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Demand for Blockchain Courses Available at 56% of the Top 50 Universities

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase brought to light  new research highlighting 56% of the top 50 universities now offering one or more classes on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The study was shared through their official blog post, which was based on the current rankings published on US News and World Report, inclusive of both undergraduate/ graduate programs. 

Their research equally suggested that double the number of students undertook blockchain or crypto programs in contrast to the previous year. Moreover, these universities encourage student-run clubs related to blockchain and cryptocurrency technology; 42% of these top universities are offering these opportunities. 

While computer science remains the most selected course, 70% of these top 50 universities offered blockchain and cryptocurrency courses outside of this course. An alumnus from Cornell stated:

“We’ve had so many professors reach out to learn more about blockchain and see how it applies to their field. It’s really cool to be part of a community where there’s so much engagement.”

Ripple’s head of social impact, Ken Weber points out that the blockchain and digital asset space needs more finetuning:

“To truly close the skills gap, universities around the world must expand these programs to offer blockchain and crypto-asset training courses that directly relate to roles in the industry.” 

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'B is for Bitcoin' Children's Book by Graeme Moore

A recent release of a new book that targets teaching kids about Bitcoin, titled “B is for Bitcoin,” mentions the basics of the alphabets as well cryptocurrency which would have most likely gained sufficient relevance by the time they become grown-ups are shown.

Although Bitcoin is currently 10 years old, it could still be considered as being in its early stages.

At the time this report we could easily say that Bitcoin and its altcoin cousins are still being used majorly for speculative purposes especially when compared to the regular fiat which we use for everyday transactions.

We cannot also neglect the fact that the blockchain technology would most likely have become a more common technology by the time today’s kids would be adults, as it would have been integrated into just about every sector by then.

Graeme Moore, the author of the book had come to this realization and wanted to provide children with the necessary information that would equip them to get a better grasp this technology and a bit about the world of finance, seeing that it would have attained far more mass adoption by the time the kids between the ages of 20-30 years of age. However, there still seems to be an issue, as children do not buy books but read when given to them by their parents, the challenge was to find a way to market the books to parents who would buy for their kids. It is noteworthy to state that this book is now on Amazon. Moore explained:

“Their parents buy books, especially if you’re writing an ABC book. When the book ‘Go the [Expletive] to Sleep’ came out, you’re selling a book to the two-year old’s parents. My book is really targeted at me in five to ten years. Flash forward and I have a kid, what would I buy? I would have purchased [“B is for Bitcoin”] because it’s what I want to read to my kid. You know, I don’t want to teach my kid, ‘A is for apple and B is for ball.’ I want to teach him, ‘A is for altcoin, busts, and booms. B is for Bitcoin when moon?’

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Will Distributed Ledger Technology Revolutionize Education?

Since the inception of blockchain and its deliverance of many opportunities for with disruptive potentials, the question at the back of many minds has been numerous. This article is focused on answering some of those pressing questions. In the education sector, the industry is yet to experience major impacts there have been many integrations of the blockchain technology.

Has there been any application of this technology in higher education today?

Yes, there are a handful of colleges around the world that have begun to test run blockchain technology in their systems, especially for the verification of the authenticity of academic credentials, especially certificates and degrees. This one aspect of higher education that the blockchain could really prove effective in because one of the very strong problems plaguing higher education systems around the world is the falsification of documents.

Other than this there have been other ways blockchain has been integrated into the system to ensure the stability and quality of higher education. One of those ways is the use of blockchain technology to issue credentials; this is currently being practiced in the University of Melbourne in Australia. The application of blockchain in this area is not just to ensure the authenticity of credentials, but to also give students in this institution access to the records from their learning institution so that they can be easily presented to co employers when they seek employment.

Looking into the future, other ways blockchain can still change and improve higher educational institutions?

The applications of blockchain above will prove fruitful in the refinement of higher education, in anyways. The most significant of these ways is the payment of on campuses, there are some institutions already doing this, Georgia institute of technology accepts Bitcoin as a form of tuition payment on campus.

Also, the use of blockchain could also enhance pedagogy – which has to do with the systems and practices that surround the impartation of knowledge- by supporting collaboration between different disciplines on a deeper level.

In addition to these, here are few other ways blockchain presents the system with so much potential:

The verification of data

All or most of the data in higher education are still paper-based, which makes the verification of data, quite cumbersome especially when it involves a large number of students, using blockchain in this area will not only reduce the cumbersomeness of verifying data but also make it impossible to be tampered with.

