David Stancel

I stumbled upon Bitcoin and digital currencies in 2012 and like most people I did not pay much attention to it. Over time as I encountered it increasingly more often, I started to pay attention and slowly dug deeper. In 2013, during my studies of Economics and International Affairs at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, I organized my first event on Bitcoin and I was overwhelmed by the mass of students that showed up – over 120 people!

From that point onwards I was even more motivated to go down the rabbit hole and explore the beautiful mix of the scientific areas that digital currencies embody. Studying this field has been the most interesting journey of my life. I got to know amazing people, organized and attended amazing events full of intelligent and open-minded entrepreneurs, scientists, and enthusiasts.

Like many people in this field, I followed and admired Andreas Antonopoulos for his craftmanship of explaining complicated topics behind Bitcoin with tremendous ease and elegance. When I found out he is part of MSc in Digital Currencies offered by the University of Nicosia (UNIC), I immediately decided to sign up even though I had already planned not to pursue a master’s degree since I was already working at one of the Big 4 consulting firms as an IT Auditor and Consultant.

I saw the fact that UNIC offered a full-fledged Master of Science degree on Digital Currencies a great leap forward for the crypto industry as it legitimized the whole space in the eyes of the many sceptics.

As I started my studies in MSc Digital Currency in 2017, I decided to quit my corporate job and fully embark on the crypto path consulting many start-ups in the space. My MSc degree also helped me get consulting gigs with larger companies and corporations, and I was able to run workshops and speak at lectures for many institutions such as central and commercial banks, governments, the European Parliament and more.

Even though I thought I already knew a lot about digital currencies, the MSc program offered by UNIC helped me to structure my knowledge, and allow me to understand the development of blockchain applications better.

It also inspired me to dive even deeper into certain aspects of digital currencies so I decided to write my book dedicated to the history and evolution of cryptocurrencies. Thanks to this degree I was able to convince universities in my home country, Slovakia, to let me create and teach my own course on Digital Currencies in Bratislava. The course is also open-sourced on GitHub.

Last but not least, my studies were vital in my career progression and helped me land my current position as CTO of Fumbi.

I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to study digital currencies at UNIC! It has been a great honour to be part of it and to join them in their mission to educate the world on digital currencies and blockchain technology.