The MIT Bitcoin club will be giving $100 worth of the cryptocurrency to each of the school’s undergrads, beginning in the Fall. According to MIT’s own enrollment statistics, that means around 4,500 students will receive $100 in Bitcoin. In total, the club may have to shell out more than $400,000. However, that shouldn’t be much of an issue since the club has already raised an astounding $500,000.
Since major colleges like MIT influence the businesses around them with thousands of students, the club hopes that giving Bitcoin to undergrads will push not only them but the businesses to adopt the cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
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As I have found out firsthand, and the MIT Bitcoin club has mentioned, it is hard to truly understand cryptocurrencies until you have purchased and used them.
A variety of individuals from MIT and the much larger Bitcoin community helped the club to raise the $500,000 in just six weeks. Two students, Jeremy Rubin and Dan Elitzer, have led the project from the get-go and are still the men-in-charge.
Elitzer told Mashable in an interview that the project will allow people to truly understand the technology rather than just the big headlines that are always surrounding it. “It’s easy for people who haven’t actually looked at the technology and started to understand it — they can grasp he scary things like Mt. Gox disappearing but really understanding the powers to do good is a lot harder,” said Elitzer.
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Prior to the club handing out Bitcoin to undergrads this Fall, it will be holding a Bitcoin Expo on May 3. During the event, a variety of people in the Bitcoin community will present information and hopefully get the same undergrads interested in Bitcoin before they have the currency without any idea of how to use it.
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Summary: The MIT Bitcoin club has raised $500,000. In the Fall, it will use that money to give 4,500 students $100 each of the cryptocurrency. The club hopes that this will get more people interested in actually using Bitcoin.
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