Friday afternoon at The Preston of Park Cities retirement home, 16 seniors look up expectantly at their teacher: a 21-year-old former president of the blockchain club at the University of Texas at Austin.
Music plays in the background of the quiet meeting room as he introduces a presentation titled “Crypto Crash Course.”
The Dallas senior living facility has regular classes, but this is the first one delving into the complexities of cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-
fungible tokens) — topics with few experts even among younger generations.
“I was a guest lecturer at my university for an intro to blockchain course just because there aren’t a lot of people who know enough to teach this stuff,” said Owen Robertson, the young crypto lecturer who’s majoring in the management of information systems. He’s also on the board of the McCombs School of Business Blockchain Initiative and works as a marketing associate at blockchain company Quai Network.
The retirement home advertised the class as a way to educate residents on legitimate crypto avenues and how to avoid scams. The class met three times during the summer for an overview of NFTs — a unique, individual token on the blockchain that you can buy, sell or trade — and all participants left with their own NFT.
The idea for the lecture came from a brainstorming session for the community’s monthly programming series, said Debra Dickerson, director of community life at The Preston.
“In this case, we wanted to…
