Topic: Certified Bitcoin Professional - page 2. (Read 33920 times)

So what is the benefit of owning this "crypto certificate"  ? 
 

The forum's expert "certification" (recently also extended to /r/Bitcoin) predates "Certified Bitcoin Professional" by at least a year, I think. Here's where I officially announced it, though it existed for quite some time before that. People with a Bitcoin expert badge (or an equivalent core dev badge) are intimately familiar with the theory and inner workings of the Bitcoin network, and they are able to intelligently discuss any proposed change to the network. If they time-traveled to 2007, they would be able to reconstruct something feature-equal and at least a little better than Bitcoin from scratch.

Receiving this badge requires a recommendation from someone who already has the badge and approval by an admin. There is no fee or exam.

I see theymos is offering a certification now:  https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-expert-status-427201

I would suggest people seek legitimates certifications rather than buying one from theymos

http://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/ and https://cryptoconsortium.org/ offer legitimate certifications.

i am on that too. still trying to finish chapter 1.

I am also enrolled in the Princeton Course.  https://piazza.com/princeton/spring2015/btctech/home

Ok, now I'm a certified bitcoin pro also. I wrote it on a cocktail napkin and hung it on my office wall. I couldn't be prouder, I made summa cum laude!

If you want to LEARN all about bitcoin, your money is better spent getting something like Andreas Antonopoulos' book. But if you want to help build up some credibility FOR (not IN) the "crypto industry", then CBP isn't a bad place to start.

"Professional certifications" certainly have a value for HR departments and consultants. 99% of certs are a scam, because the people who certify you are the same people who make/sell the products you're certified on.  Which could also be true in this case, except that the Bitcoin tools and docs are free. So why buy a certification?

The people offering this certification might be too early - but it has to start somewhere.  The CPB level is like a secretary's (sorry, executive assistant's!) proof of basic competence like ability to type X wpm, understand filing systems and have good phone manners.  If a business has to or plans to handle bitcoins in the future, then their HR dept. will be happy to find a candidate that at least knows not to put the private keys unencrypted on a removable thumb drive.

But it's "too early" because no business is asking for it yet. It's bootstrapping - people need to learn about Bitcoins to want them, and who better to spread the word than a CBP?  When HR personnel start seeing "CBP" on resumes, they'll get used to and start to demand it - even if they don't know what is it. (Intelligence isn't a requirement for HR work afaik )
The CBP certification is superficial because the technology is brand new.  You don't really need to hire someone to set up a wallet hierarchy for your departments and be a "key master"/wallet admin because the wallets aren't that complicated yet. But someday they will be and then CBP will certainly be "worth" something.
On the other hand, how many current "altcoin devs" would fail to achieve even basic CBP level?  I'd love to know!

I think it might end up like the "Scrum Master" cert. About 100$ CAD (when I did it), a couple hours of reading, easy exam, but being able to apply to "Scrum master"/Agile jobs is worth the cost, even if Scrum is a scam.  Laugh at the people spending money all you want, there will *always* be cert. programs when $ is involved.  This one is probably not worth it for anyone savvy enough to be on bitcointalk, but it only takes one big HR department to start demanding "something" for a certification program to pop up. All the better if it's run by a non-profit, right?

C4/CBP does have some failings, in my opinion. First off there is no publicly visible count of how many people have achieved CBP, or even applied.  That doesn't encourage businesses/HR to demand it or vet its worth. There's no official training material or "trial" test.  And as far as I know they don't offer to link to a live logo/visible certificate you could put on linkedin or whatever.

So personally I'm going to use my money to buy another 0.5 BTC But as a professional software dev, I am definitely looking forward to the CBX cert!

There is a company that is planning to do that - "link up with a brick n mortar school."

In fact they are lining up a few schools to offer the physical cert for their courses.

PM me as we could JV on this. Who has the email for Michael Perklin?

Since this is one of our more visited discussions about the CBP, I wanted to add that we recently wrote an article to explain how and why we developed the Certified Bitcoin Professional.

http://blog.cryptoconsortium.org/how-we-defined-the-certified-bitcoin-professional/

I am happy to answer any further questions and comments people have.

You're right, absolutly right. However I remember the courses and certificates "PC operator" (or something like that).

