Darren Freemantle – Driving Bitcoin for Organisations | BTC Prague 2025 Keynote

Getting Bitcoin taken seriously inside an organisation is one of the hardest things a Bitcoiner can do. At BTC Prague, I shared why the answer isn’t shouting louder — it’s asking better questions, specifically risk management questions that no board can afford to ignore.

My Path to This Problem

I started out as an aerospace engineer, moved into financial software, and spent around 15 years running a technology equity fund. When I reached the point where I felt confident enough to educate my network in traditional finance about Bitcoin, I had reasonable success at the individual level. But trying to move entire organisations? That was a completely different challenge — a real brick wall.

About 18 months ago I joined a small team of four at Mi Primer Bitcoin — My First Bitcoin — and we started thinking seriously about how to build a curriculum specifically aimed at organisations.

Who Mi Primer Bitcoin Is

Mi Primer Bitcoin was established in El Salvador in 2021. The mission is to develop Bitcoin educational content for students and citizens. To date, more than 30,000 diplomas have been issued, and this year alone we aim to reach 10,000 students in El Salvador. We support education hubs — nodes — in 39 countries, with plans to reach over 50 countries by end of 2026. All from a standing start four years ago.

The Brick Wall Problem

We all know the meme — the person who gets Bitcoin and desperately wants their organisation to understand it. The problem is the organisation isn’t listening. Its views may have been shaped by a constant stream of negative headlines from mainstream financial media. Those headlines don’t challenge existing biases, they confirm them. Skeptical executives feel conservative, risk-averse and sensible for staying away from Bitcoin. As educators, we end up constantly fighting FUD. So we needed a different strategy.

Ask Risk Management Questions

Our strategy is simple: ask questions. Specifically, ask risk management questions of the organisation. How will it be impacted if Bitcoin becomes a global treasury reserve asset? That question felt controversial two years ago — it really doesn’t now. What if Bitcoin becomes a widely accepted medium of exchange? What if it becomes a settlement layer for internet-based commerce? These aren’t wild hypotheticals. They are legitimate strategic risks that every board should be stress-testing.

Sound risk management means accepting we don’t know what will happen, but preparing anyway. That requires humility. And it is the board’s fiduciary duty — whether directors, trustees, or regulators — to steer the organisation away from threats and towards opportunity.

Most Boards Are Failing on This

My colleague James examined the entire FTSE 100 — the top 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange by capitalisation — looking through all published 2024 reports and accounts. He found that just three companies identified Bitcoin or digital assets as a significant strategic risk. Three. And they are legally required to disclose this. That report is available to download from our repository.

The Curriculum

We built our curriculum around risk as the core. Orbiting that core are vertical market modules — government, banking and payments, investment management, professional services, not-for-profit, and more. Within each vertical are internal function modules covering treasury, IT, payroll, HR, and facilities management. And then there are ten myth-busting modules — one for each excuse organisations use to ignore Bitcoin, from “no intrinsic value” to “it wastes energy.” We have also written additional modules on Bitcoin’s technical history, its possible future, Bitcoin and AI, and the open ledger.

We are not being prescriptive. We are not telling organisations what to do. We are providing a framework so organisations can reach their own conclusions. And we want this to grow. If you have expertise in healthcare, transportation, real estate or construction and want to contribute, please reach out.

The Call to Action