区块链课程在美国高校走热

康奈尔大学今年推出的课程中包括“货币人类学”和“区块链、加密货币与智能合约入门”。在这所常青藤盟校的28门课程中，只有两门涉及区块链，也就是在多个计算机上建立永久性账本的技术。

虽然康奈尔大学对区块链现象的接受度超过了其他高校，但它绝不孤单。Coinbase Reports的一项研究显示，越来越多的大学开始在各个专业设立相关课程。

下图来自于这份报告。从中可以看出斯坦福和加州大学伯克利分校等知名院校推出区块链课程的数量。

Among the classes on offer at Cornell University this year are “The Anthropology of Money” and “Introduction to Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Smart Contracts.” Those are just two of the 28 courses at the Ivy League school related to blockchain, the popular new technology that creates a permanent ledger across multiple computers.

While Cornell has embraced the blockchain phenomenon more than other schools, it’s hardly alone. According to new research from Coinbase Reports, a growing number of universities are teaching the subject across multiple disciplines.

Here is a chart from the report, which show how other prominent schools, including Stanford and UC Berkeley, are offering multiple blockchain courses:

区块链在高校受到欢迎其意义重大，部分原因是它仍是一项新技术，而且仍有一些人把比特币等基于区块链技术的数字货币和电脑宅男以及网络罪犯联系在一起。

纽约大学斯特恩商学院金融系主任大卫·叶尔马克说，2014年他首次教授区块链和金融服务课程时，只有35个人报名。而Coinbase Reports的报告显示，现在这门课吸引了235名学生，而且叶尔马克在春季和秋季两个学期都得开课。

更宽泛的说，除了传统密码学专业衍生出的诸多区块链课程外，其他许多专业也冒出了同样的课程，从工程到社会科学，很多传统专业对此也很感兴趣。

报告指出：“Coinbase的分析显示，50所顶尖高校开了172个区块链班，其中15%来自商业、经济、金融和法律专业，4%属于人类学、历史和政治学等社会科学专业。”

对多个学科的吸引力或许可以让我们看到区块链项目通常如何围绕依赖激励（比如加密货币奖金）的去中心化群体来维持通用而又坚不可摧的账本系统。因此，构建一个成功的区块链需要的专业能力多种多样，比如博弈理论，再比如信息系统和网络安全。正如法律学者普丽玛维拉·德·菲力皮和艾伦·怀特在他们的突破性著作《区块链和法律》（Blockchain and the Law）中解释的那样，这项技术还会改写某些社会和经济规则。

Coinbase Reports的报告还包括一项调查，其结论是学生对区块链很感兴趣。近一半的社会科学专业学生表示他们愿意上区块链课。

而且，该报告还发现美国大学对区块链的兴趣特别高。Coinbase调查的18所国际性高校中，至少推出一门区块链或加密货币课程的学校只有五家。该报告的调查对象源于《美国新闻与世界报道》评选的50所顶尖大学。

Coinbase将上述情况视为好消息，部分原因是它正在积极招募有区块链经验的学生。据消息人士透露，Coinbase将启动名为“加密货币入门到精通”（crypto 101）的全国性巡讲，活动将覆盖对区块链非常感兴趣的大学。

该公司还将举办巡回招聘会，其中包括9月13日在哈佛大学的一站。另外，它还将在普林斯顿大学、杜克大学等多所高校举办此项活动。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

The popularity of blockchain on campus is remarkable in part because the technology is still new and because some still associate currencies like Bitcoin (which is run on a blockchain) as the province of geeks and cyber-criminals.

Back in 2014, when David Yermack, the finance department chair at New York University Stern School of Business, first offered his course on blockchain and financial services, he says only 35 people signed up. Now, according to the report, the course is packed with 235 students and he is teaching it both semesters.

More broadly, while a lot of the teaching on blockchain has grown out of traditional courses on cryptography, the subject is also popping up in numerous other disciplines, and interest spans the traditional divisions between engineering and social sciences.

“Coinbase’s analysis found that of the 172 classes listed by the top 50 universities, 15 percent were offered by business, economics, finance, and law departments, and four percent were in social science departments such as anthropology, history, and political science,” the report notes.

The multi-disciplinary appeal likely reflects how blockchain projects typically revolve around decentralized communities that rely on incentives (such as cryptocurrency rewards) to maintain a common, indestructible ledger system. Building a successful blockchain thus requires expertise in fields as diverse as game theory, information systems and cybersecurity. And as legal scholars Primavera de Filipi and Aaron Wright explained in their groundbreaking book Blockchain and the Law, the technology is also poised to remake certain social and economic rules of society.

The report also included a survey that found a high level of interest in blockchain among students. This included nearly half of social science majors reporting that they would like to take a blockchain class.

Finally, the report found that interest in blockchain was particularly strong at American universities. Only five of the 18 international universities among the list surveyed by Coinbase—which was based on the 50 top universities as ranked by U.S. News and World Report—offer at least one class on blockchain or cryptocurrency.

Coinbase itself is treating the findings as good news, in part because the company is actively recruiting students with blockchain experience. According to a source close to the company, Coinbase will be kicking off a national tour to provide “crypto 101” sessions on campuses that have demonstrated a strong interest in blockchain.

The company is also conducting a recruiting tour that includes a stop at Howard University on September 13, and at Princeton, Duke and numerous other schools.