Cryptocurrencies, first launched with Bitcoin, have brought us private sector, peer-to-peer, digital currencies. You’ve likely heard lively debates on the actual functionality of cryptocurrencies, their long-term viability, and potential impact. The MIT Media Lab Cryptocurrency online short course brings you critical reasoning skills and crypto literacy to demystify the real-world capabilities of cryptocurrency, and its economic implications.
Guided by MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative – as well as crypto industry experts, economists, financial regulators and Internet entrepreneurs – you’ll gain the skills to critically assess the viability of crypto projects, and understand the opportunities and challenges associated with these new technologies. With an overview of blockchain technology, the history of money, and insight into how entrepreneurs, incumbents and governments are responding to these innovations, you’ll explore cryptocurrency in its broader context.
What the program covers
The view of cryptocurrency offered in this course will equip you with ground truths to separate reality from hype, and the ability to understand both the limitations and capabilities of this peer-to-peer, electronic cash system. By comparing cryptocurrency to traditional money, modern finance, and competing technologies, you’ll learn to understand its potential applications and possibilities. With expert guidance from your Course Conveners and a host of esteemed guest speakers, you’ll gain valuable insight into the economics and markets for cryptocurrencies and how they function within the economic environment.
You’ll also analyze how financial institutions, big tech, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are responding to the emergence of cryptocurrency.
