Itamar Orr, a sophomore who led the change for more crypto-related courses, said there were any of them earlier at Stanford, but none were continued.
When the student from Israel realized that there was no course listing cryptocurrency in 2018, he met 12 companions and sent a letter addressed to the associate professors of the business school.
Many of us will have to talk about blockchain in our work. It makes sense to teach it. Gives you a competitive edge; It's an extra hammer in your toolbox.
Stanford finally attended the request of his students and added the course, which peaked with more than 50 students on the waiting list according to the site of the university.
Part of the interest in studying these courses at Stanford comes from the specialization in venture capital. Of 32% of the MBA graduates who opted for finance, 7% were decanted by venture capitals, according to the university's employment report of 2017. This was the second most popular option behind private capital with 15%. Only 1 percent of graduates enter investment banking.
Venture capital investments in blockchain increased by 88% in the year 2017, reaching $911 million according to Pitchbook information.
According to Susan Athey, professor of technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the interest of Stanford students has increased on these issues. The teacher who teaches nine classes, which is also in the directories of Ripple, Lending Club, Expedia and Rover, said that Curiosity is due in part to Bitcoin.
Price fluctuations have hypnotized everyone: How did this happen? Many people have gone booming or bankruptcy and that is, of course, exciting, attracts a lot of interest and motivates people to understand what is happening.
There is a great critical mass
Wharton, who is number 1 according to Forbes and number 3 by U.S. News and World report, is also adding courses in August. "Blockchain, cryptocurrency and distributed major book technology" will be taught for the first time from this 2018 by Professor Kevin Werbach.
There is a clear trend on the part of the students to take this kind of courses at the University of Philadelphia said Werbach. But before adding a course, I needed proof that cryptocurrency and blockchain were more than a fad, and it was relevant to business students.
We are at the point where there is a critical mass to teach this domain. There will be a real business phenomenon in the foreseeable future and within five years there will not be too many important business schools that do not offer similar classes.
Werbach emphasized that many Wharton students are working on Ripple, Bitmain and Coinbase, many of whom may have followed careers on Wall Street.
But not only are the venture capital companies and exchanges of cryptocurrency looking for people with great knowledge in blockchain.
John Jacobs, McDonough's executive director, said Wall Street and consulting firms are demanding new skills and knowledge. The former NASDAQ executive said:
I constantly call for recruiters saying "you have to train them. We need people who understand how to apply blockchain technology. " Any world class program is going to have to equip students in this field to compete. It is found in all the places where we look.
