A few months after King’s College in New York became the first accredited college in the United States to accept bitcoin as a means of payment for tuition and other fees, US universities are now gearing towards offering new courses on cryptocurrency. With the increasing popularity and usage of bitcoins, it has now transcended the educational sphere as two of the best universities in the US, Duke University and New York University, are now offering bitcoin courses. Bitcoin which was launched way back in 2009 as an open source platform used to send and receive payments is starting to get more and more popular not just among merchants but even among organizations and individuals.
The very first class of New York University’s new course was handled by Professor Geoffrey Miller where thirty five students attended the course, The Law and Business of Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies. The said course is one of the series covering the fundamentals of money. Alongside Professor Miller who is a faculty member at NYU’s law school is Professor David Yermack. The very aim of the course is to look at the impact of cryptocurrencies on notions of finance and law.
A Well-Received Course
As the bitcoin economy escalates along with the rising bitcoin issues and concerns, many students are eyeing on this course. Academicians believe that this new course offering will be a blockbuster.
Professor Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University, will teach the bitcoin course in the university which will be offered next spring. The new course offering is titled, Innovation, Disruption and Cryptoventures which will emphasize on the potential of enterprises that use the block chain. The upcoming course will be offered at the university’s computer science department.
New York University and Duke University are top-ranked universities based on the World Report college rankings. In fact, even the co-founder of Coinbase Fred Ersham is an alumnus of Duke where he graduated in 2010.
Other Universities Offering the Course
Apart from NYU and Duke University, there are also other universities offering degree courses and programmes related to bitcoin. In Cyprus, the University of Nicosia even offers a master’s program in digital currency. The University of Cumbria in United Kingdoin offers certificate programs on cryptocurrencies. As these bitcoin courses are well-received, it is expected that other universities will also offer bitcoin programs.
Academics Have to Step Up
Although there are now universities offering bitcoin courses and programs, there is also a pressing need for academics to step up and to level up the ante. With professors preparing to offer digital currency classes, there arise challenges especially when it comes to research on cryptocurrencies. Academic have to catch up with the pace especially since bitcoins are now widely used in different kinds of transactions connecting companies, merchants and consumers.
According to Professor Yermack, creating the syllabus was really challenging considering the fact that there has been a few number of published peer-reviewed bitcoin articles. Professor Harvey also shares the same view saying that the potential of the block chain is restrained with the lack of understanding regarding its potential uses. Academics need to step up to educate and to provide information.