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The Latest Course Catalog Trend? Blockchain 101 (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: On a clear, warm night earlier this year, several dozen University of California, Berkeley students folded themselves into gray chairs for a three-hour class on how to think like blockchain entrepreneurs. The evening's challenge, presented by Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett, was to brainstorm how blockchain technology might be used to alleviate the city's growing homeless problem.
"We have at least 1,400 homeless people in our city, and that includes many right here at UC Berkeley," Bartlett told the class. "So how can we use blockchain to fund a new prosperity? That's a challenge I'd like you to take on." The course, taught by visiting professor and former venture capitalist Po Chi Wu, is among a growing number of classes and research initiatives on blockchain technology emerging at universities. Blockchain -- a method for creating and maintaining a global ledger of transactions that doesn't require a third-party middleman such as a bank, government or corporation -- is best known for its role in powering the virtual currency bitcoin. Applications for the technology are springing up in sectors including retail, humanitarian aid, real estate and finance. Although some analysts believe blockchain won't gain widespread adoption for another five or 10 years, companies like IBM, Facebook and Google are investing heavily in the technology -- and universities are taking note.
New York University, Georgetown and Stanford are among the institutions that offer blockchain technology courses to get students thinking about its potential uses and to better prepare them for the workforce. Job postings requiring blockchain skills ballooned by 200 percent in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier, though they remain less than 1 percent of software development jobs, according to the research firm Burning Glass Technologies. Universities including MIT, Cornell, and Columbia are launching labs and research centers to explore the technology and its policy implications and seed the development of rigorous curricula on the topic.
"We have at least 1,400 homeless people in our city, and that includes many right here at UC Berkeley," Bartlett told the class. "So how can we use blockchain to fund a new prosperity? That's a challenge I'd like you to take on." The course, taught by visiting professor and former venture capitalist Po Chi Wu, is among a growing number of classes and research initiatives on blockchain technology emerging at universities. Blockchain -- a method for creating and maintaining a global ledger of transactions that doesn't require a third-party middleman such as a bank, government or corporation -- is best known for its role in powering the virtual currency bitcoin. Applications for the technology are springing up in sectors including retail, humanitarian aid, real estate and finance. Although some analysts believe blockchain won't gain widespread adoption for another five or 10 years, companies like IBM, Facebook and Google are investing heavily in the technology -- and universities are taking note.
New York University, Georgetown and Stanford are among the institutions that offer blockchain technology courses to get students thinking about its potential uses and to better prepare them for the workforce. Job postings requiring blockchain skills ballooned by 200 percent in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier, though they remain less than 1 percent of software development jobs, according to the research firm Burning Glass Technologies. Universities including MIT, Cornell, and Columbia are launching labs and research centers to explore the technology and its policy implications and seed the development of rigorous curricula on the topic.
It's astonishing.
If they were smart, they would be getting their Stanford MBA and writing the next hot app that will make them an overnight billionaire.
Gonna rape you
Gonna forsake you
Gonna forget you better still (only way out for him)
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Is it more important to do something to help the homeless, or to develop a viable use case for blockchain?
If helping the homeless is more important, then why limit the potential solutions to ones involving blockchain?
If developing a viable use case for blockchain is more important, then why limit the problem to the homeless?
It's bullshit like this that just turns people off and reduces credibility. If you want to solve a problem, then SOLVE THE PROBLEM! If you just want to highlight some technology, then at least be honest about it.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo! Since Blockchain is apparently a magic wand, just wave it and say the words. Before you know it, all of those homeless people will have jobs, drug addition assistance, food and shelter, all through the power of a DISTRIBUTED ledger (that still requires an internet connection to be useful).
Problem solved, where's my money?
So "blockchain" is some kind of magical solution in search of a problem it can fix? That's a weird way of going about things. Why would anybody care if anybody finds a practical use for blockchain (or not)?
I don't respond to AC's.
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waa
Oh a Bull Sh*tter!
It's funny, I had a thought the other day the problems Luke this can't easily be solve, and not with technology. I've been to a few hackathons where some people try to develop an app that helps poorer people in some way. Maybe by helping them to budget, or some kind of small scale philanthropy. But this will never work. The people in the hackathons generally cone from well educated wealthy (enough) backgrounds. And they have little or no understanding what it means to be poor. Homelessness is a social issue that had arisen from systematic issues with the current system over decades, and it's only going to get worse. Technology is not going to fix it, and handing out money is only a bandaid.
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how to think like blockchain entrepreneurs
1) Say "blockchain" a lot.