Management of data

This other area is quite similar to the first, though this one involves how data is managed rather than verified. Year after year thousands of students pour into the different higher educational institutions around the world, and all this data has to be processed, moved from faculty to faculty, which involves a lot of work and cost. Whereas if blockchain technology was applied in this field data can be collected and retrieved with a lot of ease, without having to pass through the bureaucracies which surround them at the moment.

Digital identification

In higher educational institutions and other similar institutions, there is a growing need for digital identity which at the moment is costly to run and not easy to verify. When or if blockchain is applied to digital identification, it will reduce the cost of identification and ensure that people who falsify their identities do not easily get away with it.

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Cyberport: Integrating New Technology and Blueprint for a Smarter Hong Kong

Bringing education to Cyberport

Other than the incubation programme provided, Cyberport also has a programme dedicated to encouraging education in the FinTech and blockchain sector. The Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP) is a program created for university students.

“Every year there are 6 out of 11 universities joining us – these are bright students. We will then provide boot camp training for them as we asked HKMA and other experienced individuals to provide training for them. We have also sent some students to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to learn more about FinTech for about two weeks for a short course,” Lam explained.

Following the course, these students will have the chance to pitch to angel investors. “We are seeing them move from FinTech to the blockchain, some of them are providing solutions on crypto assets and cryptocurrencies. Even though they are very young, they already started their journey. So that is something I think is already good to see,” Lam added.

Fostering regtech for virtual banks in the future

In Cyberport, there are 1400 companies, about 370 of these companies are FinTech and Blockchain related. “We want to help specific sectors to grow even faster. One of these areas is regtech (regulation technology), which is a bit different. Currently, we have virtual banks as an important sector, but virtual banks will need to onboard clients virtually,” said Lam.

“One of the major pain points in the past are KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering),” explained Lam. High net-worth individuals sometimes have a hard time opening a private bank account due to the long and inefficient due diligence process of their assets, which could take up to six months.

Taking a look at the number of virtual banks in Asia:

“If regtech can play a role to help virtual banks, there are huge opportunities for them. Therefore, we want to help regtech to move a bit faster than the other areas, as their solutions sometimes also rely on the underlying technology, which is blockchain,” Lam suggested.

Adding on to the specifics on using blockchain technology, Lam said, “if identity verifications could be put on blockchain, that is a blessing. It can simplify and make the processes a lot more seamless and efficient.”

Innovations along the Belt and Road and in the Greater Bay Area

The fourth Belt and Road Summit jointly organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council was held on 11 to 12 September 2019 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Lam was the panel chair of one of the forums, “FinTech to Reshape the Cross-border Trade along Digital Silk Road,” which was co-organized by Cyberport.

“As seen in the Belt and Road Summit, we have come across some companies doing trade finance and invoice financing on their part to facilitate and provide liquidity on loans,” stated Lam.

In Cyberport, some companies cover areas in credit technology and lending technology. “These companies are providing different parts of the journey,” added Lam.

Many individuals and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) along the belt and road are unbanked – as they do not have credit, and therefore, banks will not be able to onboard them. Lam explains, “we help venture capitalists (VCs) who have a take on this, to help them align their funding with companies that are focused on alternative credit rating.”

Lam continued, “as a lot of SMEs are unbanked and don’t have real web-related APIs, we try to create a way to help them to link up with the bigger companies, so that they would have access to trade, and even non-trade data to establish credit rating, alternative credit rating for these individuals and companies. The Belt and Road Summit was a very good exposure for these companies.”

The rate of borrowing for SMEs is exceptionally high, which can go up to 21%. Lam explained that alternative platforms to help SMEs get funding could be a good area of focus.

Other notable jurisdictions to look out for

In jurisdictions such as Japan, Singapore, and Switzerland, crypto regulation has been moving forward with the support of the governments, which influenced a lot of companies to move into these countries for clearer guidelines on crypto. Lam explains that companies that are big enough will have a presence in a few countries.

Hong Kong has shown that it has major core strengths, Lam added, “just look at the global hundred banks, at least 70 of them will have a presence in Hong Kong and some of which have their headquarters here.” Hong Kong has proven to be essential to facilitate important discussions and decisions being made. Funds that have AUMs over hundreds of billions have been supported in Hong Kong, Lam said, “even Singapore doesn’t have these sizes.”

The place for e-sports lovers

Moving away from the focus on FinTech, Cyberport has another cluster focusing on e-sports, as the sector has received government grants.

“Teams from all over the world will fly in and compete. Companies such as Tencent – 51% of their revenue actually comes from the gaming industry.”

