How to Learn Cryptocurrency - 21 Bootcamps to Get You Started
What You Need to Know about Cryptocurrency
The concept of cryptocurrency has been around since the early 80s when Dave Chaum designed cryptographic electronic money called ecash. Eventually, ecash evolved into Digicash, which was an early form of cryptocurrency that required a specific software to make payments. By the mid-90s, the government started looking into the security of “electronic cash,” and the NSA released a paper through an MIT mailing list about a potential cryptocurrency system1. However, it wasn't until 2009 that the anonymous developer, “Satoshi Nakamoto”, created the first decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin2. Cryptocurrency has been gaining in popularity ever since.
If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency, there are courses that cover important fundamentals like blockchain basics and trading and others that dive into advanced practices like financial investment. Some programs teach students about cryptography and how to create their own cryptocurrency. For students interested in learning cryptocurrency at a bootcamp, check out our comprehensive list below.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is an internet-based form of digital currency created to be a medium of exchange. Cryptocurrency has a few defining characteristics:
- It is digital money made from code
- It is an encrypted string of data that is created using blockchain technology
- It is decentralized, and its economy is monitored by a peer-to-peer internet protocol
Cryptocurrency's nature makes the transactions irreversible (which makes it secure and immutable), more anonymous to use, fast and global, and permissionless, meaning you don't have to ask anyone to use it or have any limitations on amounts or how you can use it.
What is Cryptocurrency used for?
People have begun to use cryptocurrency to invest in startup companies, make private financial transactions, travel, as payment for renting out extra hard drive space to the cloud, or as payment on a blockchain-based platform, like Steemit. Cryptocurrency also provides quicker transactions and more anonymity and security.
Why learn Cryptocurrency?
Interest in cryptocurrency is growing because it is secure, decentralized, and easy to use. If you want to enter a financial field or industry that is beginning to use cryptocurrency, it's helpful to understand what it is, its benefits, how it's used, and why it's used. If you're a developer or want to be a developer that works with blockchain, knowing about cryptocurrency and the technology behind it is helpful. It's also crucial to learn about cryptocurrency if you have plans to use it or invest in it. Industries that are using or accepting cryptocurrency include:
- Tourism
- Banking
- Fast food
- Education
- Private Equity investment
- Real estate
- Social media
- Automotive
- Art
- Gambling
Learn Cryptocurrency at a bootcamp
Bootcamps, courses, and certificate programs are great ways to learn about cryptocurrency. Udemy covers it in a Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Bootcamp course, while the University of Washington teaches it in a FinTech bootcamp. Blockchain at Berkeley offers a 6-week course of edX called Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies. If you're looking for programs that teach cryptocurrency, start by looking at our comprehensive list below.
Comprehensive List of Cryptocurrency Bootcamps
Lighthouse Labs was created in 2013 by a team of software developers with a passion for code, mentorship, and education. Our mission: to continuously find the best ways to train the next generation of developers and transform the way tech education is delivered. Since 2013, we have introduced over 40,000 Canadians to the practice of coding and launched over 2,700 graduates into careers as professional developers. With the support of a brilliant team of instructors...
The Bridge offers cybersecurity, cloud & devOps, data science, UX/UI product design, full stack web development and digital marketing bootcamps both remotely and at its headquarters in Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao and Seville, Spain. Full-time bootcamps are 16 weeks long and the part-time programs are 26 weeks long. During The Bridge bootcamps, students get access from O’Reilly content and have the chance to work with people in the other bootcamp programs for a multidisciplinary approach. The...
Byte Academy requires students to learn the basics of programming before enrolling in its programs. It offers part-time evening classes, as well as 40 hour per week immersives. Graduates have lifetime access to career services after the program, and several campuses offer a job guarantee.
BitDegree offers a large number of online programming classes, many of which are free. Courses are offered in video and interactive formats. Students can pay for classes either at standard prices through conventional methods or at discount with cryptocurrency in the form of BiTDegree's own BDG tokens.
Blockgeeks offers online, self-paced training and Accelerated Programs in blockchain development and non-technical blockchain education, (Blockchain Law, Blockchain Business etc). Blockgeeks is a technology-centric educational, knowledge sharing, and ecosystem development platform. During the program, students will learn about cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. The courses focus on building projects for real-world application while allowing students to gain the essential skills for a career in this dynamic space.
Start Your Career with a Top-Rated Bootcamp
Welcome to Study the Blockchain's one-and-a-half month part-time online bootcamp where you will roll up your sleeves and build, hands on, from conception to deployment, your very own decentralized application (Dapp) on the Etheruem Blockchain using the Solidity smart contract programming language. The skills you will gain will help you land a career as a Blockchain developer. You will be guided by our instructors, brave developers that taught themselves how to build smart contracts, and...
Founded in 2018, we are a consulting EdTech company that offers affordable blended hybrid courses. Grazing Minds offers full-time, online three month and year-long courses for users looking to get into BFSI, logistics, marketing and hospitality as careers as well as employability tools and career services, enabling professionals to upskill themselves and get placed as per their talents. Students benefit from: - Career Growth Services - Industry-Aligned Curriculum - Dedicated 1:1 Mentoring Grazing Minds offers...
The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Boot Camps offer a 12-week, full-time and 24-week, part-time web development program, 24-week, part-time programs in data analytics, cybersecurity, financial technology, and UX/UI, and an 18-week, part-time program in digital marketing. The full stack curriculum includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Express.js, Node.js, databases, MongoDB, MySQL, and Git. The data curriculum includes programming in Excel, Python, R programming, JavaScript charting, HTML/CSS, API interactions, SQL, Tableau, fundamental statistics,...
Our mission is to help anyone learn anything online. Udemy has millions of students and tens of thousands of well qualified students. They have all the online course offerings that you will need. The best way to browse through their offerings is to search on their website and filter by the number of reviews and students.
JLM Hub is Israel's only student accelerator. A Jerusalem-facing project to give your coding cv a boost!
Best Bootcamps received an average 2.96 of 5 based on 293 reviews.
References
- How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash. [online] Available at: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm [Accessed 30 July 2020]
- What is Bitcoin? [online] Available at: https://bitcoin.org/en/faq#what-is-bitcoin [Accessed 30 July 2020]
