Ethereum team lead sees zero interest from university in collaborating

Peter Szilagyi, the team lead of Ethereum, has expressed frustration over his alma mater’s lack of interest in providing opportunities for students to collaborate with Ethereum (ETH).

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Szilagyi explained that he had always felt a lack of genuine interest when he returned to his old university to deliver talks about Ethereum.

He stated that the students appeared to be more focused on the price of Ethereum rather than the project itself. ETH has increased 20.10% over the last 30 days. At the time of publication, ETH’s current price is $1,698.72.

“The audience seems to have been stuck in the number go up aspect; and the organizers always used it as an ad campaign.”

Over the past years I’ve been asked many times to do talks at my old university about #Ethereum. I did a couple of them, but didn’t feel genuine interest.

The audience seems to have been stuck in the number go up aspect; and the organizers always used it as an ad campaign. 1/4

— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) December 2, 2023

Szilagyi noted that this year he organized a grant for 9 students to participate in Devconnect, including flights and accommodation. However, he claims the students are not aware of who is funding the initiative. 

“I haven’t met the students myself, but someone supposedly has. They had no clue where the grant came from,” he stated.

“Figured lets see if this piqued some interest. Wrote to a bunch of old university contacts (including the person through whom I have the grant) if they could recommend some students to potentially collab on some stuff (paid).”

However, Szilagyi insists that the university neglected to respond to his emails, leaving him in the dark about the outcome.

“Two [weeks] later, zero effs, not even a response,” he declared.

However, recent reports suggest a growing demand for crypto and blockchain courses in universities.

Related: Ethereum price rallies toward key resistance but is ETH’s strength sustainable?

On Feb. 24, Cointelegraph reported that major companies are helping to drive demand for crypto education.

In recent years, several blue-chip firms including Oracle, Amazon, and Google, have actively hired those with crypto and blockchain knowledge to help develop blockchain products.

It was also noted that there is an increase in interest from information systems students to learn about decentralized applications.

In more recent news, France has now opened the Institute of Crypto-Assets. The institute will support and conduct research related to blockchain technology and crypto.

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