Bitcoin Forum

Since companies (like Coinbase) are giving college students bitcoins, should universities start incorporating virtual currencies like bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin, etc. into their curriculums? What do you think?  ::)

I think they should first stop selecting their students by a worthless piece of paper and instead select them by how motivated and talented they actually are.

Universities lost their "laboratories of progress" status a long time ago. Most academics look and act more bureaucrats than intellectual leaders now. They screech about funding while giving their students no real tools to use in the the real world after they leave school. 

Obviously this should be taken with a grain of salt because it's a generalization, but becoming a university professor is basically the fallback position for somebody who has academic qualifications but no discernible value transitioning into the real world. It's a self-selecting population of failures who simply succeeded keeping their nose clean and going along with whatever the groupthink flavor of the month is in academia.

I'm the only one who think that students are the biggest part of population that the community want to add them?

young ambitious technically evolved and the next generation that will rule their countries..
I'm sure that some universities will accept some deals that involved BTC and even lectures that explain the main idea of it.

Hitting universities with Bitcoin is a Good idea and we are trying that in India through different meetups.

Even on a practical level, a while back when I explained Bitcoin to my mother, the very first thing she thought of was that she wished this existed back when me and my siblings were in college, because she could immediately send money to us whenever with no hassle.

Dude my wife is an English professor  ;D

For the most part you are actually dead on though. I have become friends with quite a few that would say the same thing. 

I did read an article last week that said MIT students will receive bitcoin when they begin their semester
http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N22/bitcoin.html

So I can see it having a role in universities

This well put.

Universities are now just regulatory bodies that soak up funding to get a piece of paper that is required for a registration board somewhere.

Universities have become trade schools rather than research bodies. I am forced to uni to get the recognized certification to register to work.

The Uni thus has a state sanctioned stranglehold/monopoly.

It's hard to think of a more f...ked up system.

I had the joy of exploding this one in a Legal Philosophy/Law Social theory class at UNI at why I was forced to be there.

If the bank use BTC in terms of large funds transfer，We will get a better development,Because BTC is safe.

It's a nice idea but I think not at the moment. Bitcoins and crytocurrency's are experimental at the moment and pale in comparison to the sheer size of fiat. I would say before we start teaching kids the merits of a system we need to actually show the system isn't a failure and in this case comes large consumer and merchant acceptance.

1st UK university to accept bitcoins - Carlisle university
http://www.itv.com/news/border/update/2014-01-21/tuition-fees-can-be-paid-with-bit-coins/

Unfortunately, it only accepts BTC for two certificate programs. You can't pay your whole tuition in BTC, but that's to be expected. It's still awesome that the university is cautiously exploring crypto-currency as a payment option.

I think that's too far ahead of us. I think Bitcoin first has to prove itself and be stable for a quite a long time. Than some (probably technical) universities might accept Bitcoin.

However, I don't think that would happen this year. Maybe in 2015, or 2016.

It's a smart action if bitcoin can be well advocated  in universities, because those students will be mainstream users in future.

Why not? Bitcoin is a part of Technology, thus, Science. And also a part of Math.

Some universities "get it".

e.g. the University of Nicosia has an MSc in Digital Currencies and has just kicked off a free MOOC on the topic.  twitter.com/polemitis is behind it.

And twitter.com/gvrooyen is doing some really interesting work at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.  I met him and some of his students this weekend at Bitcoin 2014 - very smart.

Traditional unis with clearly defined silos seem to struggle to "get" it - perhaps because you need a combination of economics/computer science/crypto/finance to appreciate the achievement Bitcoin represents?

Of course they should do it. I would be very glad if somebody told me about cryptocurrencies when I was still in University

I'm surprised it took 9 posts before someone mentioned MIT. The experiment in Boston is very exciting, one of the best stories all year.
Ideally, it could be repeated at many schools, but you need someone honest collecting the donations at each location.

That could be added to anyone studying computer sciences or economics/currencies/inflation/deflation.

