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May 08, 2014, 03:44:03 AM |
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Student completes first Bitcoin payment to University of Cumbria
By Editor on 06/05/2014
Leander Bindewald
Leander Bindewald
On Wednesday 7 May, from France, a German student pays a British university for a course. The transaction is completed in seconds, on a mobile phone.
The currency? Bitcoin.
Following the announcement in January that the University of Cumbria would become the first public university in the world to accept Bitcoin payments for two of its courses, Leander Bindewald will become its first student to complete a payment.
Leander, originally from Germany and now working for the New Economics Foundation in London, will be completing his PhD on ‘the role of complementary currencies in the new social paradigm of money’ at the university. This payment is one month’s instalment of his tuition fees; however it represents a momentous moment in the history of currency innovation.
He will complete the transaction tomorrow morning between 9.00 and 11.00am, during a panel dedicated to new currency innovations at the Ouishare Conference in Paris, a three-day festival about the collaborative economy.
The event is bringing together over 1000 entrepreneurs, social innovators, non-profit and business leaders, grassroots activists and public officials to build a common vision of a collaborative society.
Leander explains: “Bitcoin is posing questions about the nature of money and our financial and social systems, which do not find simple answers in traditional banking and economic theory.
“This is a clear sign of an immanent paradigm shift and I am glad the University of Cumbria is providing not only a research environment for these questions, but engages practically in the learning with these new currencies.
“And the scope of this is not limited to Bitcoin alone but extends to hundreds of different forms of currency innovations, from business-to-business credit-circles, to social time-banking initiatives, carbon-reduction currencies and local economic experiments.”
Professor Jem Bendell, Director of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability at the University of Cumbria, is also speaking at the conference. He comments:
“I’m delighted Leander has joined the university to complete his doctoral studies and research currency innovation for sustainable development.
“Making his payment during the Ouishare conference in Paris is an important statement that crypto-currencies can be part of a broader shift in economic thinking. We need to harness currency innovation for the common good. That’s the starting point for our research at IFLAS.
“Leander is already working with me to design our new Certificate of Achievement in Sustainable Exchange, which starts at our London campus in October. The course is being launched due to the growing practice of currency innovation and the potential it presents for significant societal change.”
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