Ivy League universities including Yale are offering blockchain courses allowing students to study cryptocurrency technology
Yale, Wharton, and Haas have become the first higher education institutes to offer blockchain courses.
The introduction of these courses is being attributed to a growing student interest in cryptocurrency and from businesses looking to hire graduates with a good knowledge of the blockchain.
The Haas school of business is set to select 60 students from relevant courses to study the potential of blockchain technology.
A large number of Ivy League graduates end up working in finance, and the blockchain has become an increasingly prominent subject among financial circles in recent years.
Barbara Hewitt from the Wharton School said: “I increasingly see students opting to explore technical minors, such as in computer science, to be well prepared for the growing use of technology in many fields.”
Desire to learn
The high value of currencies like Bitcoin has boosted the popularity of cryptography courses which are more open, too.
Stanford University Professor Dan Boneh has received a multitude of applications for his course, Computer Security and Cryptography, which is second in popularity only to machine learning.
Over 1 million people have signed up for his course, and self-learning options are available.
Haas school lecturer Greg Le Blanc believes cryptocurrencies will “have the biggest impact on contracting, logistics and supply chains, healthcare, public administration, assets clearing, property, transactions.”
He added: “Pretty much every function of businesses are going to be affected by this.”
It is believed blockchain technology could offer more functions beyond cryptocurrencies, such as guarding against unethical transactions like blood diamonds or tainted food.
Business school students have already started their own journeys into cryptocurrency, with many student start-ups experimenting.
The value of Bitcoin stands at nearly 6000 US$, making it an extremely lucrative business, one more likely to receive investment than other start-ups.
Professor Virup Goyal of Stanford said: “For cryptocurrencies, if you start your own, and if people are interested, you automatically get funded by the value of what you created.”
true blockchain innovation may have little to do with cryptocurrency. secured personal wellness , sensor and community based internet of things may be another venue.