The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) isn’t the only higher education institution to be playing around with bitcoin. The University of Zurich in Switzerland is testing out a new NFC-based bitcoin payment solution in one of the school’s cafeterias for about two weeks (spearheaded by a group of nine individuals — students and faculty).
NFC, of course, is near-field communication, and will allow payments to be made by placing one’s mobile device near a receiving point to complete a transaction. This can be done offline, too.
And it’s all coming together with a mobile wallet app they’re calling CoinBlesk. Students at the University will be able to load up their wallets online, or they’ll have the option of doing do by utilizing a bitcoin ATM that’s destined to make its way to the campus.
In order to participate in the trial, users will be required to have Android 4.4 (kitkat) a number of other requirements, which you can find here.
Obviously, the app is in beta, so users should expect to encounter issues here and there. The application can be had from the Google Play Store by following this link.
Overall, the project seems to be very interesting, and shows that bitcoin interest is increasing in educational institutions around the world. At the beginning of this post I mentioned MIT. Just in case you’re not aware, the school’s bitcoin club is working on a project of their own that will give $100 worth of free bitcoin to all undergraduates at the school.
