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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the 
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for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

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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.

