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2A — Wednesday, January 3, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Engineering
senior
Kyle

Winstanley is choosing Bitcoin
over his bachelor’s degree.

Winstanley plans to pursue

cryptocurrency trading full
time instead of graduating
college. Partnered with his
classmate, LSA senior Spencer
Porter,
the
pair
amassed

around $15,000 by Dec of last
year, and have now collected
almost $70,000 to date to
contribute to their trading
hub.

Bitcoin
is
a
type
of

cryptocurrency,
a
digital

form of currency that utilizes
cryptography
for
security

purposes. It is not tied to
a
government
entity,
and

due to the private nature of
transactions, can be used for
illegal purchases.

In an interview with Forbes,

Winstanley
emphasized
he

hopes to one day return to
school and finish his degree
but did not want to miss out on
the opportunity to capitalize
on the cryptocurrency market.

“I’m not opposed to trying

to finish school and I’d love
to have my degree at some
point and come back and get
it,”
Winstanley
said.
“But

I couldn’t let this market
happen again without my full
attention on it.”

The housemates said they

became
infatuated
with

Bitcoin in August 2017 when
they joined a cryptocurrency
discussion group on Facebook.
From
there,
they
began

networking
with
other

students — sharing various

market
predictions
and

analyses between each other.

In
the
same
interview,

Porter
said
he
spent
an

immense amount of time —
from August to December —
researching Bitcoin exchange
and keeping track of data. He
plans to reduce his course load
and graduate next year, rather
than in the spring, in order
to devote as much time as
possible to the exchange.

“I logged over 2,000 hours

in the last four months in
research, charting analytics
and
data,
and
it’s
really

become a passion,” Porter said.
“I wake up every morning and
I’m excited to begin to learn.”

In fact, rather than using

his
apartment
as
a
quiet

study area, Winstanley will

convert his apartment into a
Bitcoin trading space for the
new semester — replete with
a large projection screen and
up to 12 monitors displaying
the fluctuations of various
cryptocurrency
exchanges

occurring around the world.

Porter
emphasized
the

number of opportunities to
profit off of Bitcoin exchange
is decreasing, as various “big
money”
institutions
have

entered the market.

“For those that have not

stepped in yet, the window is
closing,” he said. “Wall Street
and the big money has begun
to enter. They are moving very,
very fast.”

-KAELA THEUT

Jan 7, 1999

By Asma Rafeeq
Daily Staff Reporter

There were a few empty seats

in lecture halls yesterday, as
snow-bound students remained
stranded in their home towns.

LSA
sophomore
Megan

Schulze was eager to get back
to Ann Arbor on time because
she is waitlisted in a class she
really wanted to take. But lake-
effect snow in her hometown of
Muskegon, Mich., foiled her plans
to arrive on Tuesday, causing her
to miss two morning classes -
including the waitlisted course.

“I’m hoping the snow is a good

enough excuse to still get into the
class,” she said.

Schulze was still unsure about

driving yesterday, but finally left
in the afternoon. The roads were
still somewhat dangerous then,
she said.

“From Muskegon to Grand

Rapids, you couldn’t even tell if
you were driving in the right lane,
the left lane or in the middle of
the road,” she said.

Other students haven’t made it

back to Ann Arbor yet.

LSA first-year student Paul

Caiano originally had planned to
fly from his home in New York
to Detroit Metropolitan Airport
on Tuesday. But when his flight
was canceled Tuesday night, he
decided to relish his extra time at
home.

Realizing
he
would
miss

yesterday’s classes even if he
took the next flight out of New
York and knowing that he had no
classes tomorrow, Caiano decided
to skip his classes scheduled for
today and fly to Ann Arbor this
Saturday.

“I’m not mad about the snow,”

he said, “especially considering
I get an extra four days with my
girlfriend.”

As
the
snowstorm
forced

airports throughout the Midwest
to close, airline passengers were
stuck at airports, waiting for
standby flights.

LSA junior Kevin Meconis

spent two days with his family at
the airport in Denver waiting for
the next available flight home.

“It was really boring,” he said.

“I went through a lot of batteries
on my CD player.”

Rowell Huesmann, professor

of communication studies and
psychology, also was left without
a flight in Denver this past
weekend. He decided to rent a
car and drove with his son from
Denver to Ann Arbor.

“The roads weren’t bad at

all until we got to Chicago,”
Huesmann said.

Those who were able to make

the trip back to Ann Arbor on time
faced treacherous conditions.

With medical school classes

starting
this
past
Monday,

Medical
first-year
student

Debbie Kwon urgently wanted
to get to Ann Arbor by Sunday
night.
Despite
the
warnings

and advice of friends who told
her not to go, Kwon, along with
two undergraduate University
students, set out from Cincinnati
on Sunday evening. But about
halfway through the drive, her
car skidded across the freeway,
making a 180 degree turn amidst
a crowd of cars and landed in the
median.

As another passing driver was

watching Kwon’s car skid, he
lost control of his own car, and it
flipped over twice in the middle

of the highway, Kwon said.

“It was like a movie,” Kwon

said.

Kwon’s car was towed out of

the median and she kept driving,
anxious to get to Ann Arbor for
her Monday class

But an hour and a half later,

the three students were set back
again, when the car did another
180 degree turn in the middle of
the freeway even though they
were driving at a low speed.

After being towed out of the

median a second time, Kwon said
she decided to stop for the night.

“I was willing to keep going,”

she said, “but (my passengers)
wanted to stop.”

She drove at 20 miles per hour

until they arrived at Findlay, Ohio
where the three students found
the last available hotel room in
the city. Kwon’s car survived the
trip without any damage, and the
passengers were not injured.

Kwon said while the experience

was definitely very scary, it was
also inspiring to see how many
people stopped to help out when
her car was stuck in the snow.

“The whole incident revived

my hope in humanity,” she said.

ON THE DAILY: TRADING BACHELORS FOR BITCOINS

THE MICHIGAN
DAILY IS HIRING

Interested in writing?

Design? Coding?

Multimedia?

Come to 420 Maynard on
January 11, 16, 17 at 7 p.m.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: SOME STUDENTS STRANDED AFTER BLIZZARD

CL A SSROOM EQUIT Y

News

CEREN B DAG/Daily

Tazin Daniels presents on student pedagogy to fellow graduate student instructors at the CRLT GSI training session at the Michigan League Tuesday.