Some universities are already doing so (Cyprus, etc.). They have programs dedicated towards cryptos in economics and finance departments, but also in the political arena as well. Bitcoin has such a huge impact that its effects are far-reaching and are not limited.

I think it's wonderful! After all, universities contributes to the development of the system, an experiment in MIT could give crypto-community a new «crypto-geniuses»

This is a good information, i think it's a perfect choice.

It may not be entirely difficult to incorporate Bitcoin in various disciplines. You can get engineering programs surrounding the technological aspect, computer science will be onboard, as well as computer engineering. There is also the economic perspective, political, and even the schools of laws.

I definitely agree a young prestigious place like MIT is the type of place that seems like a great place to get bitcoin started.
It will take a while but I would like to see more universities starting to accept bitcoin and trusted people to manage those transactions of course.

I hope they do some close analysis of the usage after the semester is over. I suspect that they will find that most of the Bitcoin was never used and ultimately wasted. Give a kid a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime.

Anyone want to take bets? I give it a 25% usage rate. I hope that I am wrong and it is higher, but unearned Bitcoin will be deemed as a trashy marketing ploy. I do think we might see some good ideas come from the giveaway, but those ideas would have come about with other tactics that don't require giving away Bitcoin.

Considering the university is MIT and most of its students are technologically literate and it specializes in that field it may be a bit higher than if it was another school or university.
I am genuinely curious though what the usage rate would be in a year, I assume it will be correlated to their knowledge of the goods and services they can exchange Bitcoin for, but I agree we will need time to see the usage rate, one thing is for sure 25% of 11,000 is a pretty nice number around 2750 users in one location is enough to build an economy around some place.
http://web.mit.edu/facts/faqs.html

Conbase scams 10% of users and out of the 10% maybe 5% come through with trying to prove what happened, this selective scamming has been going on for awhile..

This will likely (if it hasn't already) make it's way into classes that are computer and IT related.

It will likely be a long time until there are separate classes regarding crypto currencies and this is still a very new concept.

If you want to promote Bitcoin at your university, start a club; promote vicarisly with advertisements of other bitcoin services. Hold events, raise money for bitcoin charity's. Don't need to be the sole salesmen, people wouldn't trust that anyway.

Already there are universities who do accept bitcoins, and it will need time to let the list grow.

it would be very complicated if the university related to bitcoin,
but it is possible because some universities are already using bitcoin

It's already happening in the Uk. For example UCL runs regular high level seminars on bitcoin.

hey! i think bitcoins can becomes the local currency in the campuses. sounds great. Does anyone there learning now in an university with big campus? Good idea,  i think.
- could u help me with chemistry?
- 0.2 BTC, please  ;D

it sounds strange, but it would be very nice if it runs. so, they will better understand and accept bitcoin, until his government later endorsed bitcoin for all payments :)

I don't think many people pay their friends to get help with classes. Most departments offer free tutoring if the department is big enough (has enough students taking classes in the subject) and professors must have office hours to help students who are struggling and to provide clarification on what was discussed at class.

I think it would be more likely for places like school bookstores and the cafeteria/restaurants on campus to accept bitcoin   

When all huge unversities will start to accept BTC, it will be a new era in education system

Really a good topic.If universities will start to accept bitcoin it will be so helpful for international students.

Well it will save them some political risk of having their accounts frozen and being unable to fund them
And save some conversion costs etc.
But international students still pay a premium to study abroad so every bit certainly helps.

They do.. just how motivated and talented are you get obtain that 'piece of paper' which gets you a job>others.

A lot of generalizations and inaccurate portrayals of universities tossed around here.

I can only speak from experience... but at my school the professors were intelligent, successful people.
And while the core curriculum didn't include cryptocurrencies (yet), we did have student-taught courses on Bitcoin available for credit.
Education on college campuses will spur the wave of mass adoption - in my mind, there is no doubt about that.