Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may be among the first students in the country to use Bitcoins at their school’s Kendall Square bookstore.
MIT announced a partnership with BitPay, a company that processes Bitcoin payments, allowing the MIT COOP to accept the digital currency as of last Thursday morning.
Jerry Murphy, president of the organization that manages the MIT COOP, told journalists that student interest in Bitcoins and MIT’s tendency to be cutting edge were among the deciding factors.
The COOP already exchanged Bitcoins at their store for the past six months, so trying out Bitcoin as a method of payment was a natural choice.
The new payment method is not the only way that Bitcoins are being used on the MIT campus. The university also has a Bitcoin Club made up of students who believe that Bitcoins may be the “future of money.”
In April, MIT was given $500,000 from investors in an effort to encourage the use of the digital currency in Cambridge and on-campus. As a result, every undergraduate student will be given $100 in Bitcoin during the fall semester.
MIT is also encouraging students to pioneer new, innovative ways to use Bitcoin by turning it into a competition called BitComp. Students and alumni have the chance to develop apps that relate to Bitcoin and the most successful ones can receive prize money.
More than $15,000 in prizes will be awarded in total, including prizes just for participating in the contest. The grand prize winner will get $5,000.
MIT’s Bitcoin Club also hosted “hack nights” throughout the summer, allowing students to learn from guest speakers and each other while getting time to try out new projects. All of the summer events are over, but additional events should soon be announced for fall.
