“I’d recommend the Intro to Infrastructure course to people in the oil industry who want to get a better understanding of what Bitcoin’s for. But I think it’s a bit highly technical for a general audience.”
Chemical Engineer Patrick Mockridge said such in his reflection towards the Bitcoin SV (BSV) Academy’s introductory level to the Bitcoin infrastructure course. Mockridge already completed the Introduction to Bitcoin Theory and Bitcoin Development courses and wasted no time to sign up and complete the Introduction to Bitcoin Infrastructure course.
Mockridge’s background as a chemical engineer rouses curiosity on why he went on such an ambitious career shift. Bitcoin Association’s Lizette Louw caught up with him to talk about why he studied the Bitcoin infrastructure course.
Mockridge’s shift from chemical engineering to blockchain
Mockridge describes himself as “someone who’s been working at the intersection of engineering like real world meets space engineering and blockchain technology.” He has worked most of his career doing chemical engineering, and yet the scope of his personal and career interests moved to include blockchain and Bitcoin.
He references blockchain leaders Vinay Guptu and Jessi Baker for their skill in describing how information is lost in the supply chains of consumer goods and how blockchain can solve these challenges. The flaws he saw during his early safety engineer stint also motivated him to study blockchain and its applications.
Back then, he believes that the way portfolio managers define oil companies’ business strategies is “not a way to run anything,” and sees this as one of the systemic problems that led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
With the problems he witnessed in the financial system and petrochemical data management, Mockridge started to read about economics—particularly Austrian economics— and philosophy, which led him to Bitcoin. He says that he “was involved in some Ethereum projects and the Enjin coin project.” However, this involvement taught him that “most projects are just hype.”
Once he watched some of Dr. Craig S. Wright’s videos, the man behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto who created the Bitcoin white paper, Mockridge believed that he was on to something. Mockridge believes that what Dr. Wright created is a well-engineered system and likes how Dr. Wright thinks about it as an infrastructure, especially with how it is scalable and can be parallelized.
Why choose BSV Academy?
Blockchain’s engineering use cases were already familiar to Mockridge, but it was only when he discovered BSV that he saw an infrastructure that can help realize his vision. The potential BSV carries is what he believes will be key to his goal to leverage blockchain to manage engineering documentation on professional competency. He asserts that BSV’s introductory course to Bitcoin Infrastructure is the first step to this.
The certificate provides its students a solid understanding of the role that nodes and node operators play in the construction of the network. It will also serve as a foundation to better develop blockchain applications that can help solve a variety of real-world problems—not just in engineering.
