Montreal University Bitcoin Airdrop

In November of 2014, the ivy league university MIT airdropped $100 worth of bitcoin to over 4,000 of the school’s undergraduates. It was the largest airdrop of bitcoin ever and gave away a total of $500,000 in bitcoins to students.

The event drew a large amount of attention from the crypto-currency community and mainstream press. The airdrop goal was to create the world’s first “bitcoin economy”

Following the MIT airdrop students’ interest in the technology of the crypto-currency has increased. There have been numerous bitcoin workshops, hackathons and competitions at the university. Several projects came out of the school’s bitcoin startup competition, Bitcomp, including a bitcoin SMS solution for developing countries, and a crowdfunding website for crypto-currency. All of this, and regular meetups, have been organized by the MIT Bitcoin Club.

Canadian university McGill will participate in a similar airdrop, but with a larger focus on education. The McGill Crypto-Currency Club, in partnership with Montreal’s’ Bitcoin Embassy, will be giving around 600 students 30mBTC ($8.23 at time of press). The bitcoin will be distributed through envelopes containing a paper wallet and educational material about the technology. It will also contains invitations to free crypto-currency workshops and lectures.

“McGill is one of the world’s best universities and it is located in Montreal, a city recognized for its thriving Bitcoin community. The student body’s interest in Bitcoin is rising fast and it could very well become a global hub for cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and developers. It boasts a diverse student body with nearly one-quarter of foreign students,”
— – Bitcoin Embassy

The airdrop is scheduled for spring 2015. People are encouraged to donate bitcoins to the non-profit initiative but they plan on getting the majority of the funds from sponsorships. Companies and organizations sponsoring the event will get advertising space on the front of the envelope as well as on the educational material inside.

“Without a doubt. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 26 have been found to be the most psychologically permeable age demographic. It is a time when humans are leaving the nest and forming their own views of the world, but before those views have fully taken shape. Anybody who has tried to explain Facebook to their grandparents knows how difficult it can be to convey such a foreign concept to older individuals whose view of the world is so rooted in the past,” said co-founder of Crypto-Currency College Network.