02 | news
March 21, 2018
NEWS CAMPUS EVENTS
Speaker goes in depth about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin craze Rachel Trbovic Contributing Writer rach.trbovic@drake.edu At 7 p.m. on March 8 in the Innovation Studio, adjunct professor Tom Myers gave the presentation “Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies,” on the current stages of cryptocurrencies and their possibilities for the future. According to the New York Times, “A bitcoin is a digital token, with no physical backing, that can be sent electronically from one user to another, anywhere in the world.” Bitcoin is a form of cryptocurrency, also known as digital currency. It is a form of digital public money that is created by mathematical computations and policed by
millions of computer users called “miners.” Physically, there is nothing to hold, although it is possible to exchange crypto for cash. “With typical currency, it requires trust,” Myers said. “With bitcoin there doesn’t need to be trust because the network creates total transparency. Everything is displayed on the network, so if someone tries to steal your bitcoin, which is almost impossible, you would see it and be able to track whoever took it.” Bitcoin was the first crypto coin currency invented. No one knows exactly who created it since cryptocurrencies are designed for maximum anonymity, but bitcoins first appeared in 2009 from a developer under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. “That’s what I don’t like about bitcoin,” first-year actuarial
science student Becky Jonen said. “It’s somehow completely transparent, so everyone sees everything, but then everyone can be under fake addresses, so you don’t actually know who is who.” Sometimes the transparency and anonymity is what attracts users. This peer-to-peer economy model not only creates transparency, but also creates very low transaction cost, almost zero dollars. Since all of the currency is online, this eliminates the idea of “skim dollars,” which is extra money people have to pay to bank companies for transferring money. These skim dollars are an issue for those in third world countries since they can’t afford to pay the extra costs to the banks. “Bitcoin wouldn’t lead to devaluation of money, therefore (it) could make banking open to
those without bank companies available,” Myers said. Although bitcoin has been around for nine years, it’s still in it’s beginning stages. As Myers put it, bitcoin is in the garage phase of Apple. “I think that since this is only the start of bitcoin, it’s hard to see where it could go,” said firstyear business student Manny Gutierrez. “But it (bitcoin) has the chance to end corruption within our currency exchange, and I think that’s a chance we need to take.” Since everything is shown on the network of bitcoin, there isn’t the opportunity to do behind the scene transactions. However, students also pondered what would happen if bitcoin began being shared on a server not seen in the public eye, such as the dark web.
“Bitcoin is the main form of currency for places like the black market and the dark web since it isn’t an official form of currency, and it has allowed this market to flourish, so can you actually consider it transparent if it isn’t on a public domain?” Jonen said. Although it’s difficult to see where bitcoin will go in the future, whether this may be the new form of currency for the world or just another trend waiting to die out, it already has made impacts on society. “This will affect the world more than the internet, it wouldn’t happen without the internet, but it’s going to be bigger than the internet,” Myers said.
CAMPUS NEWS
Pantries offer food assistance around Drake University campus Christina Schallenkamp Contributing Writer christina.schallenkamp@drake.edu One in every six-people living in America face hunger and more than one in five children are at risk of hunger. Dosomething.org found that each day “49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.” Renee Sedlacek, the community engaged learning director at Drake University, came up with an idea inspired by little libraries to raise awareness for this problem. Instead of filling the libraries with books, they would be filled with pantry items for people in the Drake community to access for free. The idea behind these little pantries would be “take what you need, leave what you can,” Sedlacek said. Sedlacek received a grant from the Walmart Foundation to get this project going. After that, she handed the idea over to the LEAD 100 class at Drake. Last spring, Katherine O’Keefe and six other students in LEAD 100 were approached by Sedlacek and told to “take it, run and do whatever you want with it,” O’Keefe said. Initially there were only three locations in the Drake community: the sprout garden, the parking lot outside of the Olmsted Center, and by the bus stop behind Goodwin-Kirk
residence hall. Now, they have increased the number of pantries around the Drake neighborhood from the original three to seven. They have also expanded to after school programs at local schools, churches and different areas that need this program. While this project is still a work in progress, Sedlacek has already seen how it has benefited the community. “The pantry by the sprout garden is the one we see the most use,” Sedlacek said. “It will be full in the morning and be completely empty by the afternoon.” Drake University students can get involved by donating their food items directly to the pantries or put them in the donation boxes during the collection periods outside of Spike’s C-Store. Amy Helseth, a first-year pharmacy student, donated to that pantry last semester. “I had a box of unopened Cheez-Its that I wasn’t going to eat, and instead of letting them go bad, I thought it would be better to donate them,” Helseth said. “We do recognize that this will not solve the problem of hunger in Des Moines,” Sedlacek said, “but we hope to raise awareness about food insecurity and maybe this can be one step forward for people in the neighborhood who have food insecurity.” More information can be found on the Facebook page Drake Littles Pantries.
