Bitcoins value may have dropped in the marketplace but interest in cryptocurrency is rising just as fast in the classrooms of top universities across the US.

Academia Gets Heavy into Bitcoin

Some of the top universities in America including Duke, Cornell and Massachuttes Institute of Technology are now offering classes exploring cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology as reported by the New York Times.

“There was some gentle ribbing from my colleagues when I began giving talks on Bitcoin but within a few months, I was being invited to Basel to talk with central bankers … joking from my colleagues stopped after that.”

Said David Yermack a professor of business and law at New York University who began teaching one of the first classes on the subject in 2014.

The classes have proven so popular among students that schools have had to shift classes to the largest lecture halls on campus and limit student enrollment.

As changes in the technology and market happen so rapidly teachers and professors aren’t promising a definitive syllabus.

“We aren’t waiting until we perfect it, don’t compare it to the perfect blockchain course. Compare it to having no blockchain course at all.”

Said Greg La Blanc one the professors teaching a course called Blockchain, Cryptoeconomics and the Future of Technology, Business and Law at the University of California, Berkley. A course that attracted so many students the three departments involved had to split the seats between them to make attendance fair.

The popularity of the courses may be fueled by the meteoric rise of Bitcoin prices in late 2017 but many students are reporting interest beyond making money fast from investing.

Blockchain Vital to the Future of Doing Business

There are as many classes on offer that explore the future of the Blockchain technology as there are examining the nature of digital currency.

“The students in my class are from every possible discipline, They understand that this is going to disrupt many different areas of business, and they want to be the disrupters, not the disruptees.”

Quipped Duke Universtiy business school professor Campbell Harvey, who is teaching a class with 231 students this semester.

Back at Berkley students who couldn’t find seats in crypto classes have formed their own campus club that offers classes and forums on Blockchain technology.

Students in these classes are looking towards the changes Blockchain ledger technology is going to bring to the immediate future to industries as far reaching as transport logistics, music streaming and of course money management.

“This is a very precious opportunity for you to be able to sit in this class, There are a bazillion other students who are waiting for your spot.” Professor Dawn Song tells her students.