Universities with courses on Blockchain Technology & Cryptocurrencies: University of Nicosia

Hello dear blog readers and members of Nexus Global,

Blockchain technology specialists are becoming more and more popular and in the coming weeks, we would like to introduce you to some study providers who are currently offering courses in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

We would like to start with the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, which is offering several courses to these subjects worldwide and even an officially licensed master's degree.

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The University of Nicosia in Cyprus (UNIC)

• Offers as entry a free online study
  (Passing is required for Master's degree with official Master's degree)

• Includes 12 live online seminars

• Speakers: Bitcoin experts Andreas Antonopoulos and Antonis

About the Program:

The University of Nicosia has launched the first Master of Science degree in Digital Currency that is offered to students worldwide through an online format.
The MSc in Digital Currency is designed to help financial services and business professionals, entrepreneurs, government officials and public administrators better understand the technical underpinnings of digital currency, how it will likely interact with existing monetary and financial systems, and what opportunities exist for innovation in digital currency systems.

The program seeks to fill an important gap that exists today between the supply of and demand for academic knowledge in the area of digital currency. More specifically, while the interest in digital currencies has skyrocketed in the past few years, academic institutions have been slow to implement academic programs that cover the need for educating specialists in the area, addressing it in its entirety (technical and financial aspects alike).
This programme bridges the gap in specialist and generalist knowledge in this multidisciplinary field, and positions the university as a leader in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology education globally.

More importantly, we’ve identified a dearth of apolitical, responsibly accurate and accredited education on the many facets and disciplines that comprise this industry. An increasing number of finance, banking, computing, supply chain, SaaS and IoT businesses are discovering the benefits of this technology. This new potential and the new risks it may involve have to be carefully evaluated by expert lenses, not just in one field, but through the interface of many expert tangents.

In this increasingly competitive and interconnected environment, challenges abound and there are no easy solutions. The more spherical the education, the more responsible business decisions can be made, and the best vectors to maximize the advantages out of the use of this technology, can be achieved.

The MSc in Digital Currency is offered online to students worldwide and the language of instruction is English. The first course in the degree pathway, DFIN-511: Introduction to Digital Currencies, is available for free as an open enrollment MOOC course to anyone interested in learning more about the fundamental principles of digital currency.

Source: https://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/about-the-program/

Topics of free online course:

1. A brief History of Money
2. The Byzantine Generals’ Problem

Info: Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) is the dependability of a fault-tolerant computer system, particularly distributed computing systems, where components may fail and there is imperfect information on whether a component has failed. In a "Byzantine failure", a component such as a server can inconsistently appear both failed and functioning to failure-detection systems, presenting different symptoms to different observers.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance

1. Basics of Cryptocurrency
2. Bitcoin in Practice I
3. Bitcoin in Practice II
4. Alternative uses of the Blockchain
5. Alternatives to Bitcoin
6. Cryptocurrency & Central Banking
7. Cryptocurrency & Financial Institutions
8. Regulatory and tax treatment
9. Cryptocurrency and Innovation
10. Cryptocurrency and the Developing World
    
    

Continuing officially licensed UNIC degree: Master of Science in Digital Currency

So far, this master's program is unique in Europe and plays a pioneering role. There is the possibility to get a scholarship for the studies (eg with a very good result of the previous course). The University of Nicosia also accepts Bitcoin as a tuition fee, which amounts to € 12800 + € 55 application fee.

The Master degree is designed to prepare participants to become competent professionals in the field of digital currency. Graduates benefit from a broad background, combining courses in finance, management, computer science, and information systems to provide a holistic analysis of digital currency systems, applications, and services. Students get exposed to an enriching and stimulating curriculum that includes topics on money and banking, international financial and currency markets, principles of disruptive innovation, regulatory frameworks, cryptography and cryptographic systems security, distributed systems architectures, and others.

Theoretical principles, state-of-the-art research, and case studies of digital currency systems and tools are mastered by students who may also select to advance their programming skills and become highly skilled developers in digital currencies or specialize in financial/management aspects and become highly literate consultants, entrepreneurs, or financial professionals. The degree constitutes an independent and terminal study in addition to providing the basis for acceptance to, and continued studies towards, a doctoral degree.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this program, students should be able to:

1. Define concepts of money and money supply and associate present international financial markets and money transfer systems to digital currency alternatives.

2. Explore theoretical principles on currencies, banking, the role of central banks, and monetary policy to determine the likely implications of digital currencies upon them.

3. Identify and analyze challenges, prospects, and risks of digital currencies and devise business proposals and/or develop systems and services that address them.

4. Apply and advance practice or research on cryptography, distributed systems architectures, and information systems to design innovative systems and services that complement and extend the existing digital currencies ecosystem.

5. Review, analyze, and compare different regulatory environments (banking, payments, commerce, legal, accounting, and so on), debate on likely implications introduced by digital currencies, and advise on alternative proposals.

6. Analyze best practices related to digital currencies, specify business opportunities, and apply digital currency based innovative solutions to address problems in business, finance, or the society at large.

Source: https://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/about-the-program/degree-overview/

The purpose of the proposed graduate program will give students the opportunity to acquire deeper knowledge and skills in the field of digital currency. This is a new area of practice and research that is expected to provide ample employment opportunities for program graduates in various and inter-disciplinary positions at the intersection between management, computer science, and finance.

The program is both theoretical and practical and has been designed so as to allow the students to choose those elective courses that will meet their future career goals. In particular, elective courses are split into two main streams: one (consisting of courses COMP-530, COMP-531, COMP532, and COMP-533) is addressing the needs of students with a programming background that want to delve into the details of computer-science related aspects of digital currency, and one (consisting of courses FIN-534, DFIN-535, and MIS-536) is addressing the needs of students wishing to gain a more in-depth understanding of financial and information systems aspects of digital currencies. Regardless of the stream chosen by students, each lecturer will strive to create an inspiring atmosphere for the students who want to know more than just the basic facts in each of these various fields of study.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

1. Hold managerial positions in the digital currency industry or related posts in finance, regulation, and government offices.

2. Become senior technical developers or administrators in the ICT marketplace as it relates to digital currency systems and applications.

3. Become entrepreneurs and establish their own enterprises in the field of digital currency.

4. Continue studying towards a doctoral degree.

Nexus Global also plans to offer an officially certified blockchain technology course in the future, making it the first proper academy to study blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in the German-speaking area.

Here you can find our introduction article about NexusGlobal: Introducing Nexus Global: Suitable Mining for everyone!

--> Here you can sign-up as a member of Nexus Global.

This article was published by @future24 on behalf of Michael Thomale @michael.thomale.