BEN’s 2016
The thing about blockchain, is that it distorts your perception of time. Ideals and prototypes become products months later and it’s easy to forget how quickly infrastructure is maturing. The Blockchain Education Network is no different, so let’s do a recap to see what we accomplished throughout 2016.
January 2016
For many students, blockchain can be an isolating industry to be enthusiastic about. As you begin to push boundaries and run into misunderstandings, there are not many around you who “get” it. Thus, at the beginning of the year BEN acquired free student passes for the North American Bitcoin Conference and rented a large group Airbnb to reduce costs further for the students who came out. More than a dozen of our peers showed up to create a one-of-a-kind immersive blockchain experience. For a few, it was actually their first time being around other enthusiasts. The first experience of being able to talk about blockchain freely without having to explain each concept along the way opens the doors to new ideas and perspectives. In addition, while swapping stories of launching local initiatives, the exhaustion from obstacles faced is overcome through the renewed motivation gained by building a network to lean on.
February 2016
We started the year as the College Cryptocurrency Network yet rebranded in February to the Blockchain Education Network. Since our founding in 2014, we wanted the growth and maturity of our organization to be reflected in our brand. Our goal is to create the first generation that uses blockchain as natively as the internet. To do so, we want to build relationships between ambitious local leaders and companies taking the blockchain leap. By empowering these relationships on the local level, we create hubs of blockchain enthusiasm and immersion. And by networking the starters of these various hubs together, we create the first web of interconnected blockchain cities and activity within them.
March 2016
Which university has the best blockchain club? That’s actually a question we get quite a lot so we decided our first BEN initiative was to discover the answer to this question.
Introducing…
Blockchain Madness: the first cross-campus blockchain jeopardy tournament.
We organized 8 schools across the US and Canada to compete head to head and test their blockchain trivia knowledge. Thanks to Purse.io, we were able to make this idea into a reality and created an entire youtube playlist of highlights from the matches.
You can watch the playlist here. Or just jump to these great moments:
- When the NYU team had their fire-alarm go off in the middle of a match and continued on a park bench in Central Park, NYC.
- When Georgia Tech and MIT lost all their bits and needed a tie-breaker.
- When Alex Altman describes how he got into bitcoin.
- Laurier gives some advice to the American teams before the final match.
- Canada’s Laurier wins Blockchain Madness.
BEN also attended the 2016 MIT Bitcoin Expo. I gave a speech to explain the why and how BEN is building a grassroots blockchain movement starting on university campuses. We brought students from Canada and across the East Coast to hang out on MIT’s home turf.
May 2016
At the end of May, BEN traveled out to Dubai to give a speech at Keynote 2016.
I introduced our organization to the Middle East to show off the grassroots movement that the industry can tap into. I also gave a sneak peak at events to come in the Fall.
June 2016
Normally summers bring about doldrums of inactivity. Yet 2016 was a special beast that kept the flame of motivation alive. BEN brought a dozen students out to St. Louis for the Distributed: Trade hackathon hosted by BTC Media. We got students free entry and rented an Airbnb to further reduce costs.
Spectacularly, several students who came out to the BEN Airbnb never used blockchain before and this was their first dive. In fact, newcomers Duncan Brown and Angelo Saraceno were part of the winning team DIID, along with Dev Bharel and Shannon Foster.
In addition to immersing new students in blockchain, this experience also brought out club leaders from Berkeley, Wisconsin, Chicago, NYC and Europe! Attending BEN events and meeting other members in person quickly sucks you into “what this blockchain hype is all about”.
July 2016
BEN has an established presence in North America. Chapters range across Berkeley, Chicago, NYC, Toronto, Quebec and more… and thus an opportunity to strengthen bonds across the Atlantic opens new opportunities.
I was invited out to Amsterdam to give a speech at Bitcoin Wednesday and meet with students exploring the technology. After introducing #GenerationBlockchain and BEN’s approach to linking together hubs of acivity, the Dutchies sprung into action. Region Head Nathalie Drost gave a speech at the following Bitcoin Wednesday to introduce BEN Netherlands (NL) to a group of students inspired to lead the charge.
Joining the BEN Italia chapter, BEN NL adds to the diversity of blockchain clubs and insight available for peers across the world taking the initiative to change the culture around them to use blockchain more natively.
Also in July, the Bitcoin block reward was halved. The reward per block went from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.
