Bitcoin 101
The use of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is expanding rapidly. In Brazil, Sao Paulo’s Faculty of Informatics and Management Paulista (FIAP) is determined to become a leader embracing Bitcoin technology in education. FIAP will be the first university in the country to accept Bitcoin as a payment for tuition fees, as well as installing a Bitcoin ATM in the campus. They are sure that the cryptocurrency will play a key role in the future of global economy and, indeed, they already offer a course entitled “Bitcoin – A Revolução do Dinheiro” (Bitcoin – The Money Revolution).
The Bitcoin payments will, for now, only be available for short courses within the FIAP Shift program. These courses concern entrepreneurship, innovation, project management and technology, and will be processed by PagCoin, a Brazil-based Bitcoin payment company. The Bitcoin ATM will be set up for free by local startup CoinBR, and PagCoin will take a 1% fee on transactions.
[via Coin Desk]
Rubim Leandro, Professor of e-learning at Faculty of Informatics and Management Paulista, told CoinDesk magazine that he believes adding Bitcoin as a payment method will further promote FIAP’s standing as a local leader in technology. “We work with technology, we learn technology, so you want to be the first one in Brazil to teach about the technology and to use Bitcoin” he said.
Gaining currency
Brazil had recently been in the news for its remarkable surge on Bitcoin trades, despite the bad press the cryptocurrency often receives in mass media. FIAP in Sao Paulo is only the second educational institution in Latin America to embrace Bitcoin, just after Mexico’s Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) started accepting payments in the cryptocurrency at the campus’ coffee shop. Globally, there is a very short (yet growing) list of countries betting on Bitcoin as a potentially popular payment method. Within the UK, The University of Cumbria is so far the only one accepting Bitcoin for two of their technology-related courses. As Bitcoin gains in credibility, it may not be too long before many countries embrace it fully.
