Over the last week, we talked about how financial institutions are preparing to enter the cryptocurrency market. We’ve talked about how Coinbase plans on hiring hundreds of new developers. We’ve even talked about how India, one of the largest economies in the world, is planning on opening its doors to cryptocurrency. But that’s just one part of mass adoption – the other is the unseen side – its experts, advisors, and back-end support. To answer growing demand of cryptocurrency, there’s been major interest by colleges and universities across the country in offering courses and letting their students study cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, and the technology that makes them possible: blockchain. If you’ve been wondering how to start with cryptocurrency, consider this your refresher.
Inside the Stern School of Business, the Bitcoin wave has firmly entrenched itself. Professors had to move their class about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to bigger rooms.
“We hope to establish a groundwork so that the students can understand what’s really happening under the hood, so that they can understand both the legal and the business implications, and prepare them to go out and tackle this new market.” Adjunct professor Andrew Hinkes said.
Cryptocurrency involves digital currencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and technology called blockchain, which is used to show the record of every transaction involving that specific cryptocurrency. Mustafa Khan is one of the students from a variety of majors at NYU enrolled in this class. He remarked “In the environment we live in today, it’s become especially relevant to get a hold of how new technologies work and how they interact with the legal system”.
Stern was the first school to offer undergraduate courses in cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Now, other universities have taken notice – there’s growing competition for students who want to study the technology. Companies are starting to notice too. Coinbase’s Adam White commented, saying “This is a grassroots movement. These are students saying ‘hey university, I want to take a class on this’.”
Coinbase released a study saying almost half of the world’s top university offers at least one course on the subject, and one in four students want to take the class. “I think they see the development, the birth of a new industry. In many ways, we look at things like Bitcoin and Ethereum and blockchains as the internet 3.0,” White Continued.
Stanford and Cornell offer the most classes nationwide, with many of Cornell’s classes happening at their Roosevelt Island campus. Students studying a variety of majors are enrolling in the courses, convinced today’s best jobs demand some knowledge of the decentralized money system.
Even alumni are coming back to class, curious about digital currency, which, as an investment, can be risky because of volatile price changes (something we all know about, right? Follow us on Facebook to be a part of our community! There also have been warnings from regulators about potentially unlawful online platforms.
NYU has doubled its offerings this school year, a boom they say is a sign of the financial times.
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