UC engineering student demystifies crypto through co-op

Now the University of Cincinnati computer science student is preparing to tackle the high-wire world of digital currency.

“Cryptocurrency is like digital cash. You don’t need to trust some centralized company to conduct the payment. Transactions are irreversible, and corrupt governments can’t freeze the currency,” he said. “It’s still going to take many years to gain broad and institutional adoption. I think it will become the backbone of financial infrastructure. Everyone will use it.”

UC’s former Dean Herman Schneider pioneered the nation’s first cooperative education program in 1906. Students dedicate part of the year to full-time academic instruction and part of the year to full-time employment with any of more than 2,000 business partners around the world.

UC’s co-op model has been replicated around the world, but UC maintains its standing as a national leader (fourth in co-op in the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report.) And a bronze bust of Schneider greets engineering students in front of Baldwin Hall on campus.

Hemmerle said his co-ops at UC made all the difference in setting up his budding career.

“It wasn’t until I started doing my co-ops and I met other students who weren’t doing them that I had the perspective to appreciate the program,” Hemmerle said. “They said, ‘Damn, I wish my school had a program like that.’ They were like, ‘Wow, you have a year and a half of experience by the time you graduate and you can try a bunch of different jobs.’ It really sets you apart from other students and gives you confidence in all aspects of your career.”

A Pew Research Center survey this year found that a majority of Americans know at least a little about cryptocurrency even though few invest. In 2015 fewer than half of Americans had heard about cryptocurrency. 

Cryptocurrency is in the midst of a ground-shifting change in the way it functions, Hemmerle said.

In the absence of a government entity like the U.S. Treasury that decides when to issue new currency, Bitcoin allows investors to create new currency by “mining it” using special software to solve complex math problems. Investors also add new transaction records to the system’s digital accounting ledger, known as a blockchain.

This accounting system ensures that Bitcoin investors can’t spend the same Bitcoin twice, enhancing security.

But this “proof-of-work” system requires a lot of computing power. Cryptocurrency such as Ethereum are moving to a proof-of-stake system that will be more energy efficient and will do away with crypto mining.

“Crypto in its current form is really hard on the environment. Bitcoin and Ethereum both run on proof-of-work systems that are computationally expensive,” Hemmerle said.

Hemmerle said he has been learning as much as he can about cryptocurrency policy, its underlying technology and the implications for the global economy. As someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Hemmerle said it can be difficult to focus on material that isn’t a top priority, he said. But he has devoured dozens of books on crypto.

“When I’m interested in something, I’ll be up until 2 in the morning working on it for six hours at a time,” he said.

Featured image at top: Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is becoming more ubiquitous. Photo/cryptowallet.com/Wikimedia Commons