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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.
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.
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.
The latest course trend, learning to maximize the sound and smell of your own farts
Addiction, not addition. If they have issues with addiction, addition'ing their drug problem won't help with the homelessness.
Oh a Bull Sh*tter!
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...
Terang bulan
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Seriously, WTH? Blockchain?
We're going to maintain a chain of the transactions that they ... er... don't make ... related to housing? What?
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
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.
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.
Smart? This is a drop dead easy assignment. A localized expiriing blockchain currency, use the homeless to clean up the streets, pay them in the local currency, and get the local chamber of commerce to fund it all because the increased business from the newfound customers will start an upward economic spiral in the area. Soon the homeless will have regular jobs and be able to afford rent.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
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
"It's astonishing."
Not at all.
Instead of putting a name on a piece of paper and signing it, you need a computer an a ton of calculations and I guess the homeless need a computer or a thumb drive instead of a paper card.
Only a fraction of them would benefit from being put in to asylum. Most would benefit simply from medical treatment that has been denied from them. Even more would benefit from combining medical treatment with psychiatric treatment.
It would help many (not everyone) to get their life together, get a place to stay in and maybe even a job.
In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
Some people are going to make a lot of money from this B.S.: that's the driving force behind the blockchain movement. Any benefits to society are incidental.
If the starting premise is to help alleviate homelessness then the only people making money off it will be the ones who sell whatever they've come up with to the local government.
"How to write the next app that will make you an overnight billionaire" is a 2xx course. This one is a prerequisite.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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.
I will not utter it here.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."