You know when a certification is interesting for the masses?
when they cheat to get it
I cant see your Q&As 

Francis from the Bitcoin Embassy here.

I think the CBP is a great idea because a large number of Bitcoiners have spent countless hours self-educating themselves about Bitcoin and other cryptos. How can you possibly measure this and put it on a CV? Write in the hobbies section "I read a lot of information about Bitcoin?"

Some employers might want their employees to be "bitcoin-savy" without necessarily meaning that they want them to do Bitcoin-related work for them.

 Simple use-case: you're a student and want to apply as a waiter and on your CV you have a Bitcoin certificate. Restaurant owner accepts Bitcoin, in which case he doesn't have to bother wasting hours on how to accept BTC payments. He might even ask you to manage the wallet, etc. Other case: restaurant owner wants to accept Bitcoin but doesn't really understand / can't be bother to operate the wallet himself or set up the payment channel. He might want to hire you with the added benefit of having an employee being able to set up Bitcoin payments.

Other use-case: applying for a university degree where the faculty is looking for students who are pro-active in their learning or that value self-learning.

The point: if you're and employer planning on accepting Bitcoin payments directly for your business and having someone that can manage a Bitcoin wallet is a plus for you, the CBP might be a good way for you to get the most out of your recruiting process.

Knowing the people who are behind cryptoconsortium, I think this is a legit project to help bring more clarity to the Bitcoin HR Market. I'm pretty confident that they could have found a more profitable business model and that they are truly trying to help the bitcoin economy.  I read somewhere on this topic that they would donate some of the profits in order to truly remain a non-profit project - if that's true than I just don't see how this could possibly be a scam.

Can't wait to see what's in the CBX!

How do we know this is given value anywhere?

Thank you for taking the initiative to do this, seriously.

Well I'm sure if you keep at it you'll make it happen. I think the business certification idea is a good one. I had my reservations at first like Rassah did because we have seen so many money grabs using this forum you end up like a puppy hit with a rolled up newspaper too many times. You flinch and react before you think. This idea may be a little premature but I guess that won't hurt. Linking it to an established respected institution of higher learning is priceless and could help some kid get a job someday. Good luck.

Not specifically for certification but I actually have been making Bitcoin caontacts.  I contacted Rutgers and Stockton (near Atlantic City) but no real interest so far. 

Shamoon Siddiqui has been working with NJIT http://njitvector.com/2013/colloquium-bitcoins-with-shamoon-siddiqui/

Princeton has professor Felton doing some research https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/bitcoin-research-in-princeton-cs/

Of course you're qualified for a certification. Everyone reading this forum for more than a year is probably qualified. I think it would be better for you to link up with a brick n mortar school to offer the certification online. That might add a little credence to it. You're in New Jersey right? Why not contact NJIT or UNNJ about offering an online class? You could even offer them the curriculum and teach them about Bitcoin. Make the pitch that other universities are now offering Bitcoin courses and they could lead the country in being the first to have a certification program using this new technology. Not to mention the fact that they will make a little money on the deal.

I didn't know you were the one that asked FinCEN for a ruling. Good job, that's great! That letter is sufficiently vague that I don't see any proof that miners can't still be prosecuted in the future. The part that worries me the most is: Isn't mining all about verifying transaction records of another (the bank ledger), printing new money to be distributed to another (unless you're solo mining -rofl) and receiving transaction fees as "the bank". The only thing saving us now is that fiat isn't involved and Bitcoin isn't considered money - yet.

Our email to those who signed up is going out this week Thanks for your patience and support.

BTW - I also obtained the FinCEN ruling concerning Bitcoin mining:

http://www.coindesk.com/fincen-bitcoin-miners-need-not-register-money-transmitters/
http://cointext.com/fincen-issues-bitcoin-friendly-ruling-for-miners/

I would think all these activities, along with passing the test, qualifies me for the lowest level certification.

I already explained I am retired and I already have a Master's in physics and Com Sci degrees from Rutgers, and a CISSP.  I am putting together web sites such as http://bitcoin.me so you can see for yourself.  I just launched the Bitcoin.me video and I am getting a pretty good reaction from those that see it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4UYpbRO8nw