Gen Z (these born between 1997 and 2012) will not be dashing to stack sats, and Oliver Porter, Founder & CEO of Jippi, understands the problem higher than most. His technique revolves round adapting Bitcoin training to suit seamlessly into the digital lives of younger adults.
“We have to meet them the place they’re,” Oliver explains. “90% of Gen Z performs video games. 70% count on to earn rewards.”
So, what’s going to successfully introduce them to Bitcoin? In Oliver’s thoughts, the reply is easy: video games that don’t really feel preachy however nonetheless plant the orange pill.
That’s precisely what Jippi is. Primarily based in Austin, Texas, the staff has created a cellular augmented actuality (AR) sport that rewards gamers in bitcoin and sneakily teaches them why sound cash issues.
“It’s Pokémon GO… however for sats,” Oliver places it succinctly.
Oliver’s Bitcoin journey, like many within the area, started lengthy earlier than he was prepared. A former colleague had tried planting the seed years earlier, handing him a duplicate of The Bitcoin Normal. However the second handed.
It wasn’t till the chaos of 2020 when lockdowns hit, printing presses roared, and civil liberties shrank that the message lastly landed for him.
“The federal government obtained so good at doing reverse Robin Hood,” Oliver explains. “They steal from the working inhabitants and reward the wealthy.”
By 2020, although, the absurdity of the covid hysteria had induced his eyes to be opened and the orange mild appeared the very best path again to freedom.
He left the UK for Austin “among the best locations for Bitcoiners,” he says, and dove headfirst into the trade, working at Swan for a yr earlier than founding Jippi on PlebLab’s accelerator program.
Jippi’s flagship game lets gamers roam their cities searching digital creatures, Bitcoin Beasts, tied to real-world places. Catching them requires answering Bitcoin trivia, and the reward is sats.
No jargon. No hour-long lectures. Simply gameplay with sound cash ideas woven proper in.
The mannequin is working. At a current hackathon in Austin, Jippi beat out 14 different groups to win first place and $15,000 in prize cash.
“We’re backdooring Bitcoin training,” Oliver admits. “And whereas we’re at it, encouraging folks to get exterior and contact grass.”
Not everybody’s been thrilled. When Jippi staff members visited one of many extra liberal-leaning locations in Texas, UT Austin, to check curiosity in Bitcoin, they discovered some critically dedicated no-coiners on the campus.
“One younger girl instructed me, ‘I might slightly die than speak about Bitcoin,’” Oliver remembers, highlighting the cultural resistance that’s constructed up amongst youthful demographics.
This resistance is backed by laborious knowledge. In keeping with Oliver, a few of the Bitcoin podcasters they met with within the area to do market analysis reported that lower than 1% of their listeners are from Gen Z and that quantity is dropping.
“Until we discover a strategy to seize their curiosity in a significant means, there’s going to be a giant drawback round attempting to sway Gen Z away from the siren name of s***cash and crypto casinos and in the direction of Bitcoin,” Oliver warns.
Jippi’s subsequent large transfer is Las Vegas, the place they’ll launch the Beast Catch expertise on the Venetian throughout a significant Bitcoin occasion. To mark the event, they’re opening up six restricted sponsorship spots for Bitcoin corporations, each tied to a customized in-game beast.
“It’s actual property inside the sport,” Oliver explains. “Manufacturers develop into allies, not intrusions. You get a emblem, firm title, and name to motion, so we are able to push folks to your web site or app.”
Bitcoin Well—an computerized self-custody Bitcoin platform—has claimed Beast #1. Solely 5 unique spots stay for Bitcoin corporations to “beastify their model” by means of Jippi’s immersive AR sport.
“I really like the Jippi mission. I feel gamified studying is how we’ll onboard the subsequent technology and it’s thrilling to see what the Jippi staff is doing! I really like working with bitcoiners in the direction of our frequent mission – bullish!” mentioned Adam O’Brien, Bitcoin Effectively CEO.
Jippi’s sponsorship mannequin is easy: align incentives, respect customers, and help builders. As a substitute of throwing advert cash at tech giants, Bitcoin corporations can join with new customers naturally whereas they’re having enjoyable and incomes sats within the course of.
For Bitcoin corporations trying to attain a youthful demographic, this represents a novel alternative to showcase their model to as much as 30,000 potential prospects on the Vegas occasion.
Whereas Jippi’s present focus is easy, get the sport into extra cities, Oliver sees a future the place AR glasses and AI assist personalize Bitcoin training even additional.
“The magic goes to actually occur when Apple releases the glasses type issue,” he says, describing how augmented actuality may improve real-world connections slightly than isolate customers.
In the long term, Jippi goals to evolve from a free-to-play mannequin towards a pay-to-play model with greater stakes. Customers would type “tribes” with associates to compete for substantial bitcoin prizes, creating social connections together with monetary training.
In contrast to VC-backed startups, Jippi is elevating funds pleb model through Timestamp, an open funding platform for Bitcoin corporations.
“You don’t must be an accredited investor,” Oliver explains. “You’re instantly supporting the parallel Bitcoin financial system by investing in Bitcoin corporations for fairness.”
Anybody can make investments as little as $100. Perks embrace early entry, unique sport content material, and even creating your personal beast design together with your title/pseudonym and distinctive sport lore. Every funding comes with direct possession of an early-stage Bitcoin firm like Jippi.
For Oliver, that is greater than only a enterprise. It’s about future-proofing Bitcoin adoption and making certain Satoshi’s imaginative and prescient lives on, particularly as many individuals are lured by altcoins, NFTs, and social media dopamine.
“We’re on the appropriate facet of historical past,” he says firmly. “I would like my grandkids to know that early on within the Bitcoin revolution, video games like Jippi helped make it stick.”
In a world more and more absorbed by screens and brief consideration spans, Jippi’s mixture of out of doors play, sats rewards, and Bitcoin training is likely to be precisely the bridge Gen Z wants.
Curious about sponsoring a Beast or investing in Jippi? Attain out to Jippi instantly by heading to their partnerships page on their web site or go to their Timestamp page to put money into Jippi immediately.
