Blockchain firms fund university research hubs to promote growth
The demand for organizations to adopt blockchain technology is growing rapidly. Recent findings from market research and advisory firm Custom Market Insights found that the global blockchain technology market size was valued at $4.8 billion in 2021, but this amount is expected to reach $69 billion by 2030. While notable, it has become crucial to industry to enable in-depth research into the development of the blockchain sector.
Tim Harrison, vice president of community and ecosystem at Input Output Global (IOG) – the developer arm behind the Cardano blockchain – told Cointelegraph that over the past year, the blockchain ecosystem has witnessed various risks from projects that have taken a “go fast and break things “-approach.
“Not only do these companies run this risk for themselves, but mistakes and errors can also negatively affect their end consumers,” he said. As such, Harrison believes that peer-reviewed research can help prevent such situations, while also solving problems that continue to linger from previous iterations of blockchain development.
Companies finance university-led research hubs
To ensure that blockchain projects are thoroughly researched going forward, Harrison noted that the IOG recently funded a $4.5 million Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford University. According to Harrison, the hub’s aim is to enrich the scientific knowledge within the blockchain and distributed ledger industry, while driving a greater focus on fundamental research.
Although the Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford was just announced on August 29, 2022, Aggelos Kiayias, Chief Scientist at IOG and Professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Cointelegraph that he believes the center will help the industry collectively solve today’s challenges.
For example, Kiayias pointed out that the IOG previously donated $500,000 to fund blockchain scalability research with Stanford. This was an important initiative, as blockchain scalability remains one of the biggest issues hindering industry adoption. Still, Kiayias noted that Stanford’s new Blockchain Research Hub will take this a step further since the projects being funded will come from researchers across a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.
Kiayias added that research hubs linked to universities are likely to add more value than typical blockchain-focused courses. “The Stanford Research Center will allow scholars to investigate the kinds of topics they are particularly interested in, giving them more freedom than taking a standard class,” he said. While many universities currently offer blockchain courses within their curriculum, industry-funded research hubs could be the next step for universities aiming to advance industry.
For example, Dawn Song, founder of Oasis Labs and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told Cointelegraph that Oasis Protocol, along with a number of other blockchain companies, has provided funding to the Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence (RDI). ). According to Song, RDI was founded about a year ago as an interdisciplinary, campus-wide initiative focused on promoting science, technology and education in decentralization.
Song explained that research at RDI is focused on areas including blockchain scalability, security and privacy, usability, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). For example, Song noted that zero-knowledge proof research is critical to ensuring scalability and privacy for blockchain projects.
Given this, she pointed out that RDI researchers have started working on a project called Orion, which is a new zero-knowledge argument system. Song also mentioned that RDI researchers are developing a new type of key maintenance mechanism that should ensure greater ease of use. The project is known as the “multi-factor key derivation feature” and expands on password-based key derivation features with support from other popular authentication factors.
While innovative, Song added that RDI’s research is unique in the sense that the center is interdisciplinary:
“RDI includes faculty from Berkeley’s computer science department, finance and economics, and the law school. RDI’s research covers many different disciplines that are more in-depth compared to blockchain courses. We focus on research, education and entrepreneurship, which can then help develop courses to train a new generation of students entering this industry.”
In addition to physical research facilities at universities such as Stanford and Berkeley, virtual research hubs are being established. For example, Klaytn, an Asia-based layer-1 blockchain, recently committed $20 million in funding to a virtual research institute to support industry growth. This program, known as the “Blockchain Research Center” (BRC), will be run by a global consortium led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Sangmin Seo, representative director of the Klaytn Foundation, told Cointelegraph that researchers from KAIST and NUS will also work closely with an international team of principal investigators from six other universities, such as UC Berkeley, Princeton University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. “With the BRC operating in an open source manner, other researchers outside these universities will be able to participate in ongoing research projects or submit their own proposals,” he said.
Seo shared that BRC research will span seven pillars focused on topics such as consensus, privacy, smart contacts, decentralized finance (DeFi) and Metaverse. He added that although the BRC is virtual, the program will regularly conduct community outreach efforts such as hosting conferences and workshops.
In addition, the Alogrand Foundation, which is responsible for maintaining the Algorand blockchain ecosystem, has allocated $50 million in funding for a virtual research program. The Algorand Centers of Excellence (ACE) program started in August 2022 and focuses heavily on the development of real blockchain solutions, along with social impact and sustainability projects.
Hugo Krawczyk, principal scientist at the Algorand Foundation and head of the ACE program, told Cointelegraph that research teams are located across the globe to ensure a focus on local communities. He added that ACE researchers tackle a number of problems related to cryptography since this is the backbone of blockchain security:
“We also analyze errors in smart contracts, as errors in these can lead to large losses of money and trust.”
The importance of university-led blockchain research hubs
While it is notable that blockchain projects support the development of university-led research programs, the scope of these initiatives extends far beyond marketing tactics or research for a company’s own project. Highlighting this, Krawczyk explained that while the Algorand Foundation is committed to developing its own ecosystem, new research hubs like ACE are focused on advancing the entire blockchain industry:
“This is not only about training developers to work on our own projects, but it is about researching more projects that can help advance the blockchain sector. Although we compete with each other, cooperation with others is beneficial to the room must mature and develop.”
Echoing this, Harrison mentioned that while there is a lot of competition in the blockchain space, healthy competition is an important part of any growing industry. “Especially in the early days, each player also has to play their part in expanding the space as a whole,” he said.
Collaboration seems to be the key when it comes to these research centers. For example, Song mentioned that Berkeley’s RDI will work closely with Stanford’s blockchain research hub. Krawczyk added that there is an ACE research center at Yale University that collaborates with Columbia University and the City College of New York.
Another important point to note is that while it is innovative for universities to offer blockchain courses as part of the curriculum, research hubs go a step further. Steven Lupin, director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation at the University of Wyoming, told Cointelegraph that university research hubs offer unique, hands-on learning opportunities. He said:
“These programs allow students to roll up their sleeves and develop and deploy blockchain and digital asset projects in a real-world environment. Universities are also taking a leading role in developing standards and governance that are more difficult for industry to create due to competitive pressures.”
For example, Lupine mentioned that the University of Wyoming Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation – which was founded in 2019 and is focused on developing educational programs and applied projects across campus – is working with a smart contract research group to develop standards, governance and interoperability so that smart contracts can be deployed more efficiently.
While university-led blockchain research centers may be the next logical step in advancing the blockchain ecosystem, more work needs to be done to ensure such programs are created.
“With Web3 still in its early stages, no single research center is capable of solving all the challenges that lie ahead. More research centers are required to jointly solve such challenges,” Seo said. He added that research centers like Klaytn’s BRC are multi-year projects that take time and effort to develop.
