Lomond School, a private institution in Helensburgh, Scotland, has appointed two Bitcoin proponents, Stefan Ronz and Daniel Werner, to its board of directors amid significant financial challenges. The school is reportedly £3 million in debt and has yet to file its 2025 annual accounts, which are over six months overdue with the charity regulator OSCR.
Ronz, a former professional footballer and founding member of the German Bitcoin Association, and Werner, a software developer with a master's degree in mathematics, joined the board earlier this year. They replaced two long-serving directors who stepped down in August. The appointments follow a controversial partnership with Scholarium, a Swiss organization led by cryptocurrency advocate Rahim Taghizadegan, which the school announced in the summer.
Taghizadegan initially claimed to have "rescued" the school from closure with a "substantial six-figure" package, but later clarified that Scholarium had "organised the one-off funding needed to cover a temporary financial shortfall." His views on alternative education, including unschooling, and his development of 'Bitcoin citadels'—communities designed for Bitcoiners to avoid taxes by maintaining a nomadic lifestyle—have previously raised concerns among parents.
Lomond School, which charges up to £48,000 annually and is the sole boarding school in west Scotland, was the first UK school to accept Bitcoin as a payment method last year. The financial struggles of private schools in Scotland have been mounting, with Fernhill School, near Glasgow, closing earlier this year due to rising costs and VAT on school fees.