Start Them Young: Teach Kids About Money with Pigzbe

Startup company Pigzbe teaches kids how to manage their money wisely in a fun and simple way with the use of a “piggy-wallet.” An educational app and a new cryptocurrency accompany the wallet. With the use of Pigzbe, kids can learn to save, budget, spend, earn, exchange, and share their finances.

Pigzbe comes in a hardware wallet that is a pink compact digital gadget that displays pixelated graphics and provides mini-games for children. The handheld device also notifies kids whenever their parents send them allowance, rewards, and tasks. The mobile app that goes with Pigzbe has an animated interface that allows children to save their goals, share, spend, and learn about budgeting.

Pigzbe App

For Pigzbe to work efficiently, the company made its own educational cryptocurrency – Wollo (WLO). Wollo is built on the Stellar blockchain which makes the transfer of small amounts of money to the kid’s wallet easier and faster (taking up only three to six seconds to send) for parents and family members around the world. Wollo can be purchased and exchanged through StellarX or Wirex.

Wollo

According to Alison Pask, Managing Director of The London Institute of Banking and Finance, research proves that as young as seven years old, children start to form their financial habits.  As the world opens up to digital currencies, the concept of money becomes harder to understand. And Pigzbe believes that honing financially literate children today can form them into financially capable 21st-century adults in the future.

Filippo Yacob, Co-founder and CEO of Pigzbe, states that the purpose of Pigzbe is to make the giving of allowances more fun and engaging. He said:

“Knowing how to manage money in a digital world is something we think every child can learn, we just think they need the right tools and a great experience. This is what Pigzbe is all about – reinventing the way we do allowances with a device that is useful, engaging, and fun. And the earlier we introduce our children to financial education, the bigger the impact later in life.”

A Digital Bond Between Parents and Kids

Educating children about money management at an early age helps them defer gratification. They would learn that although money grows on the Pigzbe app money tree, they still have to earn it by working for it.

Young ones can learn to manage their finances through the app’s money tree. The money tree is a visualization of the child’s savings goals in which they can check their balance so that they can learn how to budget and be aware of the money that goes in and out.

Parents can teach their kids about responsibility by assigning tasks and chores that the little ones should complete to earn Wollo. Parents can also send their children’s allowance directly to the app. Relatives and family friends can do so as well wherever they may be around the globe.

Meanwhile, kids can learn to save their earnings so that they can buy items that they really want. With the Wirex Visa card, children, together with their parents, can spend Wollo in any Visa-accepting stores.

Pigzbe Specifications

As a new innovation of technology, Pigzbe was made to be simple but groundbreaking. The handheld device features a dual button game controller and a six-axis motion control. It also has an LED matrix, vibration, motor, and speaker.

@Pigzbe tweeted about the gadget’s outer specifications. The tweet read:

“A child’s imagination is the most powerful tool in the world, but this stuff helps! Lights! Sound! Touch! Ⓓ 128 LED lights, Ⓔ speaker, Ⓕ haptic engine, and Ⓖ 2x buttons, provide a magical experience with pocket money.”

It also has WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. All of these are held inside a 60mmx90mmx12mm compact device. Pigzbe also gave its audience a photo of what the insides of the device is like via Twitter. It was captioned:

“This little pig might look simple (we made him that way) but underneath we’ve stuffed #Pigzbe with so much cutting-edge tech it’s amazing we squeezed it all in. Designing a simple experience for families takes time”

Pigzbe is currently available for pre-order. As of this writing, 570 backers have pledged to this project with funds already over US$ 85,000, surpassing its goal of US$ 50,000. Backing the project ends on January 25, 2019 in which the delivery of Pigzbe packages will start by June.