How do you create something from nothing? Satoshi Nakamoto -- a pseudonym used by an unknown person or persons -- famously answered that question with Bitcoin, a virtual currency without a government sponsor. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel recently compared Bitcoin to virtual gold based on the “security of the math.” We now have a $100 billion market for Bitcoin based entirely on complex algorithms, network design and distributed computing.
	Ethereum takes the idea a step further, providing a “Turing-complete” virtual machine on top of the blockchain. This, in essence, means that Ethereum is both a currency and a decentralized computer to run programs on top of the blockchain. So, for example, with 9 lines of code, written in the Solidity contract-oriented programming language to target the Ethereum virtual machine, we could create a secure “U Penn coin.” It might look like this:

   function ERC20Token() {

		balances[msg.sender] = 100000;
		totalSupply = 1000000;
        name = “UPenn Coin”;
		decimals = 18;
		symbol = “PENN”;

   }

This new UPenn coin could verify the security of physical doors with ID badges, register students into classes, and even securely store student records. While this is an imaginary use case, it is more reality than science fiction. Georgia Tech implemented Bitcoin into its student payment card in 2014.
My interest in blockchain stretches back to 2012, when I mined my first Bitcoin, long before people were really talking about virtual currencies. More recently, my intrigue has evolved into a passion. I began by pouring over whitepapers, and even listened to UPenn’s own Kevin Werbach and Nicolas Cornell as they discussed their research on the “smart contract” programming languages that live on top of blockchains. This past summer, I configured, built and managed a 1.5 GH/s Ethereum mine. Late at night in my basement, I read PCB diagrams, studied the ins and outs of BIOS optimization, learned about memory timings and soldered together the capacitors on my graphics cards. When I posted my optimizations online, over 1000 miners downloaded the file, suggesting I had created a gold standard.
 	What does any of this have to do with the M&T program? Well, blockchain implementations are both very simple and wildly complicated. If I want to participate in the blockchain revolution, I need to understand all of it, the math, engineering, computer science and also the business use cases, economics and financial aspects. The M&T program will let me delve more deeply into both aspects.
 	For example, how do you start a virtual currency that holds value? The simple answer is to limit supply and make transactions cheap and easy. The complicated answer has been “proof of work,” a cryptographic method to secure and limit supply. Mining Ethereum or Bitcoin involves having a computer solve for a “nonce input.” After hours studying the Ethereum white paper, I began to understand what that means. Basically, the mining machine has to find the answer to a complex problem through trial and error, which consumes a lot of processing power, but confirming the answer once found is easy. This is just one example of the technical complexity underlying cryptocurrencies. I need to understand cryptography, computer hardware, algorithms, and computer science. Most likely, in the School of Engineering, I will pursue an Individualized Bachelor of Applied Science to combine these elements.
At the same time, a cool technology that sits on the shelf is useless. Real companies are putting Bitcoin, Ethereum and underlying blockchain technologies to work. For example, startup companies are using the Ethereum platform to raise capital through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Walmart and IBM just announced a blockchain project to track livestock and sources of food poisoning. Entire countries, like Singapore and Russia, are porting their national currencies on top of the Ethereum blockchain. At Wharton, I will dive deep into finance and economics, and likely will design an individualized concentration, combining elements of Behavioral Economics, Entrepreneurship and Finance.