The academic year 2015/16 will be an exciting time for bitcoin enthusiasts in Barcelona as the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and Barcelona Bitcoin Community start a joint program of workshops dedicated to study, development, and discussion of cryptocurrency.

The series of seminar discussions and workshops is aimed at both academics and general public and will involve collaboration with the Schools of Sociology, Economics, or Law at the university, in addition to the Department of Information and Communication Technologies Engineering (ETIC).

The inaugural lecture was given yesterday by Carlos Steinblock, a member of Barcelona Bitcoin Community and the founder of BTC-Guardian. Under the title “Revolution in Chain” it addressed various issues related to the technological basics of the Bitcoin protocol. The lecture was also a part of the Open Bitcoin Day at Pompeu Fabra University, which included in the program a practical exercise with authentic bitcoin equivalents of small sums in euro, provided by ATMs Bitcoin Exchange.

The joint program presented yesterday was first announced in June together with the installation of a bitcoin ATM at Pompeu Fabra University. UPF became the first university in Spain to launch a bitcoin ATM as a part of the Department of Information Technology and Communications’ effort to encourage discussion on the impact of Internet technologies on people's lives by educating the public on cryptocurrency use.

Diana Bogdan