Blockchain in the classroom: More than just NFTs, crypto scams
What is blockchain? Some students were unable to answer, while others like Bella Mensing, sophomore in LAS, said they specifically know of memes that mention NFTs or cryptocurrency.
“All I know is that they made NFTs for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and I know of one specific NFT called the Brick 100,” Mensing said. “That’s it.”
But for students in finance and technology-related fields, there is a growing demand for blockchain technology from industry. So when Matt Schawel, a Business alum, tried to find a course that focused on blockchain during his final semester, he was surprised when he met Prof. Vishal Sachdev, who was about to make one.
Ki Yun Lee, a graduate student studying mechanical engineering, also shared his interest in blockchain. He joined the team last year, along with then-Gies seniors Matt Schawel and Nico Zhu. The course was first offered to graduate students in the summer, where Lee was allowed to be a course assistant.
“I was fortunate enough to build the curriculum with him from the ground up,” Lee said. “I collected reading materials, created quizzes and, most importantly, designed about 20 blockchain analytics projects on their own.”
Sachdev is a faculty member in the information systems area of the College of Business, director of the master’s degree in Business Analytics and runs the Illinois Maker Lab. Next spring, a revised course will be available to students.
“Some of the exercises in the course require that they aactually Mint an NFT,” explained Sachdev. “They take a quiz and they get an NFT that is recorded on the blockchain. I think I had 42 students. So for such a new subject it went quite well. People were quite happy with it, and a couple of people got jobs as a result.
Sachdev noted that there is a lot of progress for more blockchain material to be implemented in academia to meet industry demand.
“Academia is always a bit slower than the wider market in terms of bringing things,” explained Sachdev. “But there’s a lot of unmet demand. Now people are saying we need people who understand people and processes, rather than just technology. I think that’s where the business (students) shine; getting things implemented, in the hands of users and making sure that it is the right interface.”
Schawel said there are problems with this space related to the many misconceptions about blockchain and its connection to cryptocurrency.
“You say crypto, and people think it’s a scam,” Schawel said. “They’ve heard of people making millions and losing millions. But what people don’t understand is that crypto is just a one-off of blockchains. And of course, it’s the most popular because you can make money from the.”
Lee echoed this sentiment, arguing that there is a bias in the media. While people think of it as an asset or an investment, it is a technology meant to solve technological problems for efficiency. Lee used the Internet as an analogy.
“Many people think that the Internet is complete, but there is a problem of double spending,” Lee said. “For example, I send a picture to someone, the recipient has the picture, but you, the sender, also have the picture. So the images can be duplicated. In 2008, the Bitcoin White paper came out, and it is only about a solution to double the spending of money. It doesn’t talk about (profit) at all.”
Sachdev said there is more bad news in the media because of the current crypto winter, which he said is not necessarily a bad thing.
“There was a lot of hype, so there was an inevitable crash — what we call crypto winter,” Sachdev said. “Probably healthy for the ecosystem in the long run because it removes the business models that are not sustainable. Some of them were scams, some were just poorly designed.”
Sachdev also clarified that regulation does not work against decentralization – the essence of blockchain.
“Regulation happens when people consolidate power and are not accountable,” Sachdev said. “If a protocol is sufficiently decentralized, it doesn’t need to worry about regulation. You’ll get more of the bigger players using the technology on the back end, which will mean more people will benefit from lower costs. They don’t even need to know there’s a blockchain behind the wheels — they shouldn’t care.”
The team encourages students interested in the space to look beyond academia, such as getting involved with the Disruption Lab and other related campus RSOs.
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