paths, this analytical thinking is a critical life skill,” — Camille McCue, Ph.D., author of Coding For Kids For Dummies.

In the Bitcoin world, young coders are very successful and have been accepted throughout the tech community with fervent enthusiasm. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, came onto the crypto-scene at age nineteen and was was coding for quite some time years prior. Louison Dumont, the seventeen year old coder behind BitProof, started mining Bitcoin at thirteen. Then, you have the fifteen year old whiz-kid, Whit Jackson of Etherparty, who wants to make Bitcoin and Ethereum mainstream-friendly. Within the cryptocurrency and financial tech environment, there are plenty of jobs for young coding entrepreneurs. People know that the digital age has a self-sustaining economy the youth can understand and grasp fluidly.

Startups and companies realize this powerful economy is huge and are getting behind the “Kid Coding” initiative in vast numbers. The service codeSpark is a game-like software that uses The Foos, which are the basic “ABCs” of coding. The application — with a target audience of age 5 — has been downloaded over 700,000 times across 150 countries. The Foos is the idea that coding is as fundamental as reading; this gives kids the skills to keep up with the evolving digital society we live in today. The digital atmosphere has created a language the youth can adapt to easier by not being clouded with obligations. Children seem to love these apps, as they are growing in popularity among the kids and their parents. These applications give children a sense of empowerment when learning the basics of cause and effect through computers.

Applications can be found all over Apple’s App Store and Google Play involving programming games. A few of these coding apps are aimed at the young crowd with Daisy The Dinosaur, a game for preschoolers that initiates the use of programming with simple drag and drop commands. MIT’s Scratch program is a free offering of the tools associated with programming in any web browser. Scratch Jr. is another fun app for kids that allows them to create unique stories and individual characters within its interface. The software offers a series of programming blocks that controls each unique character. Children and teenagers are casually buying games, custom icons, and more with Bitcoin via Microsoft Live platforms. MineCraft is also a popular building game that lets children build and interact with multitudes of custom worlds and objects. Many believe that MineCraft is a programmable-like game, giving users intuitive technical skills in building and problem solving. One MineCraft server, BitQuest, which uses the “survival” mode of the game, lets players buy, sell, and trade bitcoin micropayments built into the game. The server has a fully functional wallet and all ages can use it while playing on the PC version of this software.

Parents from all around the world have seen the great importance of prepping their kids for the digital age. The environment for jobs in FinTech and distributed ledgers will always be a bottomless pit for coders and backend developers. There are so many positions to fill that the industry can’t find enough raw and young talent. This spells job opportunities in the eyes of parents raising children of the iGgeneration.

Programming is not only a lucrative career, but is also a creative activity that can be enjoyed at a very young age. Even though code can be a hard discipline, kids can engage with it by creating games, music, and computerized art. Nonprofits like Code.org are aimed at teaching millions of children — especially girls — how to code at an early age. The website states: “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.” Code.org believes that coding should be added to public school curriculum just like algebra and biology. And a lot of parents and businesses agree with this coalition of learning. The co-founder of codeSpark, Grant Hosford, told gamesandlearning.org that programming is just another tool for parents to use, stating:

“To me, good digital tools in games and educational content is just another tool in a parent and teacher’s toolbox and you’re giving kids more tools in their problem solving toolbox when they approach something.” — Grant Hosford, co-founder of codeSpark

The new rise of children learning to code is becoming increasingly popular each day with new software and applications for children of all ages. Parents these days see it as a way for children to advance in this technological time. By learning problem solving, debugging sections of their favorite custom games, children will shape the next tech world. The future is bright, as learning to program becomes a curriculum the young and old can enjoy. With great ideas like Bitcoin, the internet and technology the economies they bring are flourishing and will continue rapidly.

What do you think of the programming economy’s future? Let us know in the comments below!

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