Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to pursue their passions. Those were the early days of computer technology and social media respectively.
And these are the early days of cryptocurrencies. While most college students are struggling with their coursework and even contracting with an essay writing service to get some of their academic writing completed, growing numbers are foregoing that struggle. Instead, they are turning off-campus apartments into cryptocurrency trading hubs and declining to register for next semester’s classes.
The Hype
It all began with Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that increased 15X in market value in 2017. Being young and not averse to risk-taking, college students sat up and took notice. They began to research not just Bitcoin but the hundreds of other cryptocurrency offerings available on the markets. And they saw the potential for a “get rich quick” endeavor, when such endeavors are certainly in short supply these days.
And there is some urgency involved here. While cryptocurrencies were the subject of jokes among traditional investors just a few years ago, the “big boys” of investing are now beginning to move in on these markets. College students see their window for getting in early closing, and they don’t want to pass up this opportunity.
While most student investors are not making millions, they are realizing solid profits from their investments, and are willing to defer that degree in favor of making some financial gains now. They study cryptocurrencies as they would study for any college course, doing their research, making investment choices, and then plunking down money, sometimes as little as $200, as they begin this trading adventure.
Colleges Respond
Certainly, colleges are not able to stem the tide of student dropouts for the purpose of pursuing this new craze of crypto trading. However, they have responded by offering new courses and organizing groups and clubs dedicated to a study of cryptocurrency and the technology behind it — blockchain. This is in response to a growing demand on the part of business, finance, and computer science students for coursework in these domains.
In the U.S. alone, major universities have now developed courses to satisfy this new demand. NYU, Duke, Princeton, Stanford and the entire UC conglomerate are now offering courses with such titles as “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” and “Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, and smart Contracts.” All of this is based on the prediction that fiat currencies will gradually give way to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for financial transactions.
Consider, for example, that online retailers such as Overstock.com are now accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for their product offerings. And major financial institutions are now adopting blockchain technology as secure methods by which immutable financial transactions can be recorded and stored.
It is not just college and university curriculum decision-makers that are contributing to the demand and hype surrounding cryptocurrencies. All over the world, in fact, student clubs and organizations are forming based upon cryptocurrency investing.
Blockchain Technology — A New Field of Study
Computer science has long been a major field of study on college campuses. Programming, data science, network security and administration, etc. are just a few of the fields of computer science study.
Enter blockchain technology. It is the technology upon which cryptocurrencies are based. In short, every transaction, financial or otherwise, is entered into a “block” of transactions. And each block is connected to the one before it and the one following it. It is a part of a never-ending chain of blocks that cannot be changed or hacked, and it promises to be the preferred method of recording and storing data of all sorts — from healthcare, to banking, to contracts, and more.
Blockchain technology has opened up an entirely new field of computer science study, and, with it, a number of new careers for graduates in the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology fields. In fact, one report states that there has been an 82% increase in job demand in these two niches just in recent months.
This increase has come from a number of industries that are not even related to cryptocurrencies.
· In the healthcare industry, for example, blockchain technology will permanently codify data on patient information and treatment, so that it can be retrieved in a secure environment by permission-granted access.
· In the banking industry, financial transactions will be recorded and stored, preventing human error and fraud.
· In business, contracts can be loaded into blocks providing a permanent and unchangeable record of the details of those agreements.
And the study of blockchain technology is not just isolated to college campuses. There has been a surge of online coursework and MOOC’s in this technology, so that those well beyond their college years or who are not interested in pursuing a degree can still become experts and demand healthy salaries — up to $220,00 a year according to some findings.
College Administrators are Finding Value in Blockchain
As much as blockchain technology is impacting industries across the board, it is proving to be a great resource for colleges themselves. Consider just this one function: student academic records have always been subject to hacking and human error. When they can become a part of a blockchain, however, there is an immutable record of courses, GPA’s, and earned degrees that are securely stored forever. Course content, an increasingly important element in proof of skill development, can also become a part of a blockchain, ensuring that job applicants and potential employers an access the details of skill mastery.
Completion of off-campus and online coursework can also be recorded, providing job seekers with proof of their skill development.
The Future
A recent Harris Poll of 2,000 millennials has reported that 32% of them will be investing in Bitcoin rather than the traditional stock market offerings. Many of these are college students who are banking on the continued rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as the future of financial transactions and the storage of critical data. They certainly may be on to something, as fiat currencies and traditional financial institutions are seen as less and less attractive.