Lesson 1
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is money that no bank or government controls. It runs on an open network anyone can use.
There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. That cap is written into the code, and it cannot be raised.
Oakland, CA · The hoods of America
The mission is to educate all the
hoods of America on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin For The Hood™ is an organization founded by Oakland native Kevin Lane.
What we do
Practical Bitcoin education — and music that carries the lesson.
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Bitcoin basics
What Bitcoin is, how it works, and why it matters — taught in plain language.
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Financial literacy
Tools and knowledge for building a financial future, starting where we live.
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Self-custody
How to hold your own keys, so your Bitcoin stays yours.
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Music that teaches
Through BFTH Records, our label arm, we make hip hop, R&B, country, and pop with Bitcoin themes — so the music itself teaches financial literacy. The artists are AI personas, including Satosha out of West Oakland.
Learn Bitcoin
Three plain-language lessons — what Bitcoin is, why people save in it, and how to hold it yourself.
Lesson 2
Save in Bitcoin
Because the supply is fixed, no one can print more bitcoin the way new dollars can be created. That is why some people save in it — a fixed supply cannot be inflated away by issuing more.
You do not have to start big. You can stack sats, a little at a time.
Lesson 3
Own your keys
If you hold your own keys, you hold your own bitcoin. The saying is “not your keys, not your coins.”
Bitcoin lets you send value peer to peer, with no bank in the middle. For small, fast payments, the Lightning Network can settle in seconds.
Bitcoin 101
Short, plain-language answers — what bitcoin is, how it works, why people use it, and how to start.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is digital money. There are no paper bills or metal coins. You can send it, hold it, or spend it with no bank in the middle.
No government or company runs the network. It is open for anyone to use.
How does it work?
Every time bitcoin moves, that transfer is written to a public record called the blockchain. Computers around the world check the record and add new batches of transfers, in order, to the chain.
Because so many machines share the same history, no one person can quietly change it.
Why does Bitcoin have value?
Only 21 million bitcoin will ever exist. That cap is written into the code, so no one can print more. A fixed supply is one reason people save in it.
People also use it to send value peer to peer, anytime, to anyone with a bitcoin address. Like anything you can buy and sell, the price can go up or down.
Do I have to buy a whole bitcoin?
No. You can buy a small piece. Bitcoin splits into smaller units called sats, or satoshis. Starting with a few dollars still counts.
How do I buy Bitcoin?
You can buy bitcoin in an app such as Cash App, often with as little as a few dollars. You may need to verify who you are the first time.
See Buy your first Bitcoin for a way to get started. This is education, not financial advice.
How do I send Bitcoin?
You send it to a bitcoin address — a string of characters that works like an account number — or by scanning a QR code. The network then checks the transfer.
On the main bitcoin chain, that can take a few minutes, or longer when the network is busy. For small, fast payments, the Lightning Network can settle in seconds.
How do I keep it safe?
If you hold your own keys, you hold your own bitcoin. The saying is “not your keys, not your coins.” After you buy on an app, you can withdraw to a wallet you control. Never share your seed phrase or private keys with anyone.
If you leave your bitcoin on an app, that app is holding the keys for you. Read the Own your keys lesson for more.
Can the price go down?
Yes. Bitcoin’s price can move a lot, and fast. You can lose some or all of what you put in. Only use money you can afford to lose, and do your own research.
This is education, not financial advice.
Where it all started
Read the Bitcoin white paper
Published October 31, 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nine pages.
Satoshi Nakamoto's idea was that you should be able to send money person to person, with no bank in the middle. The network timestamps those payments in a chain of proof-of-work, so nobody can spend the same coin twice or quietly rewrite the history. No one needs permission to use it.
- Person to person. Payments go from one party to another without a financial institution in the middle.
- A chain of proof-of-work. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into a chain. Changing that record means redoing the work.
- No double-spending. That chain is how the network stops the same money from being spent twice.
- Open to anyone. The network needs little central structure. Nodes can leave and rejoin, and nobody has to give you permission to take part.
Satoshi Nakamoto, 2008. Original source: bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.
Buy your first Bitcoin
You can buy Bitcoin in Cash App with as little as a few dollars. You don’t have to buy a whole bitcoin — small amounts count.
Get $10 when you send $5+ with Cash App. Create your account with my code: GZNL7PN. Terms apply.
Code GZNL7PN
This is a referral link; we may get a bonus too. Not financial advice.
After you buy, you can withdraw to your own wallet. That’s the Own your keys lesson: if you hold your own keys, you hold your own bitcoin.
Listen
Stream the music on the BFTH Records site and tip in Lightning sats. The catalog also lives on Audius, and as value-for-value music on Wavlake and Nostr.
Listen at BFTH Records →
Or stream on Audius @bfthrecords
Support the mission
Every sat donated goes back to the hood, in sats.
The whole mission of the donations is to give back to the hood in sats.
