With the support of a Go Virginia grant and a gift from Block.one, Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science has initiated several projects in the interest of exploring non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrency, and more broadly, blockchain.
Blockchain acts as a digital ledger, said James Harder, external engagement project manager with the Department of Computer Science.
“It functions like a large interactive spreadsheet, similar to Excel or Google Sheets,” he said. “People have the ability to add things to the ledger, and those changes are accepted into the blockchain by distributed users. And what everyone generally accepts as the record becomes the blockchain.”
The technology is usually associated with things like banking and cryptocurrency, but it has the potential to be used for much more, which is partly why the department’s new Blockchain Certificate Program is so exciting for Harder.
The Blockchain Certificate Program, launched in the spring semester and offered again in the summer, provides participants — both mid-career professionals and students — the opportunity to better understand blockchain.
“We want participants to have the ability to understand the applications and the basic jargon around the technology,” Harder said. “It’s thrilling to see students conceive inspiring and exciting new applications and ideas. Students get exposure to NFTs, blockchain ethics, business applications, decentralized autonomous organizations, and fintech.”
Neal Henshaw, technical director at the Calhoun Honors Discovery Program at Virginia Tech, said he participated in the program this spring to help his students better understand the use cases around blockchain technology.
“When I first heard them mentioning blockchain, I was confused because like a lot of people, I had only associated it with Bitcoin,” said Henshaw. “I had no idea there were other uses for it. So I knew I needed to learn more. I feel now that I am…
