Bitcoin penetrated American academia for the first time in 2014, as top-ranked US universities New York University and Duke University offered their inaugural cryptocurrency courses that year. Since then, Bitcoin courses at US colleges and universities is a new trend.
NYU and Duke were each ranked in the top 10 in relevant categories in the US News and World Report. NYU's first course was called The Law and Business of Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies. The Duke course was called Innovation, Disruption and Cryptoventures, with a research emphasis on potential businesses that use the block chain.
Princeton offers a course, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, through Coursera. First offered in the spring, the course begins once more in September 2015. In a description of the course on the website, the 6 weeks of study are designed to teach "everything you need to be able to separate fact from fiction when reading claims about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You'll have the conceptual foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network. And you'll be able to integrate ideas from Bitcoin in your own projects." The school has also offered a free Bitcoin course.
The Stanford University School of Engineering in Stanford, Calif. will offer a new course, Crypto Currencies: Bitcoin and Friends, in September. The course lasts from Sept. 21 to Dec. 9, 2015.
Read More: Stanford University To Offer Cryptocurrencies Course
"The technology behind Bitcoin and other crypto currencies can be an indispensable tool for protecting information," said Dan Boneh, a professor of computer science at the school who will be teaching the course. Boneh said virtual currency has the potential to revolutionize business payment transactions.
North along Interstate 5 approximately 11 hours, the Mt. Hood Community College has also introduced cryptocurrency curriculum into their coursework. The college, located outside of Portland, Oregon, offers the course, Bitcoin & Crypto-Currencies, for the first time this fall.
According to a course description on Mt. Hood Community College's website,
This extensive course covers the background knowledge needed to fully comprehend the principles behind bitcoin, the history and development of crypto-currencies, the peer-to-peer network and how to safely use and store bitcoin and data security.
On the campus of MIT Bitcoin ecosystems have been created among the student population. The school made the "Bitcoin Airdrop" a thing. The school has offered a Bitcoin class.
It's not only US colleges and universities offering Bitcoin related coursework. The University of Nicosia in Cyprus became the first accredited University to accept Bitcoin.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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