Monday, July 9, 2018

The London School of Economics Is Offering a Certificate Course In "Cryptocurrency Investment and Disruption"

From FT Alphaville:

The London School of Cryptonomics
The London School of Economics is a venerated institution that has educated some 34 heads of state and 18 Nobel laureates, with a star-studded alumni directory that includes John F. Kennedy, Bertrand Russell, and Friedrich von Hayek.

Now, LSE appears to be lending its considerable prestige to the world of crypto trading, with a new online course entitled “Cryptocurrency Investment and Disruption”:...MUCH MORE
"...For just £1,800, anyone who completes the six-week online course gets to put the London School of Economics on their CV -- seems like a pretty decent investment even if you choose not to throw away invest any of your money into crypto on completion...." 
Intrigued, I made inquiries, despite the faint warning bell triggered by the numéraire* being £ .

And I was immediately reminded of the comment of a young fellow who worked at FT Alphaville some years ago:

21 (grams of digital coke)...
...Paul Murphy FT Sep 23, 2015
I'd missed the screaming irony here. You don't seem to be able to buy the 21 Bitcoin computer with bitcoin.
Paul Murphy FT Sep 23, 2015
Ah, 21 address this in their FAQs. Sort of:

Why can't I buy the 21 Bitcoin Computer with BTC?Patience - we will be adding support for this! However, the deeper answer is that we think payment in BTC is not as big an improvement at the present time over standard ways to purchase macroscopic physical goods. Offline currencies are fairly well adapted for that use case. We believe that where Bitcoin really shines is for micropayments, as a medium of exchange for digital goods and services.

Yes, that's right. My desire to pay for my résumé buffer-upper in bitcoin, or better yet, in a CryptoKitty swap would not be honored:
Payment options
Select the payment option that is most convenient for you:
The full course fee is due by the closing date of registration.
Pay the course fees over 2 or 3 months, depending on the duration of the course.

You can pay via credit card, debit card, bank deposit or EFT.
For details of our cancellation and deferral policies, please read our terms and conditions.
And while I appreciate the 'payments for the impecunious' plan I may be forced to reconsider this investment in my future.

I wonder what became of that young Paul fellow, he seemed to have potential.


*Yes, yes. in this case the correct phrase would be "is denominated in" but I wanted to include this link:
The FT's Izabella Kaminska Explores the Numéraire and Why It Matters