$100 of Bitcoin to be Distributed to Every MIT Student

Every undergraduate student in MIT is to receive $100 worth of digital currency this fall.

And no, this is not going to be an "Airdrop Airdrop An airdrop is defined as the distribution of a cryptocurrency token to numerous wallet addresses, in most instances free of charge.Airdrops are primarily utilized as a way of a project garnering higher levels of attention and new followers. Such efforts are important in culturing a larger user-base and a wider disbursement of coins.Airdrops can be seen as a marketing tool. They are usually used as a promotional effort to encourage liquidity in the markets for these coins, since users are more li An airdrop is defined as the distribution of a cryptocurrency token to numerous wallet addresses, in most instances free of charge.Airdrops are primarily utilized as a way of a project garnering higher levels of attention and new followers. Such efforts are important in culturing a larger user-base and a wider disbursement of coins.Airdrops can be seen as a marketing tool. They are usually used as a promotional effort to encourage liquidity in the markets for these coins, since users are more li Read this Term" of "MITcoin", promised to liberate the student body from the injustices of the dollar. It will be Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term itself. Based on today's price of roughly $450, this makes for roughly 0.22 BTC per student.

The distribution is being sponsored by MIT alumni and the Bitcoin community: roughly $500,000 worth for 4528 undergraduates.

The distribution is part of an MIT Bitcoin project to create an ecosystem for digital currencies at MIT. Activities will include studying how students use the bitcoins they receive, as well as motivating innovative and entrepreneurial work. The MIT Premier Bitcoin Expo will also take place next month, an appropriate preamble for the fall activities.

Jeremy Rubin, a 2nd year computer science student, and Dan Elitzer, a first-year MBA student and President of the MIT Bitcoin club, are behind the project. Said Elitzer:

“We decided to announce this project now to give students lead time. We want to issue a challenge to some of the brightest technical minds of a generation: ‘When you step onto campus this fall, all of your classmates are going to have access to bitcoin; what are YOU going to build to give them interesting ways to use it?’"

It will be interesting to see what students do with the coin in one of the foremost institutions for technological advancement. Ideas that come to mind include: cracking the code for vulnerabilities, developing a better coin, more hacking initiatives, new mining technologies or big returns in bitcoin trading.

MIT has already established an intimate relationship with Bitcoin. Rubin is also behind Tidbit, a proof-of-concept developed in a competition that replaces display advertising with Bitcoin mining by tapping into the client's CPU power. The New Jersey division of consumer affairs subpoenaed Rubin, who enlisted the support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Later, MIT's president expressed his full support for Tidbit, saying, "I want to make it clear that the students who created Tidbit have the full and enthusiastic support of MIT."