The Best Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Courses Online and IRL

The Best Online Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Courses

The list below covers courses for a general audience (in contrast to the section that follows it). These are not degree programs that require a significant investment of your time (i.e. one or more years of work), but rather courses that usually comprise several weekly sessions.

The vast majority of these are online, providing individuals with the flexibility to fit their learning around their usual routines and responsibilities.

General Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Courses

Firstly, here’s a list of popular courses that cover the basics of crypto and blockchain, often with a focus on how to use these in a business or organizational setting.

• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies edX Course, University of California, Berkeley

This is a hugely popular online course covering the fundamentals of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, including the basics of smart contracts, Ethereum, and the development of decentralized applications. It is free, but offers time-unlimited access to course materials for a small sum. It lasts around six weeks, with students expected to spend around three to five hours per week on learning.

• Micro-Certificate in Blockchain Innovation and Implementation, University of British Columbia, Canada

This is a 55-hour online course designed for professionals and execs looking to understand whether and how to implement blockchain into their organizations. It provides a foundational (mostly non-technical) understanding of blockchain, as well as knowledge on how to evaluate blockchain use cases and on how to implement distributed ledger technology.

• Certificate of Advanced Studies in Blockchain, University of Zurich, Switzerland

This is another course aimed at professional leaders wanting the tools to assess whether or not to use blockchain technology. It lasts a whole semester, and is broken down into three components, covering blockchain technology, the business of blockchain, and blockchain as it relates regulation and the law.

• Free MOOC on Blockchain and Digital Currencies, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

With over 65,000 students enrolled as of last count, this free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus is possibly the most popular blockchain and cryptocurrency course in the world. Taught by Andreas Antonopoulos and other experts, it requires no existing knowledge of crypto and helps to situate cryptocurrencies in their broader economic, legal and financial contexts.

• Blockchain, Coursera,

Online learning website/platform Coursera offers a number of blockchain-related packages, yet its Blockchain course is the most popular. This is meant as an introduction to blockchain and cryptocurrency, yet it also goes into smart contracts, dApps, and development. Provided by the University of Buffalo, it lasts around four months and suggests around four hours per week of study.

• Developing Blockchain Applications, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to build dApps on Ethereum, this is the course for you. Lasting eight weeks and requiring background programming experience (in Python, Javascript, Go, Java, C++), it isn’t for newbies, yet it does provide students with work-relevant knowledge that could help them land jobs in the industry. RMIT also offers others blockchain courses, so check those out if you’re looking for something more business-oriented.

Cryptocurrency Trading Courses

While learning about the technicalities of blockchain and its business implications is all well and good, some people may simply be interested in learning how to trade. Well, here’s a selection of some of the most useful online cryptocurrency trading courses.

• Complete Cryptocurrency Investment Course, Udemy

Provided by MOOC provider Udemy, this course gives users a grounding in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. More importantly, it teaches the basics of fundamental and technical analysis (so you can evaluate whether any given cryptocurrency is investment-worthy). It’s not free, but it does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and lifetime course access. Udemy also provides courses related specifically to trading fundamentals and algorithmic trading that are also worth checking out.

• Bulls on Crypto Street

Offering one of the most comprehensive trading courses available anywhere, Bulls on Crypto Street bills itself as a “bootcamp” for trading. It offers basics on blockchain and bitcoin, while also teaching users how to use exchanges, core trading strategies, trading NFTs, using DeFi, and technical analysis. It has a free intro course, and while you’ll have to pay for the full shebang, it has few peers.

• RocketFuel Crypto Education

Offering a free seven-day trial, this online course is ideal for newcomers. It starts off with an intro to cryptocurrency and blockchain fundamentals, and then moves into the basics of investment and trading, while also looking at how to use trading apps and software. The monthly subscription, at $47, also grants users access to a community of like-minded traders.

The Best Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Degree Programs at Universities and Colleges

It’s worth noting that the courses outlined below cover varying areas of crypto, and that some are part of general degrees related to computer science. Still, depending on your particular interests, you should be able to find at least a handful that suit.

• University College London, MSc in Emerging Digital Technologies

This Master of Science degree focuses on helping students develop programming skills in areas such as data science, blockchain technologies and information management systems, and aims to prepare them for careers in businesses looking to harness such tech. UCL’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies also offers an MSc in Financial Technology, while the standard BSc and MSc in Computer Science also have relevance to blockchain.

