Reaching for an image to convey the mix of entrepreneurial enthusiasm and rampant, imaginative speculation currently fermenting on the University of Pennsylvania's campus, writer Trey Popp evokes the example, both alluring and cautionary, of “the San Francisco Bay Area during the original dot-com boom.” For those only vaguely familiar with words like blockchain and Bitcoin, the article provides a very clear and useful primer.
From the Judges
“Finally, somebody can explain digital currency to me,” exclaimed one judge about this well-researched article. Writer Trey Popp spent months taking classes and interviewing experts, and it showed. We loved the description of “blockchain fever” raging through Penn’s campus “with a mixture of entrepreneurial zeal, utopian fantasy, greed, confusion, naysaying, and intellectual electricity” reminiscent of the Bay Area dot-com boom. One judge said that the article had a narrative of ambition reminiscent of the movie, The Social Network.