To celebrate this special occasion, BEN subsidized our chapters to throw halving day parties and take over our organization snapchat. Watch our students throwing parties at MIT, in NYC, DC, Amsterdam, Milan, and Barcelona. Also while you’re at it, add BlockchainEdu on snapchat 👻📷📸
August 2016
To prepare for the oncoming school year, the BEN admin team began cranking on a plan to launch the school year right. Our goal was to find the most effective way to empower our Chapters to gain more members and influence on their campus.
Our message targets fellow millennials who have ambition to change the world and make it better for the generations that follows us.
We drafted a manifesto and playbook introducing the need for a grassroots blockchain education movement and the 3-month 3-step plan to accomplish this goal. Our Fall 2016 initiative was designed to introduce new students to blockchain, gamify the learning curve, and then put these new blockchain skills to the test.
September 2016
We started the school year with a cross-campus Bitcoin Airdrop.
Our goal was to give bitcoin directly to new students coming out to their local blockchain club. We think demonstration and ownership is a much easier starting point than lectures and youtube videos alone.
The rules were simple: if you are a student blockchain club leader, you could ask BEN to give 10k bits per new student that signed up or came out to your first meeting. We even provided some tips how to get the most out of your local airdrop.
With a helping hand from BTC.com, we raised 5 BTC to power the giveaway. Students across North America and Italy scheduled events throughout September and got a whopping 250 new students to install wallets and join their local crypto clubs. Localized airdrops ranged in design from simply giving away bitcoin at their booth during the club fair, setting up a scavenger hunt across campus, and taking over the school’s radio station and hosting contests all over Chicago. Read more about there airdrop here.
October 2016
With 250 new students signed up to their local crypto clubs, the next step is education. Diving down the blockchain rabbit hole is endless and the amount of content is intimidating for a newcomer looking where to start.
Thus, to help overcome the steep blockchain learning curve we created a friendly competition to make a blockchain education course. We created a prize pool and organized the initiative as a competition that pitted students against each other to fill up content. We were fortunate to receive an anonymous donation of 10 BTC to pay for the prize pool and administration of the event.
Wish start your blockchain education with help from your peers who already took the dive? Check out the Youtube playlist.
November 2016
After climbing the steep blockchain learning curve, you’ve gained competency in an industry that requires extraordinary creativity. It’s time to put this education to the test and make something in the real world.
We organized a meta-hackathon designed to give local hacks and workshops a global spotlight and extra critique from experts in the industry. With hackathons and workshops ranging from Charlotte, DC, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago — November was jammed packed with blockchain hustle. Read more about the Gauntlet and the winners.
We also brought on two new year-long sponsors to the Blockchain Education Network.
As BEN begins to expand it’s influence across borders and host events locally and globally, we rely on help from patrons who support our mission.
We’re proud to announce our partnership with IEEE and bloq to make 2017 a year to remember.
“The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) appreciates the goals that the Blockchain Education Network strives to achieve by offering events that enable the development of vibrant communities seeking to enhance the blockchain skill sets across a host of universities and communities today. By working together, we see an opportunity to increase the awareness and knowledge of blockchain and bitcoin in alignment with the ideals of consensus, collaboration, and standardization across a number of verticals and associated sectors.” — Alpesh Shah, Senior Director of Global Business Strategy & Intelligence IEEE-SA
“Bloq is thrilled to support the Blockchain Education Network. We feel that engaging at the university level is critical to the growth of the industry and will help drive the next generation of innovation in this ecosystem.” — Matthew Roszak, Co-Founder and Chairman, Bloq
Also in November, BEN got another speaking slot and free tickets to Blockchain:Money in London. We rented a large Airbnb to further reduce student costs and get everyone to be in the same household.
For our first european BEN gathering, we brought out students from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and the US.
What’s next for 2017?
We’ve learned a lot throughout 2016 about how to empower students to create hubs of local enthusiasm. We’ve hosted events, we’ve brought students to conferences and hackathons, and created a culture of #GenerationBlockchain that extends to major cities across the world.
Our next step updating the infrastructure holding this together and make it more accessible for the public. We want everyone to be able to view the health of the network in real time.
BEN will be attending and speaking at the North American Bitcoin Conference. We’re bringing out a record number of students to the conference this year and plan to start this year eager to 10x 2016.
For students in blockchain, 2017 will be a good year.
