• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Meet author Andrew Courey: Wellesley’s Bitcoin Boy

February 24, 2018 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

Andrew Courey, Wellesley
First-time author Andrew Courey can teach you a thing or two about Bitcoin

 

Wellesley 6th grader Andrew Courey has a slew of interests, including basketball, soccer and lacrosse. But he’s also fascinated by technology and money, and over the year-end holiday break he devoted almost 6 hours a day to finishing his first book, a primer on the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin.

“Early Bird Gets the Bitcoin”, now available on Amazon as a Kindle book and paperback, describes itself as the ultimate guide to everything about this highly advanced digital currency.

As Courey says — and I’ll vouch for him here — there’s a need for good basic explainers on Bitcoin and the underlying digital ledger dubbed Blockchain. As a longtime tech industry reporter and editor, I can recall a few years back having a tough time getting a handle on Bitcoin and Blockchain, and finding solid resources few and far between.

Courey realized he was pretty good at explaining these concepts as he did so with his dad, Jeff, whenever they would be driving around — something that comes with the territory when you play travel basketball as Andrew does.

“When I was trying to learn about Bitcoin, there simply was no easy-to-understand information on Bitcoin,” the Wellesley Middle School student says.

So upon reading “The Everything Store” about Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (hey, what 11-year-old isn’t reading that book?), Courey got introduced to self-publishing and realized it might be possible for him to pen a book about Bitcoin. His idea was to write not just for kids his age, but also “for people like my parents and grandparents who knew nothing about Bitcoin until they read the book.”

Courey, who started the research on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at the end of last summer, acknowledges that this subject is complicated. “I hope the book can help people understand the basics pretty quickly because cryptocurrencies will be part of our future,” he says.

Courey learned about Bitcoin initially via a YouTube video, then plowed through many more videos and articles to master the topic. Courey hopes his 57-page book will help people grasp the concepts in a more efficient way than he did.

Bitcoin everywhere

Sports and video games tend to dominate conversations among his friends, but Courey says Bitcoin has started to seep in.

“Now that the book has come out on Amazon, I talk about it with people a lot more and they are asking questions,” says Courey, whose own reading list has included bios of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk in addition to the Bezos one.

One thing Courey isn’t suggesting to his pals is investing their life savings in Bitcoin.

“I have bought $40 in Bitcoin and not any more for a simple reason,” he says. “I used to earn money ($5-$10) to invest in stocks each day, so I learned about stability. I chose not to buy much Bitcoin, because I thought it was too risky of an investment. Right now I only invest in companies like Amazon or Google.”

But one of the great things about Bitcoin, Courey adds, is that “if you have a computer, you can use Bitcoin, regardless of whether you are rich or poor or somewhere in the middle.”

Is there any chance someone will buy Courey’s book using Bitcoin?

“If there were a way to buy books with Bitcoin, I think it would be awesome,” he says. “Unfortunately, Amazon does not accept Bitcoin as payment. But I thought of a way to counter that problem. First, someone would pay for my book with Bitcoin, second it would be automatically sold for money, then I would get my cut of that money, and Amazon would get their cut of the price. Problem solved!”

If all that’s too complicated, you can just buy the book the usual way on Amazon. Courey’s mom, Alicia Talanian, says they’re also working on getting the publication into Wellesley Toy Shop, so you’ll be able to purchase it the old-fashioned way, too, with plain old money.

P.S.: Not surprisingly, this story has started to go viral since we broke it. CNBC and the UK’s Independent have covered it, and more is surely to come.

print

Share

Filed Under: Books, Business, Kids, Technology

Comments

  1. Albert Berry says

    February 25, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    Bravo, Andrew! Amazing to see such an accomplishment at a young age, especially around a currency most can’t begin to wrap their heads around! I run a small ad agency and have a handful of Crypto clientele so I do understand what a HOT topic this is! Again, we’ll done. Can’t wait to read your book!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Write Ahead

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
Admit Fit, Wellesley
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Events Calendar

« January 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
Tue 26

Rum tasting and history talk

January 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Wed 27

Online history lecture: Petticoat Whalers

January 27 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Thu 28

Banking on Our Value panel discussion

January 28 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Most Read Posts

  • "I Care a Lot" movie that filmed in Wellesley making Netflix debut
  • Wellesley Police log: Rocky relationship between neighbors; laptop goes missing from home; money gone from locker
  • Pinnacle Residential Properties: the concept of home & roots
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: More local businesses get state COVID-19 grants; $1M in penalties for car dealership firm; regional chamber touts Feb. 4 open house
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Local restaurants get state grants; get or renew your Business Certificate

Pages

  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Please support our advertisers—they support us
  • Embracing diversity in Wellesley
  • Wellesley, MA Police logs
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Bob Brown on Wellesley seeks designation as Housing Choice Community
  • Ann-Mara Lanza on Wellesley seeks designation as Housing Choice Community
  • Susanne Conover on Wellesley Health Dept. COVID-19 update: Talking vaccines, fielding complaints & working around the clock
  • Kourosh Farboodmanesh on Opinion: Massachusetts needs to introduce renewable energy programs in every town and city
  • devin on Wellesley Police log: Rocky relationship between neighbors; laptop goes missing from home; money gone from locker

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (4)
  • Animals (377)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (534)
  • Beyond Wellesley (28)
  • Books (343)
  • Business (1,358)
  • Camp (1)
  • Careers/jobs (44)
  • Churches (72)
  • Clubs (207)
  • Construction (280)
  • Dump (113)
  • Education (2,880)
    • Babson College (239)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (47)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (598)
    • Wellesley High School (884)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (38)
  • Entertainment (722)
  • Environment (667)
  • Fashion (133)
  • Finance (13)
  • Fire (141)
  • Food (327)
  • Fundraising (559)
  • Gardens (136)
  • Government (386)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (737)
    • COVID-19 (134)
  • History (358)
  • Holidays (365)
  • Houses (118)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (814)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (6)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (5)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (96)
  • Music (543)
  • Natick Report (27)
  • Neighbors (244)
  • Obituaries (58)
  • Outdoors (582)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (688)
    • Crime (345)
  • Politics (534)
  • Real estate (287)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (302)
  • Safety (142)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (107)
  • Shopping (121)
  • Sports (897)
  • STEM (104)
  • Technology (154)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (209)
  • Travel (11)
  • Uncategorized (1,205)
  • Volunteering (317)
  • Weather (161)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (258)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login