As these games currently have not been built on blockchain, Lam explains the benefits of the technology, “currently, if you delete the data and delete the players, then everything they have invested will be gone for good. If they decide to build the game on a blockchain platform, all the tools could be sold like a virtual asset. If the platform would run on blockchain, then these games would truly be global.” This could create a “big ripple” in the gaming industry, and Lam added, “that would truly be liberating for Hong Kong.”

Bitcoin Gets Integrated into the French Education Curriculum

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are continuously being embraced across the globe. As a result, they have instigated interest from different sectors, and education is not an exemption.

French high school students will have the opportunity to learn about Bitcoin soon. This follows the inclusion of cryptocurrency into the Economics and Social Sciences syllabus.

The French education ministry has outlinedthe integration of Bitcoin into the curriculum, as it noted that cryptocurrency would be used to assist students in comprehending the characteristics of money.

Bitcoin to be taught as an introductory overview

It has been stipulated that Bitcoin will not be explored deeply as this will be beyond the high school students’ capabilities. It will, therefore, be taught as an introductory overview as this will help the French students understand the idea of decentralization in the context of major financial systems.

Nevertheless, the course is informative and detailed because the ministry has also included four explainer videos, such as “Is Bitcoin the currency of the future?” and “Can Bitcoin replace the Euro?” They are intended to give the students a better grasp of how cryptocurrencies work, as well as how different they are from fiat.

France has been making notable steps to inculcate cryptocurrencies into the education structure. For instance, in October 2018, Financia Business School started accepting Bitcoin payments.

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Bitfinex Partners with ODEM to Revitalize Crypto Education

Bitfinex, a reputable digital asset trading platform, has joined hands with ODEM, an on-demand education, and employment marketplace, to create a new education model focused on the importance of digital tokens in the blockchain and crypto space.

ODEM will operate and design an innovative token transaction simulation model utilizing Bitfinex as its chief liquidity platform.

Crypto Knowledge Base Expansion

This partnership seeks to develop various courses and programs aimed at propelling the knowledge base of both advanced and novice Bitfinex users interested in gaining more insights about digital tokens’ technical features.

The CTO at Bitfinex, Paolo Ardoino, asserted: “By educating more individuals on the uses and value of cryptocurrency and the vital role it plays in powering the blockchain economy, we are encouraging greater understanding and adoption of digital currencies. We’re confident that through continued, dynamic, and relevant education provided by expert educators on ODEM’s platform, Bitfinex users will receive an advanced service offering.”

On the other hand, ODEM’s CEO, Richard Maaghul, proclaimed: “We’re excited to be the first to market with completely mirrored fiat-to-crypto trades in our education and employment marketplace.”

By leveraging on the crypto education programs, Bitfinex users will attain a holistic view of cryptocurrency trends and markets, as well as gain more insights about how the platform operates.

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The Singapore Fintech Association: Boosting the Industry with Blockchain Education

In part one of our interview with Chia Hock Lai, we explored the Singapore FinTech Association’s four main sectors, providing access to capital, connecting startups and giving them access to markets, advocating for pro-innovation policies, and talent and education.

Chia, previously worked for an insurance company, as the head of the digital office. In his role, he highly encouraged digital innovation, focusing on insurtech. “I took the very first Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) fintech certificate program. In our batch, we had more than 1000 students, and 20% of them were based in Singapore. We have all these regular meetups during the course, and a few people thought we were trying to form a fintech Association,” said Chia. “The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was looking at supporting a representative industry association as it didn’t want it to bee too fragmented by too many associations, Singapore is a small market, and they gathered a few of us together, and somehow, one thing led to another, and I was selected as the founding president. Here I am three years later.”

Capability transfer for tech talents

Chia suggested that providing access to talent is one of the best ways to promote a healthy fintech sector. “You need talents like entrepreneurs, talents from the financial services, and the technology sector as well. Singapore is an international financial sector; we have a lot of financial talents but not enough of tech talents.”

As there is a shortage of tech talent in Singapore in the blockchain and AI sector, the government introduced a scheme called the ‘capability transfer program’ where foreign talent is encouraged to come to Singapore. “We do support this kind of policy because in the medium to longer term, we will need to grow our own local pipeline of our talent, in the short run, we need a mixture of talent from all over the world.”