FOOD PANTRIES have been around the campus over the past year to help alleviate food insecurity in the Drake neighborhood. PHOTO BY LÓRIEN MACENULTY | FEATURES EDITOR
IOWA NEWS
Campus community questions Iowa’s future with marijuana Aileen Acosta Contributing Writer aileen.acosta@drake.edu According to Iowa’s SF 282 bill, possession of marijuana is only legal for medicinal purposes but only with certain conditions, and illegal possession can lead to a severe penalty. According to the Cole Memo, placed by the Obama administration, legalized cannabis can progress, and federal prosecutors are encouraged to not prosecute if no criminal enterprise is taking place. Only eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said “good people do not smoke marijuana,” and is fighting to overturn the Cole Memo. Through January terms and on-campus courses, some Drake University faculty and students have decided that marijuana should be legalized for recreational purposes.
William Garriott, an assistant professor of law, politics and society, has researched the legalization of marijuana since 2014. “If Sessions wanted to shut it all down, it would require a level of enforcement that I do not think is possible,” Garriott said. “At this rate, one in five Americans live in a state that is legal for adult usage, and I think at this point it is difficult to do much about that.” Garriott’s long term research has looked at policies and organizations that have a national platform along with focused research trips to Colorado while working with a research team of undergraduates. He recently took 15 students to Colorado for the course marijuana legalization: a case study in law and social change. Garriott said that Colorado residents believe legalization of marijuana is successful economically; however, cost of living and homelessness increased partly because of the legalization. Garriott said states should decide if they want to legalize marijuana
and not the nation, so that alcohol operators cannot intervene. Based on Garriott’s research, he believes legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes in Iowa might take a long time because of Iowa’s slow progression. “In my view, Iowans will continue to be out of step in the country,” Garriott said. He said that if they were going to legalize it, the legislators would need to take a closer look at Iowan’s needs to benefit. Drake sociology professor Linda Evans had similar opinions on the legalization of marijuana in Iowa. “Legalization of marijuana should be legalized by the entire nation and not just the states because it will create deviance across lines if it is just a state issue,” Evans said. Evans assigned a topic to her students to argue whether the U.S. should legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. For the first time, 25 Drake students unanimously sided with legalizing it. Students argued that
“marijuana is less risky than alcohol or other substances, and it would be a huge source of tax revenue,” Evans said. “There is also no definite proof that if people start with marijuana it would lead to use of other substances.” Evans has made clear that
“In my view, Iowans will continue to be out of step in the country.” William Garriott LPS professor
students want consistency, and other legal substances such as alcohol are worse than marijuana, so there would not be an issue
making marijuana legal. Carolina Ramos, a sophomore at Drake who attended Garriott’s J-term in Colorado, agreed with Evans’ students. Ramos said Iowa should legalize marijuana because “it is unjust that white people are profiting from marijuana in Colorado, but people of color are being arrested at disproportionate rates for it here. It’s beneficial, but if we are talking on a national level, I do not think we can legalize it until we do reparations of the prohibition cannabis has caused.” If Iowa legalizes marijuana, there are potentially many benefits that come from it. “Iowa could be strategically positioned to flourish by learning, testing and researching how to accommodate the law to Iowa’s benefit,” Garriott said.