“Mistrustful Current Banking System” Fueling Students Interest in Crypto & Blockchain: Coinbase Study

56% of the top global universities, compared to 42% in 2018, now offer at least one course on crypto or blockchain, reported Coinbase in its “The 2019 Leaders in Crypto Education” survey.

As the crypto market grows, millennials’ interest is surging as well. As such, universities are offering courses on cryptocurrencies.

“For this generation, the idea that you can’t easily send dollars around the world online is a really bizarre limitation,”

shared Emin Gün Sirer, a Computer Science professor and co-director of Initiative for Cryptocurrencies & Contracts at Cornell University about students seeing fragmentation across the financial system as a problem that needs to be solved.

Though computer science classes are still the most common, accounting for 32.2%, finance, business, and economic classes are also gaining attraction.

This year, Coinbase also analyzed non-coursework offerings like student-run crypto clubs and research initiatives.

In the US, MIT, New York University, Stanford, and the University of California-Berkeley have a deep commitment to crypto and blockchain with Cornell in the lead by offering 14 classes while Stanford, with 10 classes, was in the lead last year.

“With Crypto you get to Shape the field and Become a Leader”

Distrust in the current financial system among the student is feeding this increasing curiosity around crypto.

This has two-thirds of students see the current financial system as “unstable,” “inefficient,” “unequal,” or “slow-moving.”

As such, 34% of students surveyed expressed interest in taking a course on crypto and blockchain, in comparison to just 28% last year. Twice as many have already taken a class on the topic, than last year.

“Definitely, some of the students interested in this topic are ones who feel mistrustful of the current banking system,”

said computer science professor Cesare Fracassi.

Interest in learning how crypto can benefit people have students learning about blockchain and “social justice” rising from 13% to 20%.

However, interest in learning about “security” and “future applications and growth” declined, from 37% to 29% and from 31% to 27% respectively.

“There’s a lot of power for students to enter this industry and help take control of it,” notes Cornell Blockchain club co-founder and recent graduate Joseph Ferrera. “With crypto you get to shape the field and become a leader.”