School Drop Out, Bitcoin Millionaire Teen Plans Univ. in Dubai

Updated On Jan 3, 2018 by Cameron Bishop

Erik FinmanBack in 2011, when Bitcoin was hardly heard of, Erik Finman, a US based school student was gifted $1000 by his grandmother. Instead of blowing out the money on fashion outfits or electronic gadgets, the young boy, who was merely aged 12 at that time, took the suggestion of his brother Scott and invested in Bitcoin, which was trading at $12. Finman decided to hodl them and resisted the temptation to sell the coin.

Interestingly, Finman never enjoyed going to school. One of his teachers had said that he should drop out of school and join McDonalds to flip burgers. Since Finman remained unmotivated, his parents pulled him out of school and put him in a homeschooling. In 2013, he sold a few Bitcoins and launched an online study center called Botangle. The main aim of Botangle was to cultivate interest in education among students like himself. The education was conducted by video chat using good teachers.

Later, Finman did his intern at Silicon Valley start-ups and moved to San Francisco at the age of 15. Finman now owns 401 Bitoins, which is worth about $5.20 million currently. He is planning to use the experience gained from running Botangle and wealth generated with Bitcoin to establish a new university in Dubai, where his family is already running an online teaching center. Ironically, the school drop out’s dad has a Ph.D in electrical engineering from Stanford, while his mom has a Ph.D in Physics from the same prestigious institution. His brothers went to MIT.

Finman believes that colleges use outdated methods of education and he hope to bring about a refreshing change. As far as the choice of location for the university is concerned, Finman said

“Dubai has really become the centre of the world. It already has the tallest building, it already has the biggest malls – I think it deserves to have the best education system in the world too, and I know that fits a lot of [the UAE’s] goals.”

Finman believes that the value of Bitcoin or any other winning crypto currency will eventually touch million dollars and he is not concerned about the recent increase in volatility.

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Cameron works tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring his many US news stories are factual, informative and brought to you in a timely fashion before most other media outlets have them. He is an investigative journalist at heart who also has a fond interest in the money and business markets too.

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donkeypunchinurmomma
donkeypunchinurmomma
6 years ago

lol the kid made his money by gambling at the age of 12 if bitcoin plummeted he would be flipping burgers…..