MDC’s BIT Center Partners with CityCoins, Venture Miami and Stacks Foundation to Offer Free MiamiCoin Developer Course Starting May 9

Miami, April 26, 2022 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Business Innovation & Technology (BIT) Center in partnership with CityCoins, Venture Miami and Stacks Foundation will launch MiamiCoin Developer Camp, a free five-week course starting Monday, May 9, that will provide participants the opportunity acquire knowledge and skills in Web3 technologies like Clarity smart contract development and decentralized application architecture. Register at https://clarity-lang.org/miami.

“There has been a 500% increase in demand for software engineers with blockchain development skills in the past year. As an education institution, we need to address a potential gap of talent in this area. This is also a clear opportunity to provide a platform to build civic applications to improve the city,” said Chechu Lasheras, director at MDC’s Business Innovation and Technology Center.

During the program, developers will access expert-led training and guidance on the use of Clarity. The hands-on training will be open to developers of diverse levels of expertise and they will learn the important aspects of smart contract development.

 “Our local community is looking for ways to participate and contribute to this tech movement, and programs like this offer anyone an opportunity to participate in Miami’s tech growth while building a career for themselves. We have planned a non-hackathon hackathon called Miami for Everyone as a way to show Miami citizens that technology is not just for a select few it is for everyone,” said Erick Gavin, Executive Director at Venture Miami.

The course will be delivered by expert instructors through a combination of virtual lecture sessions, workshops, AMAs, and office hours. Participants will also have the unique opportunity to work on actual applications and get support from the MiamiCoin community. Upon completion of the course, they will be invited to a hackathon led by the Venture Miami team to innovate with civic solutions using this new ecosystem.

“Miami Dade College is the perfect partner to reach hundreds of local developers to learn how to build secure web3 apps with MiamiCoin. It is the MiamiCoin community’s goal to increase quality of life for all Miami citizens and there is no better cohort of hackers to build great apps than the ones based in Miami!,” said Patrick Stanley, CityCoins Community Lead.

CityCoins offer people a way to support their city and grow its crypto treasury while earning Bitcoin BTC and Stacks STX for themselves. Each city has their own coin. MiamiCoin was the first CityCoin to market. Other U.S. cities with CityCoins include New York and Austin.

Some MiamiCoin Projects already in progress include CityPacks 001, an NFT Collection of 3D illustrated backpacks that funds the Educational Programs for the Foundation for New Education Initiatives (FNEI), the direct-support organization for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Miami Voice, a MiamiCoin app that allows users to propose ideas and vote on how Miami should spend their funds raised through MiamiCoin ($MIA) mining. Denizen, smart coworking spaces that are accessible with CityCoin tokens so the community can better co-work and organize while supporting their cities and coworking spaces and Syvita Mining, which allow user contributions to be pooled with others to increase the pool’s chance of winning blocks.

About MDC’s BIT Center

MDC’s state-of-the-art BIT Center explores the role of technology in digital transformation, process automation, and analytics in the ever-changing business landscape. The BIT Center is an initiative of MDC’s Miguel B. Fernandez Family School of Global Business, Trade & Transportation and offers various programs and courses in three core areas – marketing and digital marketing; banking and finance; and industry certifications. For a complete list of BIT Center courses and events, visit www.mdc.edu/bitcenter.

For more information about the BIT Center, please contact Chechu Lasheras at 305-297-5696, jlashera@mdc.edu; or Max Ramirez rramirez2@mdc.edu.