Stanford University, one of the world’s most prestigious universities, has announced that it will be creating a blockchain research center.

Stanford University, the Palo Alto California based university will be creating a blockchain center and research program. The plan is to initially run the research program for five-years. The program was sponsored by donations from The Ethereum Foundation, Protocol Labs, the Interchain Foundation, OmiseGO, DFINITY Stiftung, and PolyChain Capital.

The new blockchain center will focus on bringing university members and industry professionals together for research purposes. Furthermore, the new center plans to “[create] courses to help future students and working professionals use blockchain to develop financial instruments, protect intellectual property, manage vital records and more.”

The research program will be led by two computer science professors by the names of David Mazières, and Dan Boneh, who both provided their stances on the matter.

“Blockchain massively lowers the barriers to creating tradeable, digital assets,” said Mazières, “It allows individuals who don’t know each other, or even trust one another, to make irreversible transactions in a whole variety of fields in a safe and secure way.”

The other lead faculty member, Dan Boneh added:

“Blockchains will become increasingly critical to doing business globally,” said Boneh, “Stanford should be at the forefront of efforts to improve, apply and understand the many ripple effects of this technology.”

Stanford is clearly looking to get a head start with blockchain research. Their announcement highlights a clear understanding of blockchain technology. The announcement goes on to explain the upsides of blockchain, such as security and transparency, as well as things that may be a challenge, such as energy consumption, and scalability.

Hopefully, Stanford’s research will conclude that blockchain will change the way business is done for the better. Stanford’s interest in this topic should inspire other universities around the world to begin their own blockchain research plans, and hopefully start bringing some high quality, peer-reviewed content to the space. If the research conclusions prove positive, it is likely that businesses who have been hesitant will start testing the blockchain waters.

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.