Crypto Academy Review - From the Perspective of a College Freshman with No Prior Crypto Experience
Who Am I and Why Did I Sign Up For Crypto Academy?
Over the past three weeks, I participated in Anthony Pompliano’s Blockchain course- “Crypto Academy”. To give you my background going into this course, I’m a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying Computer Science + Astronomy. Since I’ve interned at a startup that operated on a Blockchain, I’m used to hearing the buzzwords that come with web3 such as “bitcoin” and “blockchain”. While I started my research on these buzzwords by randomly googling concepts, I wanted more structure to my learning so that I could get past the surface level. So when Illini Blockchain ran a 75% discount on Crypto Academy for about $300 (still a lot for college students), I decided to take the risk and sign up. It was my first paid online course and I wanted to see what I could learn from it.
What is Crypto Academy?
Crypto Academy is a three week online course run by crypto entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, known as “Pomp”, and his team. He himself teaches six workshops that give a broad overview on Bitcoin over the three weeks, while his team runs multiple workshops a day that cover more specific topics such as NFTs or the Lightning Network. Regarding my peers in the class (known as a “cohort”), there were about 60 people, ranging from other college students to adults that have worked over 30 years in different professions. My cohort peers were from all over the world, spanning six continents. Additionally, there was a slack channel connecting Pomp and his team with us, which was very active throughout the course. To find more information on the course, click here.
So is Crypto Academy worth it?
I’ll just preface this section by saying that before you go into Crypto Academy, I highly recommend you have more experience in Blockchain than I did. Whether it’s more extensive research or direct experience on a project involving web3, that’ll make it easier for you to make connections with the content and your peer’s experiences. This course is geared towards people who want to share their passion and experiences with other people who love blockchain. While I was excited and curious to learn more about blockchain, I didn’t have enough experience to match my peers’ energy about blockchain. This didn’t stop me from reaching out and learning from my classmates as much as possible, but if I had more experience with blockchain I definitely would’ve gotten more out of the course.
That being said, this class will be worth it if you can make the most of it. And here’s three main tips of advice that helped me make the most of it.
1. Network and Learn from Peers!!!
I’ll start off with the most important one- network!! Everyone had vastly different experiences with blockchain, from a guy who participated in a DAO trying to buy a soccer team to a YouTuber who runs a blockchain channel. As I mentioned before, the demographic diversity of my cohort is unmatched. In fact, my peers were able to dive deeper into the importance of what we learn in lecture through firsthand experiences. For example, I learned from a peer in Argentina that their peso is struggling and the government had controlled how many pesos a citizen could convert into other currencies each week. That’s why he’s optimistic about Bitcoin, as it’s a currency that nobody can place restrictions on. Additionally, hearing about how various people first dipped their fingers into blockchain was extremely helpful for me to figure out the best way I can continue structured learning beyond the course. While the lectures are useful, most of the information you learn can also be found online for free. It’s everyone’s unique experiences with the concepts in the lectures that makes what you learn in the class different from independent research.
2. Reflect on Learning
Secondly, reflect on what you’ve learned each day. This was something I only did the last week of classes and I wish I started earlier. The concepts I learned during the lectures made sense to me at first. But when my friends asked me what I was learning and I tried explaining it to them, I fell short. I realized that I needed to start explaining the concepts to myself after class so that I can retain what I learned and track my progress. But even more important than understanding how a mechanism works, I’d also recommend trying to understand WHY a particular mechanism is necessary. The “why” behind a concept was the main thing my friends cared about if I couldn’t explain the technicalities on how it worked. Understanding the “why” is how you’ll form your unique opinion on blockchain, since everyone’s “why” is slightly different.
3. Make this course a priority
Finally, for my last piece of advice, I just want to point out that this course is three weeks long. Fifteen days. They’ll fly by quickly, and you need to make this course one of your top priorities if those $300 are going to be worth it. It’s tempting to skip workshops for a day because you’re busy with schoolwork, but one day can quickly turn into a week if you aren’t careful, and that’s already a third of the course gone. You might tell yourself that you’ll just watch the recordings of the lectures, but realistically that’s much harder to do than just attending the classes live. You get out what you put in, so attend all the workshops you can, give them your full attention, and participate! I tended to reach out to my peers who participated the most in class because they seemed the most approachable.
Anyways, I hope this article was helpful if you’re thinking about taking Crypto Academy. If you have any other questions about my experiences, don’t hesitate to reach out: amit.krishnaiyer@gmail.com.
-Amit :)
