Students Studying Cryptocurrency As A Course

Students signing up for cryptocurrency classes at top computer science schools such as Stanford increases due to rising in bitcoin price.

According to Dan Boneh, co-director of the Standford Computer Security Lab and professor of cryptography, he is attracting a large number of people to his cryptocurrency courses. As a cryptography researcher for almost 30 years, Boneh began teaching a bitcoin and cryptocurrency class in 2015, attracting more than 100 students. His online cryptography course has seen over one million signing up, reports CNBC.

More students are turning their attention to learning more about cryptocurrency as a result of an increase in bitcoin value. To date, the digital currency has hit a new all-time high at $7,000 pushing its market value above $100 billion. It's no surprise then that a rising interest is being experienced. Aside from the huge attraction in the valuation of cryptocurrencies, Boneh believes that they have another benefit too.

He said:

Cryptocurrencies are a wonderful way to teach cryptography. There are a whole bunch of new applications for cryptography that didn't exist before".

Boneh's online textbook is also being employed across the state. In Pittsburgh, at the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Vipul Goyal, a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at CMU, is heading a class called Special Topics in cryptography. Offered for the first time this year, around 20 students, mostly Ph.D. candidates, are taking the class, focusing on digital currencies such as bitcoin and the blockchain.

Last year, the University of California at Berkeley launched a class called Cryptocurrency Decal. In 2015, the MIT's Media Lab created the Digital Currency Initiative.

Just as there has been an increase in the number of students taking cryptocurrency courses, so to has there been a rise in the number of bitcoin-related jobs. CEO of  Freelancer, Matt Barrie, speaking to CNBC, said earlier that one of the main skills that employers are looking for is a candidate able to manage initial coin offerings (ICOs).

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