Give bitcoin.
Gift a story.
Send a little real bitcoin to a kid you love — wrapped in a beautiful storybook that teaches them what it is and why it matters. They read, they learn, they claim their first treasure.
Free to create, free to claim · funded from your wallet, straight to theirs · we never touch the coins
How it works
1 · Pick a story
Choose one of our illustrated tales about bitcoin, write a little note, and pick a gift size — US$5 to US$100.
2 · Fund it yourself
Send the bitcoin from your own wallet to the gift's fresh address. We never hold it — not even for a second.
3 · Share the magic link
They open the link, read their story, pass a tiny quiz, and sweep the treasure into their very own new wallet.
The keys are yours.
Only yours.
Once Upon a Bit is non-custodial by design. The gift lives on a brand-new bitcoin address, and its secret key travels inside the claim link itself — in a part of the link that your browser keeps to itself and never sends to any server, ours included. The key only ever exists on your side of the screen.
- You fund the gift from your own wallet. We never see your keys or words.
- The kid's new wallet is created in their browser. Its 12 words go on paper — never to us.
- The claim sweep is signed on their device and broadcast straight to the bitcoin network. We just watch addresses and cheer.
Treat the claim link like cash: anyone who has it can claim the gift.
What we can & can't do
We can
Show the story
Watch the address
Relay the claim
We can't
Spend the gift
Recover lost links
See anyone's keys
That's the whole point: a gift of bitcoin should come with bitcoin's rules. No middlemen — not even us.
The storybook shelf
Every tale teaches what bitcoin is and why it matters — beautiful pages, big ideas, little ears. Gift one book, or light up the whole shelf with a single claim link.
🧩 The Trading Puzzle
Finding the Magic Helper
12 pages · about 5 min
🦸 The Three Superpowers of Money
The Ultimate Hero
12 pages · about 5 min
🗿 The Island of Giant Stones
The Captain's Trick
12 pages · about 5 min
📿 The Beautiful Glass Beads
The Cheap Treasure
12 pages · about 5 min
🐚 The Wampum Shells
The Boats That Broke the Money
12 pages · about 5 min
🏆 The Golden Champion
The Metal That Never Rusts
12 pages · about 5 min
Grown-ups asked us…
Do you ever hold the bitcoin?+
Never. You send coins from your own wallet directly to a fresh gift address. The only key that can spend it is inside the claim link — created in your browser, never sent to us. When the kid claims, their device signs the transaction and broadcasts it to the bitcoin network.
What does it cost?+
Nothing, for the gift itself — creating, funding, sharing, and claiming are all free, and we never take a cut of the coins. The only thing we sell is optional: US$2.99, paid in bitcoin, opens all fifteen storybooks on that gift's claim link. It appears as a simple checkbox when you create the gift — and the child's pages never mention it.
What does the kid actually receive?+
A magic link (or a printable treasure letter with a QR code). It opens a storybook made just for them, a three-question treasure quiz, and then a guided moment — with a grown-up — where they create their first real wallet and sweep the coins into it.
What if the link is lost before it's claimed?+
The link IS the gift, like cash in an envelope. We make you save it before you fund the gift, and you can reclaim an unclaimed gift yourself with your own copy of the link — any time before it's claimed, as long as the amount still covers the network fee. If every copy is truly gone, nobody — including us — can recover the coins. That's real bitcoin.
Is this safe for kids?+
No accounts, no emails, no ads, no tracking — the claim pages ask nothing of a child but attention. Claiming is designed as a grown-up-and-kid activity, and we repeat (a lot) that the 12 wallet words belong on paper, with a parent.
How much bitcoin should I give?+
Gifts come in five sizes — US$5, US$10, US$20, US$50, or US$100 — converted into sats at the moment you create the gift. Pick the one that fits the occasion; even the smallest is real bitcoin with a real story.
One story. A few sats. A lesson that sticks.
Free to create, free to claim · funded from your wallet, straight to theirs · we never touch the coins