Any computer scientists in the house?? Have a few questions if you do not mind.
I'm wondering about the level of study/effort/interest currently going on at the academic levels into cryptocurrencies. Is this a common area of study? Taught at undergrad or graduate level? Do most computer scientists have a background in this?
From going over Satoshi's first paper it appears that some of the main ideas in the references stemmed from around the year 1998. So has this been a hot topic or small niche in universities for the past 15 years and will it continue to grow? I studied a bit of cryptology in math many years ago now and I find it fascinating what these bright computer people have done with the theories and how they have applied in to finances.
Oh, and last question... It seems clear that bitcoin was designed to solve a direct problem... ie lowering costs of certain transactions by getting rid of human moderators. What are some of the other fundamental problems yet to be solved that are distinctly different?
Thanks in advance to any of you that reply