Ardent Blockchain Education (ABE) - September 2026 Update

September Highlights at a Glance

• One-on-One Meeting with Chair Perez of HCPS
• Reconnecting with The OFR
• Blockchain Expert Panelist for “Student Gambling and Prediction Markets” at USF’s Stavros Center

It was another busy month here at ABE. Our curriculum architect made headway on redesigning our flagship module to be more student- and teacher-friendly, while our liaison activities continued to make inroads with important stakeholders from around the Sunshine State. Based on what transpired during September, we are certainly carrying major momentum into the final quarter of 2026.

#One-on-One Meeting with Chair Perez of HCPS

Karen Perez, Chair of the HCPS School Board

Toward the start of the month, I was able to secure a direct meeting with Karen Perez, a longtime school board member and current chair of the board here in Hillsborough County. During that time, I was able to fill her in on all that we have accomplished with the Ardent Blockchain Education initiative up to this point, especially the early promising work we had done right here in HCPS, where I was a teacher for nearly 20 years.

For those who do not know Karen Perez, she is a licensed clinical social worker and small business owner who has served on the board since 2018. During our dialogue, she noted how important financial literacy is because money management can be one of the biggest stressors people face every day. She agreed that the skills students gain through personal financial literacy courses become invaluable later in life, and she was encouraged to hear that we have focused our early efforts on blockchain technology and digital assets in this context so that all students can learn about these nascent topics that will become part of their everyday lives in the near future.

At the end of our call, she asked me to send along a follow-up email to her office so that she could move our request directly along to Superintendent Ayres and district leadership staff. Hopefully, in the coming months, we will be able to move from piloting our flagship module at a single high school to rolling it out across the district. I also offered to host our original seminar, The Road to Bitcoin & Beyond: A Brief History of Digital Assets on a quarterly basis through recurring professional development opportunities.

#Reconnecting with The Office of Financial Regulation (OFR)

Ash Mason, Legislative & Cabinet Affairs Director, OFR

After our initial conversation back in the spring, Ash Mason came back to me via email while also looping in his colleague Jason Holloway. The OFR has been working assiduously on their budget review over the summer, but the team will turn its attention toward next year’s legislative agenda in the coming weeks. The plan is for us to get together for a virtual meeting to discuss our potential collaboration for the early committee weeks at the start of 2027.

The vision is for ABE to create a seminar for all Florida legislators in both the House and Senate that will help them learn the basics of blockchain technology and digital assets. Armed with this knowledge, they will be more informed when voting on issues and potential bills surrounding both the underlying infrastructure and the assets that ride on those rails. Additionally, it will allow ABE to become more integrated as a tax-free resource in Tallahassee so that we can continue to help all legislators as we move deeper into the future.

#“Student Gambling and Prediction Markets” at USF’s Stavros Center

Panel conversation on Student Gambling and Prediction Markets

Thanks to my initial outreach to the Stavros Center at the University of South Florida last month, I was invited to become a panelist for a three-hour conversation centered on “Student Gambling and Prediction Markets,” which has become a growing concern among educators. As the blockchain expert / representative, my role was to explain how the underlying infrastructure works with prediction markets, and how some of these crypto native applications are much easier for underage users to access.

Overall, it was an enlightening conversation that often looped in the educators in the audience. Everyone learned a great deal, and it was eye-opening for me personally to hear stories from the classroom after I left it six years ago. Ultimately, I left the event with the sense that ABE will continue to grow its relationship with USF and the Stavros Center, which only means more good things to come for educators in and around the Tampa Bay area.

As always, stay tuned for our next update. We will have more great news to share, including our meeting with the Office of Financial Regulation!