The Bank of England (BOE) has announced a case competition for blockchain-savvy interns.

BOE encourages teams of up to six students to propose ideas for possible use of the blockchain technology which could contribute to UK society. According to the announcement on BOE’s website, students are called to pitch an idea about how the blockchain technology could be utilised, what activity it could be applied to and what new product could be created with its help.

As a prize the bank offers a six-week paid internship and the chance to be fast-tracked through to the BOE’s graduate programme assessment centre. Entry criteria could be found here.

This challenge proposal follows a recently published report where the BOE states the potential of cryptocurrencies and mobile technology to change existing payment systems.

The BOE is not the first to launch a search for interns well understanding cryptocurrency related topics. Earlier this month Europol, the European Union's leading law enforcement agency, demonstrated interest towards hiring an intern with bitcoin tracing skills. According to the project description, interns would be involved in monitoring cybercrimes related to open source information and, in particular, new anonymization and encryption tools which can potentially be abused by cybercriminals.

Besides, in July 2015 another two organisations were interested in bitcoin and blockchain specialists - Tunisian Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy, which looked for a bitcoin intern, and French bank Société Générale, which offered a 12-month contract of an “IT Developer on Bitcoin, Blockchains & Crypto-Currencies.”

Anna Lavinskaya