• University of California, Berkeley, BA in Computer Science

Home to its own Hub for Blockchain Innovation, the University of California, Berkeley also offers a Bachelor degree in computer science that can include blockchain development, as well as other relevant fundamentals such as cryptography.

• Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Business (Blockchain Enabled Business)

This Bachelor degree focuses on the business aspect of blockchain technology, teaching students how to apply and manage blockchain in public and private enterprises. Aside from learning how to use blockchain within businesses, it imparts skills in accounting, marketing, management, statistics, and business IT. RMIT also offers a range of other blockchain-related courses at different levels, which are all worth checking out.

• Stanford University, BSc and MSc in Computer Science

Participants in Stanford’s Bachelor and Master of Science degrees will have the option of taking a number of courses relevant to crypto, including one on “Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies” and another on “cryptography.”

• Hong Kong Polytechnic University, BSc in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University offers a BSc program in computing and AI which, from the second year onwards, lets them choose a specific degree. Its the Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence BSc that covers software engineering, systems security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cryptocurrency, crowdfunding and e-finance, big data and other related areas.

• National University of Singapore, MSc in Digital Financial Technology

The National University of Singapore also offers undergraduate degrees in computer science that deal with blockchain, but it’s its MSC in Digital Finance Technology that provides a more comprehensive level of specialization. It claims to prepare students for a career as a blockchain developer, and also overlaps with AI, data analytics and risk management.

• University of Nicosia, MSc in Blockchain and Digital Currency

Offering students the chance to study online or on campus, this MSc from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus provides a general, all-round education in the fundamentals of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. It is publicized as the world’s first Master of Science degree in its subject area, and is aimed at helping “financial services and business professionals, entrepreneurs, government officials and public administrators better understand the technical underpinnings of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.”

• University of Nicosia, MSc in Computer Science (focus on blockchain)

This Master of Science degree in computer science enables students to focus on blockchain technologies as a specialty. This includes how to code blockchains, while it also concentrates on programmable smart contracts and the architectures (such as Ethereum’s) which enables them.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

MIT offers undergraduate degrees allowing students to choose components with relevance to crypto, yet its Master programs provide greater scope for studying blockchain technology in more depth.

• The University of British Columbia, BSc in Computer Science

UBC’s BSc in computer science provides students with the option to take courses relevant to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, including distributed systems and algorithms. A similar thing applies to its MSc in computer science.

Honorable Mentions

The above are only ten of the most prominent degree courses related to blockchain and/or cryptocurrency. Indeed, many more universities are adding crypto-related degrees or modules with each passing week. So given that offering a summary of all of them is beyond the scope of this article, here’s a short rundown (in no particular order) of some highly ranked colleges that do currently teach blockchain to some degree.

• UNSW Sydney (Australia)

• ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

• University of Oxford (UK)

• Cornell University (USA)

• Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)

• University of Sydney (Australia)

• University of Cambridge (UK)

• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA)

• University of California, Los Angeles (USA)

• University of Edinburgh (UK)

• University of Bologna Business School (Italy)

• Technical University of Munich (Germany)

• Arizona State University (USA)

• University of Salamanca (Spain)

• Carnegie Mellon University (USA)

• University of Melbourne (Australia)

• Georgetown University (USA)

• Imperial College Business School (UK)

• University of Reading Henley Business School (UK)

• Swansea University (UK)

• New York University (USA)

Doing Your Own Research

Again, the above list doesn’t exhaust the number of colleges offering blockchain-related learning, so it’s always worth doing your own research and checking with any university you happen to like in order to see if they teach anything relevant.

Also, even if you aren’t particularly interested in attending college to learn about crypto and gain a degree, you can always do your own reading online. For one, there are a large number of websites (such as this one) that offer not only regular coverage of the cryptocurrency market and industry, but that also provide helpful guides on the latter. Likewise, crypto-exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken have launched their own respective ‘academies’ that provide useful glossaries and explainers related to crypto.

And while it may seem daunting to start learning up on cryptocurrencies and blockchain, it would really help your trading to do so. Because in a world where platform after platform claims to deliver some kind of ‘revolution’ in technology and/or finance, it would really help to have the tools and knowledge to cut through the hyperbole.