Specialized workforce needed as crypto and blockchain courses enter colleges

June 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Some universities and colleges are offering blockchain and crypto courses as the job market heats up, but will students be enticed to take them?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the need for candidates specializing in cryptocurrency and blockchain has become more apparent than ever before. This could be attributed to the fact that major companies are announcing job positions for candidates who are knowledgeable in alternative payments and emerging technologies.

For example, global software giant Apple has recently announced plans to recruit a new business development manager with alternative payment experience. Other leading companies, such as PayPal, Venmo and Tesla, have also been seeking out talent with blockchain and cryptocurrency expertise.

Colleges ramp up blockchain and crypto courses

Several colleges and universities are offering specialized courses to help students better understand the blockchain ecosystem. For example, director of X-Labs and Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator Jocelyn Weber told Cointelegraph that there is an increasing demand for talent in this field, noting that the University of California, Berkeley is seeking to support the workforce of the future. As such, UC Berkeley will likely continue to expand course offerings in blockchain technology:

“UC Berkeley has been offering blockchain courses for over five years now on a variety of topics and in a variety of formats and lengths. The most recent one offered by Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship was ‘Building with Blockchain for Web 3.0,’ in which Parity Technologies provided support for, along with other protocols.”

Weber explained that UC Berkeley’s Building with Blockchain for Web 3.0 course allowed students to learn the entrepreneurial and technical skills needed to launch their own blockchain startup and pitch it to judges on a demo day. Parity Technologies — the company behind Polkadot — helped design the course curriculum and has even advised students hoping to launch their own startup.

According to Weber, courses that include initiatives such as startup building are one of the ways UC Berkeley strives to bring the latest technologies and developments into its coursework. “This provides our students with the tools they need to enter the workforce with the most relevant knowledge,” she said.

In addition to UC Berkeley, the University of Wyoming is also becoming a blockchain hotspot for education. Steven Lupien, director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation at the University of Wyoming, told Cointelegraph that UW has introduced a blockchain minor into its curriculum:

“This is an interdisciplinary minor available to students in our College of Business, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Ag and Natural Resources, and School of Energy Resources. The University has also stood up the Center of Blockchain and Digital Innovation to assist the academic units with faculty training, course design and to work with the university’s outside stakeholders.”

Lupien is aware of the impact that digital assets are having on businesses. He noted that it’s the responsibility of educational leaders to prepare students to become productive members of the work community. “It’s important for them to understand this technology and its applied use cases and how it will impact their futures,” Lupien said.

It’s also noteworthy to point out that courses focused on financial literacy around cryptocurrency are being offered to students as well. Most recently, Electric Coin Company — the company behind the cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) — partnered with the Bronx Community College on a pilot program called “Crypto in Context,” which specializes in understanding cryptocurrency in the real world.

Andre Serrano, strategic partnerships at Electric Coin Company, told Cointelegraph that some of the most successful products in the industry are built and used by people who have already benefited from the current financial system. However, Serrano mentioned that “Crypto in Context” was created on the premise that others can learn from and build alongside the communities who have been most impacted by the failures of today’s status quo:

“Financial literacy is the knowledge that enables people to make responsible financial decisions — choices that affect our everyday lives. Our goal for this pilot program was to open the door for increased engagement in the Bronx and empower bi-directional learning in context. If we are not elevating their voices and compensating them for their feedback, we are failing.”

Serrano shared that “Crypto in Context” was open to all students and faculty at Bronx Community College, noting that 25 students have registered for the free virtual course. He also remarked that 70% of the program participants were female, coming from a range of academic backgrounds. This is notable, especially as the number of female crypto investors continues to grow.

In addition, Serrano mentioned that 80% of the students enrolled in the course downloaded a digital currency wallet. “Over the course of six weeks, students earned a total of 2.3 ZEC for completing tasks and optional assignments,” he said.

How important are these courses?

