BEN Pays Students Bitcoin to Create Blockchain Course

The Blockchain Education Network (BEN) has had a busy fall semester introducing, educating, and giving away Bitcoin. The initiative believes wholeheartedly that students should understand cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Now the organization is ramping up its efforts to educate the academic masses, offering a bounty to students who help build a syllabus.

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‘BEN’s Bounty Board’

The team behind BEN says it often hears questions like “How do I get started? What should I start reading/watching/doing?” in Bitcoin and blockchain tech. Additionally, the group says it wants to answer these questions directly with a syllabus for the masses, titled “Blockchain Education Month” (BEM).

The collaboratively-built blockchain education course will have six chapters, divided into modules containing a “7-minute script, Powerpoint, and video.” Furthermore, BEN will pay contributors to help the project move forward.

BEN has set aside a total 4 BTC to divide between students who add content. Students will compete for rewards for their submissions, and earn badges and points. BEN’s website explains how it will tally points:

“Students’ individual point contributions are compared to the total points to evaluate their contribution ratio. On Oct 31st, BEN will allocate the BTC proportionally amongst all the course participants based on their contribution ratio.”

Another 2.5 BTC has been reserved for contributors who submit non-course related content. The BEN initiative says this includes blogs, articles, video, and audio content. The blockchain organization encourages students to tag content they own by October 9 to a particular module.

The Syllabus Modules

The course will begin with an introduction to cryptocurrencies, cryptography and a description of blockchain technology. Following the preface, the syllabus will cover more complex topics such as mining and consensus mechanisms. Lastly, the course will help the move into the realm of blockchain development, aimed at bolstering hackathons and more.

BEN hopes to see quality submissions, students completing the course, and making creative submissions with various media. The organization also hopes students won’t be intimidated by the academic blockchain modules. However, if students aren’t yet experts that’s no problem, as most of the information already exists online and just needs individual interpretations. BEN believes this an opportunity for anyone to receive a reward for creating educational content.

BEN Promotes ‘Earning and Learning’

Bitcoin.com spoke with The Blockchain Education Network’s Dean Masley about the course initiative. Masley is excited about the new project, and told us:

“After our cross-campus Bitcoin airdrop in September, our participating student clubs sparked enthusiasm and interest at their universities. Thus the next step is to maintain this momentum while helping these new blockchainers overcome their learning curves and break into this industry.”

“Thus, BEN is launching the Blockchain Education Month: a blockchain educational course built by students competing for bounties. What better incentive is there to learn more about blockchain technology than earning it for learning it?” he added.

“We hope that by outlining an approachable blockchain syllabus, providing tools for anyone to take self-initiative, and hosting a bounty board to encourage competitive contributions that we’ll end up with a powerful educational resource available to everyone.”

Additionally BEN has created a suggestion portal for students to make recommendations for further syllabus research. It asks students to submit their suggestions of videos, articles, and research papers. BEN hopes the course initiative will help educate students about this emerging innovative technology, for generations to come.

What do you think about the BEM course initiative? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: BEN

Images via Shutterstock, and BEN

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