16-Yr-Old School Dropout Creates Bestselling Crypto App

At an age when most teenagers are grappling with scoring good marks in subjects they find difficult, a 16-year-old Saharanpur girl has made an app that updates users about price fluctuations in more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies in 32 countries.

Harshita Arora's app has become one of the most sought-after paid apps on Apple’s App Store. And the most surprising fact is that she launched it only on January 28 this year.

Family background

Harshita is the daughter of a local financier and a homemaker mother. Her parents have always backed her in all her endeavours. She had dropped out of school at 14 as she was "not cut out for common courses", she TOI on Friday (Feb 23).

“I don’t underestimate school education in India but these common courses are not for me. My computer teacher introduced me to the wonderful world of technology. I have a different goal in life that the current education system may not provide. I am being home schooled. Computer technology must be given its due in school curriculum."

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Exposure to cryptocurrencies

It was in 2016 when Harshita heard about cryptocurrencies. She soon got into Bitcoin mining, the basic underlying technology and cryptography. When Harshita introduced the iOS app, she received a lot of flak as it was difficult to believe that a girl of her age could build an iOS platform like that. Many accused her of plagiarizing the app.

All that is behind her now. “Ever since I was 13 and was introduced to designing concepts, I began reading IT magazines and the latest developments in the field. I learned about cryptocurrency and how it worked. Then I interacted with my internet friends and real investors in the currency to understand what they wanted in an app," Harshita said.

Stint at MIT

Harshita attended MIT Launch (a high school entrepreneur programme) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US some time back, which she said helped her a lot. This was a four-week long entrepreneurship programme for people between 15 and 19 years of age. “I met like-minded people who helped me build this app," Harshita said.

Future plans