South Korean University Now Offering Master’s in Cryptocurrency

By Debarun Gupta

One of South Korea’s major business schools is now offering a master’s degree in cryptocurrency. While the government is still figuring out stronger regulations for the industry, the degree offered by the school is covering topics such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto funds, smart contracts, game theory, Dapp planning, and how to write persuasive whitepapers. The program is one and a half years long.

On Friday, the Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technologies (known as aSSIST) announced that it is now offering a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) degree program in cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology. According to the announcement, the new course is “a master’s degree program in Blockchain, cryptoeconomics and token economy courses from technological, cryptoeconomic and business strategic perspectives.”

aSSIST went on to claim that it was offering the world’s first crypto MBA course for a business graduate school. The announcement read,

“The mission of Assist business school’s Crypto MBA program is to remedy the lack of academic research and systematic education currently available in the industry, despite a high level of social interest in the blockchain and cryptocurrency.”

The university has been offering master’s degrees and doctorates in business administration since it opened in 2004. The website of the b-school claims that they have been “evaluated as the no. 1 graduate school for business administration,” citing large, international corporations such as LG Electronics, KT, Doosan Infracore, and Korea Electric Power Corporation using their courses over the years.

The school’s announcement on Friday described all the topics covered by the curriculum under the new course. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contract, cryptology, EOS, deep learning, and system dynamics mechanisms. The cryptoeconomics curriculum consists of digital currency studies, microeconomics, macroeconomics, behavioral economics and theory on currency finance, game theory and mechanism design. Additionally, students under the curriculum will also be provided with a lot of professional tools to help them build a good reputation in the industry, including the strategy for writing a persuasive whitepaper. The students will also study management mechanisms, strategic statistics, digital financial accounting, digital marketing strategies, crypto funds, and Dapp planning.

It is evident from the announcement that the course is indeed a comprehensive one, and definitely a welcome change in an industry that is rife with rumors and inaccurate projections that stem from insufficient knowledge about the subject. However, many other schools across the world have also added similar courses, albeit at a smaller scale.

Wharton, ranked number one by Forbes, added a class in the fall called “Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Distributed Ledger Technology,” while Georgetown offers an elective that teaches topics such as the history and evolution of fintech, blockchain technology, and their applications.

It is now only a matter of time before we can see if this turns out to be a successful effort that only propels the industry forward with a fresh take on new technologies, or if this remains a gimmick, as many are already perceiving this to be.