University of Jamestown offers cryptocurrency and blockchain class

Bear said he signed up for a cryptocurrency and blockchain course after finding out that the University of Jamestown was offering the course this fall.

“It’s interesting. It’s a unique class because the ecosystem is always changing with cryptocurrency,” said Bear, a junior specializing in management information systems.

The University of Jamestown offered a cryptocurrency and blockchain course as a special themed class this fall. There are 15 students in the class, most of whom are computer science and information technology majors.

“Fifteen for an entry-level class that had a short three-sentence course description and that was all the students knew about it,” said Jakob Barnard, assistant professor in the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology who leads the class. “I found it pretty promising. That means that there is interest in the topic. ”

The Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Course is a specialty course, which is a mechanism the university uses to try new things and see how they work, said Chris Redfearn, associate provost and dean of UJ’s Undergraduate College.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain are topics that are of great interest to students and the general public, he said.

“I am pleased that one of our faculty members has accepted this as a course to help our students understand this new and emerging technology,” he said.

Barnard said it was important to have “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” in the course name as the class is not all about cryptocurrency.

“It’s blockchain through the lens of cryptocurrency,” he said.

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that can be used for payments or held as an investment similar to the stock market. Cryptocurrency is not a government currency and has no central bank, interest rates or a long history of exchange rates against other currencies.

Blockchain is decentralized and is made up of records called blocks that record transactions across many computers.

Blockchain is an immutable record and records are packed together, Barnard said.

“We package records together and then link them to the previous package that is linked to the previous package,” he said. “That’s what defines our chain, and that’s where the term blockchain comes from. Our package is called Block. ”

Mining is when complex math problems check that block, Barnard said.

“When you own a cryptocurrency, you have a small key card for a tiny part of that block and everyone checked it to agree,” he said. “Nobody owns that little chunk but you.”

Content for the class

Blockchain is a new technology, so there are no curricula for teaching it, Barnard said. He said the Association for Computing Machinery – an educational and scientific computing company – had just updated its guidelines and mentioned that blockchain exists as an emerging technology.

Barnard said he would like the students to find out how cryptocurrency and blockchain could be applied to them and share that information in preparation for their careers.

Barnard said the class is having discussions about why cryptocurrencies have value. He said the volatility in cryptocurrency prices is helping fuel some of the discussions in the classroom.

He asks students questions about cryptocurrency laws and regulations, fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices, whether it is financially worthwhile to mine cryptocurrencies, and the use of electricity to mine cryptocurrencies. He then gets students to do their own research so they can discuss during class.

“How will this affect you is one of the big questions we try to answer for students,” he said. “How does this affect things you may have learned in the business department? How would research into the cryptocurrency, the news, the hype play out right now, if you had to run a social media campaign for it, how would that affect things? ”

Barnard said the university supported and helped get the course started. He said the university gave him a budget to get equipment for the class.

Cryptocurrency mining machine

Redfearn said the course will give students a chance to learn about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in a hands-on way.

“It really is the best way to learn where students apply what they have learned in a classroom to a real-life situation,” he said. “The fact that Professor Barnard has developed a cryptocurrency rig and has the students actively working with the machine will, in my opinion, help them to learn more about it in concrete terms.”

Barnard has built a cryptocurrency mining machine that has six graphics cards and runs a software program called NiceHash that selects which cryptocurrency is most profitable to mine.

Barnard said the NiceHash software has a little overhead cost, but he doesn’t have to worry about managing the mining machine. NiceHash has an app that can be downloaded on a mobile phone and Barnard can ensure that the mining machine is running 24/7.

“The extent to which our machine is operated allows students to see how it works and the problems and challenges associated with mining and computing and everything that goes with it,” said Redfearn. “I think it’s a perfect machine for students to learn on.”

Barnard said he will have cryptocurrency mining data for class discussions for about six months.

“We have data that we generated with our things on campus,” he said. “We don’t just get magic numbers from the Internet.”

Collaboration with Applied Blockchain Inc.

Barnard said he worked with Applied Blockchain Inc. on potential partnerships with the class.

Applied Blockchain offers cryptocurrency mining and infrastructure solutions to its customers, according to its website. The company is building a cryptocurrency hosting facility that will be located approximately seven miles north of Jamestown.

Applied Blockchain has engineers and other experts who are knowledgeable about cryptocurrency and blockchain, Barnard said. He said it would be an excellent opportunity for him and the students to learn from experts how to manage software and work with blockchain applications.

“I can talk about small mining rigs,” he said. “Well, well, your people with our technology can make a Zoom call with us these days and explain to our students what it means to scale from six graphics cards to a huge facility and what technology is involved.”

Redfearn said talks about possible partnerships with Applied Blockchain are in the preparatory phase and he’s happy the company reached out to the university, but it’s too early to speculate what that might look like.

“These conversations will evolve over time,” he said. “We are interested in seeing the possibilities and having our students work there.”

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/10/02/university-of-jamestown-offers-cryptocurrency-and-blockchain-class/