While blockchain and cryptocurrency courses are important for industry growth and adoption, it may be too soon to understand how these learnings will impact students looking for jobs in the field. For instance, candidates applying for positions at Apple or PayPal may come from traditional finance backgrounds yet have little knowledge of crypto simply because it’s so new.

Although this may be the case today, some industry innovators are hopeful that cryptocurrency and blockchain courses will help bring in better talent moving forward. Nilesh Khaitan, crypto lead at Venmo, told Cointelegraph that a lack of awareness and overall knowledge about crypto is the number one problem when it comes to the adoption of digital assets:

“People generally have no idea where to begin their research or knowledge. A course sculpts a curriculum and a journey towards becoming knowledgeable in the space.”

Khaitan further pointed out that there are a number of non-engineering role job opportunities in the crypto space, such as business development, community marketing and more. “Having a non-tech curriculum is equally important to drive the knowledge of crypto without diving into the deep technical aspects of it,” he commented.

Moreover, blockchain and cryptocurrency courses can be beneficial for those already familiar with the space. Guy Malone, a certified Bitcoin professional, told Cointelegraph that he recently completed the University of Nicosia’s Introduction to Digital Currencies course. According to Malone, although he understood the importance of Bitcoin (BTC), he wanted to take a deeper dive into crypto by taking courses:

“I know that by taking some of the courses, or obtaining one or more of the verifiable credentials that do exist to date, that I could perhaps provide a greater sense of confidence for interested parties.”

Will blockchain and crypto courses go mainstream?

Although useful, it may take some time for all major universities and colleges to start offering blockchain and cryptocurrency courses. For example, Lupien noted that limited resources are a challenge for universities looking to expand their curriculum. “As a nascent technology, there are few faculty that have both the academic credentials as well as the experience to effectively teach this technology — but that is changing rapidly,” Lupien said.

Moreover, students might question the relevance of these courses due to the fact that crypto and blockchain aren’t entirely mainstream. Piergiacomo Palmisani, vice president of the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation — a nonprofit organization helping universities incorporate blockchain curriculum — told Cointelegraph that for students, the challenge is to get them interested enough to choose a career in blockchain over a safe and well-paid job in tech, finance or any other field. “I believe that, as more success stories come out of the crypto industry, students will be more attracted to it,” he said.

As for the universities and colleges already offering blockchain and crypto courses, advancements seem to be underway. Weber shared that while UC Berkeley doesn’t have plans to offer students a degree in blockchain technology currently, there is a possibility moving forward: “I would never rule it out as a future possibility, especially as a minor offering.”

Major US university receives $5M Bitcoin gift, immediately sells

May 20, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

The university accepted its first crypto donation from an alumnus in January.

The University of Pennsylvania received a $5 million donation in Bitcoin, which it has reportedly already exchanged for fiat.

According to the university, an anonymous benefactor gifted UPenn’s Wharton School of Business $5 million in Bitcoin (BTC) — roughly 118.46 BTC at the time of publication — which will be used to support the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance. However, UPenn senior vice president of development and alumni relations John Zeller told MarketWatch that the university immediately liquidates all crypto donations, large and small.

“We sell it the moment it’s received,” said Zeller, adding that the university still had the option of HODLing.

The $5 million donation, reportedly one of the largest UPenn has received, went through crypto investment firm New York Digital Investment Group. While the university can accept other cryptocurrencies, its giving page states it requires a minimum $10,000 donation.

Zeller said UPenn wasn’t treating crypto as an investment vehicle, rather just a new way to make payments. It’s unclear if the recent market volatility played any role in the university’s decision to not HODL the crypto asset.

The university accepted its first cryptocurrency donation from an alumnus in January, according to Zeller. While not made in crypto, former MakerDAO contributor Nikolai Mushegian also gave his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, $4 million last year to develop a research program for decentralized applications.

Students at the Wharton School of Business have the opportunity to study the digital currency ecosystem through online programs on financial technologies. One such course features lectures and case studies on payments, crypto, blockchain technology and crowdfunding, among others.

