Universities Racing to Provide Lectures on Crypto: Opportunities and Pitfalls

For the most part, the teaching of crypto takes place in the context of business-related programs, with very few universities offering specific degrees in cryptocurrencies or blockchains themselves.

Since the teaching is centred around understanding the applications of blockchain tech, its lectures cover such topics as payment systems through history, how blockchains work, criminality and cryptocurrencies, and managing bank runs.

What's interesting about such growth is that it's being driven, to a large extent, by the students themselves, who in some cases are pushing their universities to include modules, courses and lectures on crypto in their programs.

The Universidad de Alcalá in Spain is now offering a "Máster en Ethereum, Tecnología Blockchain y Cripto-Economía," which promises "To provide comprehensive training in the field of blockchain technology, DAOs and smart contracts, including cryptocurrencies as a special and transversal case, from a triple perspective: technological, economic-financial and regulatory." A similarly tripartite focus is also evident with the Expert Master in Blockchain and Cryptoeconomics organized by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

The Diploma in Cryptoeconomies: Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrencies is again targeted at people "With very basic knowledge and who want to learn the reasons, mechanics and disruptive opportunities at a monetary, technological level and as a form of investment." It lasts only for a couple of months starting July 11, underlining the fact that its priorities reside more with introducing students to blockchains and cryptocurrencies than with fully teaching them how to be an integral and productive part of the cryptocurrency industry itself.

A couple of technical universities are adding courses on how to develop cryptocurrencies, highlighting the ways some nations are aiming to teach students the means of building blockchains, rather than of just understanding them on a conceptual and financial level.

Universities therefore increasingly seek to capitalize on such people, and - given that the knowledge they're imparting is sometimes 'basic' - it's arguable as to whether their underlying motive in offering crypto courses is partly profit-driven, rather than being guided solely by a belief in the wider social, economic and political value of what they're teaching.

Of course, there has been no admission from any of the universities concerned that they're simply looking to make money out of the crypto craze, although the increasing commercialization of universities in general would strengthen such a suspicion.

"The free MOOC was a wonderful intro to crypto and blockchains. It covered information on both a business and technical level. Obviously, it is an intro course, but the knowledge I received was incredibly useful and helped me conceptually understand the what, how and why of crypto and blockchains."

Such accounts show that, even if some crypto courses are more introductory than intensive, there are others that provide students with a thorough and varied schooling in cryptocurrencies and blockchains - one that will actually help them play an active, rather than passive, role in the crypto industry.