Crypto expands its popularity to the hallowed halls of universities

We’ve all heard that age-old adage that the future of the world lies in our children. Well, it seems as if the youth is taking that message to heart as they aim to learn more about the future of the most popular commodity right now – cryptocurrency.

From Stanford to Carnegie Mellon, students have been showing more interest in the subject. This could be for range of reasons, not least of which the amount of money that can be made in the industry. Just look at the price of the two leading currencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum. New currencies are being introduced seemingly every day, with some raising millions of dollars through crowd sales and ICOs. This has a definite allure for students hoping to make their way in our rapidly digitizing world.

“A lot of people are attracted to the huge valuations in these currencies,” said Dan Boneh, co-director of the Stanford Computer Security Lab, and also a professor of cryptography. In fact, after machine learning, cryptography is the most popular subject at the university.

However, not everyone can attend Stanford, which is why Boneh teaches an online cryptography course through free e-learning site, Coursera. Vipul Goyal, a lecturer at Carnegie Mellon, is making use of Boneh’s online textbook to teach a course focusing on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The University of California has also begun offering a Cryptocurrency Decal course to its students and lastly, MIT’s Media Lab began the Digital Currency Initiative.

It’s not just the students who are interested in the future of crypto. Goyal has helped establish the CMU Crypto group, whose aim is recruit graduates and faculty members with cryptography experience to work on research projects. He is fascinated as to how far blockchain technology can actually go.

“The big question in my mind is, ‘Can blockchain and cryptocurrencies replace the cloud completely?” Goyal asked.

Being the next Satoshi Nakamoto is an intoxicating thought, which could be why some students are opting to leave university to start their own crypto endeavors.It worked for Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, and it could work for them too.

What’s even more encouraging is that start-up funding for crypto projects is minimal or even non-existent.You won’t need an investor or initial capital.All you’ll have to do is create your own currency and get funded by contributors.The only catch is that you need to make sure that you’re selling something that contributors actually want to be a part of.

These latest developments are an indicator of the future of the cryptocurrency industry is indeed bright and there are many people preparing themselves to carry the mantle to make Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies the most sought after technology and asset respectively. @steemit