The new digital, decentralized economy needs academic validation

May 1, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Black sheep and white papers: In order to achieve what it promises, the crypto revolution must be led by scientists and researchers.

It is a pivotal moment in the development of the new digital economy. Interest in all things crypto keeps growing exponentially, and investment follows closely. There has arguably never been so much money poured into a product class that was so poorly understood, both by the wider public and by most investors. In lieu of actual understanding, stakeholders in the crypto space have to operate on reputation and trust instead. This necessity has given rise to a dangerous new con.

Unlike blatant scams like OneCoin or Bitconnect, today’s blockchain opportunists and confidence tricksters often play the faux science card. “Read our white paper here,” “Look at this research report we uploaded to arXiv,” “Download our dataset” — sounds legit, right? There is just one crucial element missing: academic validation.

Not all papers are created equal

Anyone can put together a “white paper” and make it available to download. In 2018, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission taught gullible crypto investors a valuable lesson. It set up a fake initial coin offering for the fictitious “HoweyCoin” that prominently featured a white paper as a token (pun intended) of trustworthiness. By contrast, only a trained researcher, most likely with a Ph.D. and extensive knowledge in the field, can have a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. This is the gold standard to which the distributed ledger technology, or DLT, space should aspire.

You would not put a vaccine into your arm that was developed by college dropouts who did not let experts in biochemistry and immunology verify their work. So, why should you put your finances, your personal data and your automated devices into DLT solutions that were not rigorously vetted?

Academic validation starts with peer review

Peer review is a key aspect of academic validation. It describes the practice of experts in a scientific field checking each others’ research findings for flaws and inconsistencies, pre- and post-publication. On the one hand, peer review is a crucial step in academic publishing, and it increases transparency, reliability and trust. To allow for independent validation, authors open their data, methods and results to expert scrutiny, first by anonymous reviewers. On the other hand, once it passes initial review and gets published, research can be revisited, revised or even retracted at any point in time, based on new information from the wider scientific community. Academic validation is, thus, a perpetual process.

Working within a system of peer review and academic validation ensures continuity in innovation and knowledge generation. Good scientific publications embed their unique contributions into a rich legacy of previous achievements. They systematically review what has been done before, build upon it and chart the way forward for future innovation. Pseudoscience publications, by contrast, often reinvent the wheel and give it a few sharp corners for good measure.

Last but not least, peer review brings with itself a code of academic integrity and conduct. In popular culture, many supervillains hold advanced degrees. In real life, the vast majority of academics are well-intentioned, highly ethical people whose actions are guided by the pursuit of facts and knowledge. Though not a perfect antidote to human errors or moral slip-ups, we can say the academic validation system has largely succeeded in keeping scientific development on a righteous path. That observation also holds true for many industry spinoffs, such as in the biotech sector.

Biotech as the poster child for peer review in the industry

One industry where peer review has long been successfully integrated and widely accepted is biotechnology. Recent rising stars like BioNTech and Triumvira Immunologics regularly publish in top journals and stand up to painstaking peer review. Nobody would have it otherwise. The field has learned its lesson after several spectacular bouts with pseudoscience, and none of them looms larger than Theranos.

Between its founding in 2003 and its forced shutdown in 2018, blood-testing biotech unicorn Theranos amassed roughly $700 million in funding. CEO Elizabeth Holmes and chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani charmed investors with rosy descriptions of technologies that their company never actually developed. The two blood-testing devices Theranos brought to market — the Edison and the miniLab — were prominently not peer-reviewed.

Eventually, the pressure for validation from investors, researchers and the media became too high to ignore. Under independent scientific scrutiny, the Edison proved to be practically unusable as a diagnostic tool. Badly burned, Theranos did not even open the miniLab to independent examination. Soon enough, partners and investors cried foul, and the company’s top executives now face charges on what the SEC characterized as elaborate fraud on a massive scale.