Education

In February 2017, the SFA signed MoUs with the five local Singaporean Polytechnics, including the Singapore Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, and Temasek Polytechnic. “We were able to provide fintech workshops and internship opportunities for Polytechnic students. In the following September, we designed a fintech pilot program with the Singapore Polytechnic together with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC),” said Chia. He explained that the idea behind it was to put the focus on reskilling and upskilling existing workers in the financial services industry. “With the onset of fintech, and with banks undergoing a digital transformation, some of their roles will become less relevant. I think we are the first to focus on upskilling and reskilling.” The SFA also signed an MoU with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), to foster a more inclusive fintech talent pool.

Rather than only focusing on universities and polytechnics, the SFA also went to different secondary schools around the country to let students understand and explore the various career opportunities there are in the fintech sector. So far, the SFA has reached around 5000 secondary students in Singapore through this initiative.

Earlier this year, the Singapore Blockchain Association (SBA), which Chia is also the founding chairman, launched blockchain developer courses, focusing on nurturing the tech-based talent. “Recently, we launched our professional conversion program for blockchain developers together with the Singapore Polytechnic, a program that provides a job placement along with a salary and training subsidies for the employers,” explained Chia. Although he believes that in an average fintech company, there would be a composition of more tech talents than other positions, it is essential for the association to be as inclusive as possible in the talent-related initiatives held by the association.

Blockchain for the future?

Chia believes that the potential will be in blockchain in the next three to five years. “If you look at the Ernst and Young fintech Adoption Report 2019, adoption in Singapore already jumped to nearly 70%, so fintech adoption is already there,” said Chia. “That’s why we set up the Singapore Blockchain Association to focus on getting the talents ready.”

The Singapore Blockchain Association has been encouraging businesses to explore the adoption of blockchain technology in suitable use cases, as blockchain may not be a suitable technology solution for all businesses. “We are taking on the role of creating talent, educating the public, and providing education to the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) on blockchain. We also recently taught our very first enterprise blockchain course in collaboration with the National University of Singapore.”

Bitcoin Association Bestows First-Ever Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship to PhD Student

Bitcoin Association, a leading global organization for Bitcoin business, has revealed its first-ever Satoshi Nakamoto scholarship to a second year Cambridge University PhD student undertaking human genomics.

Robin Kohze is the beneficiary of the scholarship after he successfully took part in a series of blockchain competitions, whereby he emerged second at Bitcoin Association’s 2nd Bitcoin SV Hackathon.

Boosting Technological Advancements via Education

The Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship has been developed to propel technological development and study of real-world blockchain applications made possible by Bitcoin SV (BSV), a cryptocurrency created as a result of Bitcoin Cash hard fork.

Kohze has developed HIVE, a decentralized protocol, that seeks to connect content scattered across the web. It also aims at changing the media landscape by incorporating a molecular dynamic inspired incentive network that enables individuals across the globe to add information.

The graph database generated is directly maintained and stored in the Bitcoin SV blockchain for maximal transparency and interoperability.

Jimmy Nguyen, Bitcoin Association’s founding president, acknowledged: “As part of our organization’s mission, we want to support the next generation of great Bitcoin thinkers and developers. Robin Kohze is an exceptionally talented mind who understands Bitcoin’s technical capabilities to transform data interactions, and we are thrilled to award him our first ever Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship. We look forward to his HIVE project being realized to create real-world value, and also appreciate his work to educate fellow Cambridge students about the Satoshi Vision for Bitcoin.”

On the other hand, Kohze asserted: “Exceptional times require extraordinary – and sometimes daring ideas. A decade after the creation of the Bitcoin protocol by Satoshi Nakamoto, we stand on the brink of a global paradigm shift towards yet unseen frictionless global cooperation. With HIVE, I utilize the original Bitcoin protocol to implement a novel combination of game theoretical rule-sets to reconnect diverging perspectives in an increasingly polarised media landscape. I feel deeply honored to receive the first Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship that enables the research and development of the HIVE protocol and thank the Bitcoin Association as well as all the many committed developers around the Bitcoin SV ecosystem to make those endeavors possible.”

The Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship will aid Kohze in developing HIVE into a fully functioning platform that supports both iOS and Android applications.

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Students at Texas-based University Accorded with Blockchain-Powered GreenLight Credentials

The University of North Texas (UNT) in Dallas has unveiled GreenLight Credentials, a blockchain-enabled academic records verification platform, for its students, giving them more control of their transcripts.

Student empowerment via blockchain

Through this strategic collaboration, UNT Dallas students will be able to easily share their academic credentials quickly and securely across the globe. Additionally, transparency is granted because the transcripts and other verified records are kept in a decentralized system.