2) Come up with some bogus online service that people will pay for by crypto coin. Storage, social media something something, distributed music bla bla, fan reward collectible dingus, etc.
3) Set up your coin. Pre-mine or pre-assign plenty of coins to the company "for future allocations"
4) Flog your shitty service online. A paralax scrolling website is essential, as are thin fonts. Do not present any meaningful information! (Not that you had any)
5) Once your coin hits a decent price on the exchanges, sell your stash and announce that your coins were "stolen by a hacker"
6) Fold. And profit.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
WITHOUT THE OIL.
Wagey Wagey, get back in your Cagey.
Perhaps I'm just being dim, but I have never understood the excitement around blockchain. What the heck does it do that is so exciting in the first place? And how does this guy expect a ledger to "fund a new prosperity"?
Simple, have those who write the app get an apron, cook some food, pickup a hammer and nails and get to work.
Seriously, WTH? Blockchain?
We're going to maintain a chain of the transactions that they ... er... don't make ... related to housing? What?
Is there another tech, in the whole history of the world(!), that had a bigger difference between hype vs reality, than Blockchain?
It looks like (at least to me), they thinking, maybe some "young & bright" Ivy League students can help them to find any good real world applications, so they can boast later in the media everywhere (in the whole world!)!
or is there really some sort of worthwhile applications for this power-swilling approach?
Blockchain....in the Cloud! It's a win/win, and thinking outside the box!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why would anybody care if anybody finds a practical use for blockchain
At the risk of stating the obvious, because they have money riding on it.
Will Proof of Work for Food
Sauer
If people actually find out what it does and how it works they will realize how small a niche it really fills.
Nullius in verba
It would be a brighter idea to start with queuing systems rather than blockchain systems. They are much more prevalent in much more profitable businesses and there are 100k+ dev jobs that use them.
Throw them all in mental wards, now they are no longer homeless.
I can't believe people actually wasted three hours of their life on this.
Here's how you alleviate the homeless problem:
Step 1: You, the reader, the ugly bag of mostly water sitting in front of this computer screen, take some personal responsibility for your part in being a SOLUTION to the problem
Step 2: You, yourself, go engage with homeless relief missions located in your municipality or wherever you may roam.
Step 3: You, meatbag #1, get out of your chair and go actually TALK to homeless people, giving them friendship and fellowship, letting them know they are not alone and that people really do care more about them than just giving a dollar to a gofundme campaign
Step 4: TEACH them what YOU know that might help them become productive members of society. YOU teach them skills, knowledge, understanding, and give them ENCOURAGEMENT.
Step 5: If you are so blessed, give them a JOB. It doesn't have to be much - just something where they can feel some small successes.
I used to be the one who thought that it was enough to write a check. Then I learned, it is not. Not by a long shot. I started working with homeless and indigent people a decade ago, and I can tell you from first hand experience that you can get a good number of people off the street simply by paying your blessings forward - not just material blessings but whatever gifts of skill and knowledge in which you have been given in grace.
And Christians, I am especially talking to you. If every Christian did what Christians preach they should do, there would be very few homeless or hungry people in this country.
When Paul was writing his Swan Song to Timothy, he said he had been poured out as a drink offering. Indeed, the former persecutor of Christians had poured himself out for the gospel. He did not regard faith (or wealth) as something to be saved or hoarded. Faith is something that you pour out of yourself, not hoard up. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Thems the rules. I wish everyone would sign up for the gospel of Christ but for those who have, you need to get on the ball.
The 'teachers' get to make a lot of money from the hype and scams, perfectly legally and without even a dent to their reputation.
So many blockchains, so many forks, so many scams...
I think what we need is.. a blockchain for blockchains.
This is just about using the current blockchain hype to separate students from their money.
You live and learn, or you don't learn much.
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There are real-world problems in supply chain and logistics that blockchain might be a good tool. Trying to solve the homeless problem with blockchain is much like trying to repair a bridge with a banana
Scams can get legit sponsored by wealthy donnors.
Is the box in question a large cardboard one?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Though it sounds like buzzword bingo it also sounds like they're at least trying to fogo for uses of the tech besides shady financial activity
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
You mean C++ for Bitcoin code and knowing how to keep a private key out of "the cloud"?
This is dumb.
Just another shot at coming up with classes that result in no jobs. I guess the Universities have remembered how much money they made off basket weaving 101. But they get their tuition money!
Life is in a state of dynamic equilibrium, it both blows and sucks