What the whole biotech industry learned from the Theranos debacle was the inherent value of peer review and the transparency and trust that come with it. In a field that is fraught with complexity and high technology that very few truly understand, the peer review system is now a universally accepted gatekeeper. It keeps the Elizabeth Holmeses and Ramesh Balwanis the world out and makes sure innovation follows a verifiable path of truth.

It’s time to put “Ph.D.” and “DLT” together

So, why does the blockchain space not rely on peer review much more heavily? A negligibly small group among the major actors in the space care to publish their innovations academically. The field has had its fair share of Theranos-sized cons. Instead of verified fact, the promise of profit seems to be the dominant incentive to invest — a poor and possibly dangerous status quo.

Perhaps one explanation lies in the tech industry’s fascination with college dropouts — Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates and Jack Dorsey spring to mind. Yet, every innovative "dropout-preneur" stands on the shoulders of countless giants in lab coats and thick glasses. As a testament to that, keep in mind that in 2017, 30% of Google’s engineers held a doctorate, and Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter each hired a majority of university graduates, too.

We are building an all-new digital economy here. Our current system would be unthinkable without sound academic processes with knowledge at its heart. Think of contributions of John Hicks and Kenneth Arrow to economic equilibrium theory, analyses of trade theory by Paul Krugman, or insights of Ronald Coase into transaction costs and property rights. They are merely a few among other Nobel laureates and many, many more rank-and-file researchers whose collective efforts have shaped the global economic system as we know it. The new digital economy deserves — nay, requires — the same amount of academic rigor.

The crypto revolution is driven by “rockstars,” visionaries who often lack an academic background. Their ideas of decentralization and openness are refreshingly anti-systemic and optimistic. Still, these visions are only possible thanks to the work of generations of scientists who laid down the foundations of current crypto protocols decades ago, and continue developing them today. The shape and form that the crypto revolution takes will be the product of dreams and ideologies on the one hand, and peer-reviewed research and development on the other — in equal measure.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Serguei Popov acquired his doctorate in mathematics from Moscow State University in 1997, and has held research and teaching positions at the University of Sao Paulo and the University of Campinas. Currently, he is a senior researcher at the University of Porto. His interest in crypto dates back to 2013 when he started applying his knowledge in general mathematics, probability and stochastic processes to distributed ledger technology. He is a co-founder of the Iota Foundation and member of the board of directors.

The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University or its affiliates.

Romanian university plans to accept crypto payments for admission fees

April 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Business

The academic institution with a student body of roughly 11,000 said the addition of crypto payments was part of a plan to support local businesses like Elrond.

A public university in the Romanian city of Sibiu in Transylvania has said it will allow students to pay for their admission fees in crypto.

According to an announcement from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, or LBUS, on Wednesday, the institution plans to implement crypto payment methods for its more than 11,000 students starting in July. Students will reportedly be able to pay for admission fees — tuition is roughly $1,000 per year for undergraduates — using Elrond (EGLD), which the university will then convert to Romanian leu.

"Our university has been and will continue to be a supporter of the community and local business, and the decision to develop this partnership with Elrond is part of this strategy," said university Rector Sorin Radu.

Starting as an initial exchange offering from the Binance Launchpad in 2019, Elrond has offices in the Transylvanian town of more than 400,000 people and its team contains many graduates of the local university. The project said it plans to carry out other collaborations with LBUS in the future, including research.

According to legislation implemented in July, exchange providers that monitor the purchase of crypto with fiat currency and vice versa must now be authorized if they operate in Romania. Many crypto users handling digital assets in the country are required to use exchanges that incorporate Know Your Customer requirements and comply with both domestic and foreign Anti-Money Laundering provisions.

Elrond has recently seen some significant changes, including its mainnet swap last year as the ERD token became EGLD. At the time of publication, the price of EGLD is $231, having risen more than 13% in the last 24 hours.

universities