Bob Mong, UNT Dallas President, noted, “GreenLight puts the power directly in the hands of our students. […] Students are now just a click away from instantly accessing their transcripts around the clock. We are proud to be the first four-year university in the nation to partner with GreenLight, and we’re excited to bring the simplicity and convenience of this resource to our UNT Dallas students.”

Fraudulent academic credentials have been rising at an alarming rate to the extent that employers hire third-party verification companies to authenticate documents. This is a time-consuming and expensive process because it involves requesting confirmation from the respective college or university about the enrollment of the particular student.

By leveraging on blockchain technology, UNT Dallas seeks to eliminate this hassle by giving more power to its students over their academic records.

Blockchain-enabled recruitment

The blockchain-based GreenLight platform will also be instrumental in enabling enrollment officers at UNT Dallas to find and recruit learners from community colleges and high schools efficiently.

Blockchain solutions are being embraced across different spectrums. The education sector is not an exemption, as evidenced by the urge to eliminate fraudulent academic documents by institutions of higher learning like UNT Dallas.

Recently, the Harvard Blockchain Lab applauded Fight to Fame Model for presenting a notable decentralized ecosystem in the entertainment industry. HashCash Consultants has also shown its intention of streamlining the complex process of drug research and clinical trials with blockchain.

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How Blockchain Technology is Helping to Fight the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic

As the world battles with the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s consequent economic and social effects: several world governments, agencies, and institutions are joining the fight to help reduce the spread of the virus while assiduously working to create a cure and a vaccine. For each country, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a major state of emergency, the Government’s role in addressing the issue is more visible at this time when compared to private and independent institutions.

In Italy for instance, the country has recorded a cataclysmic rise in the total number of deaths which stands at 18,279 along with a record 143,626 confirmed cases as of April 10th. While the government’s proactive measures in declaring a stay at home order, closure of businesses and, sanitization of public spaces are valiant efforts can be applauded; the efforts of individuals like Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli in turning snorkeling masks into essential breathing equipment may not be as widely publicized or recognized globally.

While innovation and technology are being deployed at scale to free the world of Covid-19, the role of blockchain technology to combat aspects of the pandemics’ negative effects has been a particularly potent weapon in this fight to restore our supply lines and authenticate information, as well as cross-border remittance.

Blockchain Gets Busy

Blockchain technology remains a game-changer in the use of encrypted open-source ledger in the processing of data. In its own right, it came as a disruptive technology that is now gradually being embraced by technology-dependent and futuristic firms worldwide. With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in late 2019, many blockchain-based firms have launched innovative ways to make a difference in this global medical upset. Few of the application of blockchain technology in the fight against coronavirus is outlined below;

Insurance Claims

The coronavirus disease creates a major health concern that is enough to create an unbalanced book for medical insurance companies worldwide. With over a million cases all over the world, the impact on Health Management Organizations cannot be underestimated. In China where the outbreak began, Ant Financials online Mutual Aid blockchain-based platform Xiang Hu Bao has introduced a new function to process several coronavirus claims. This function undoubtedly has helped the firm reduce in-person contact as these claims are made online.

Education

With the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a major disruption in education across all levels as the stay at home order looms. Higher educational institutions are resorting to online alternatives to take classes and write exams and Odem is providing free access to its blockchain-powered educational and credentialing platform to higher institutions. While the Odem platform may not be a perfect replacement for the traditional classroom experience, it definitely is helping to bridge the learning gap in these trying times.

Donation Tracking

The humanitarian grace of many people was reawakened with the Covid-19 disease outbreak. With donations coming from sports celebrities, business leaders, etc. HyperChain, Hangzhou based blockchain startup has created a donation tracking system that will help donors see where funds are urgently needed. With this ingenuity, HyperChain has raised millions of dollars in coronavirus donations with the promise of transparency and responsibility.

Algorand

The Algorand Foundation launched a health survey website to record public health trends during the novel coronavirus pandemic. With this survey website called iReport-COVID, infected persons can give an account of their experiences anonymously with an assurance that their identities will be protected.

Cross Border Payment Solution

The better perk of blockchain technology and its associated cryptocurrencies is to facilitate financial transactions worldwide. With financial institutions crippled, cross country payment solutions require an alternative which is best obtained from blockchain-powered cryptocurrencies.

Need for Applause?

With all that is being done with blockchain technology of which just a fraction is documented in this article, one might want to give a loud applause for these contributions but until a final victory over the coronavirus disease is achieved, all active stakeholders must keep working till global health is restored and life returns to normal in our cities. It is then that our applause to our medical practitioners, scientists, and technology deployed can be resounding.

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