The demand for organizations to adopt blockchain technology is growing rapidly. Recent findings from market research and advisory firm Custom Market I
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, yet this amount is expected to reach $69 billion by 2030. While notable, it’s become critical for the industry to enable rigorous 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 during 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 these risks for themselves, but mistakes and failures can also negatively impact their end consumers,” he said. As such, Harrison believes that peer-reviewed research can help prevent such situations while also resolving issues that continue to linger from earlier iterations of blockchain development.
Companies fund university-led research hubs
In order to ensure that blockchain projects are thoroughly researched moving forward, Harrison noted that IOG recently funded a $4.5 million Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford University. According to Harrison, the hub’s goal is to enrich the body of 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 a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Cointelegraph that he believes the center will help the industry collectively solve current challenges.
For instance, Kiayias pointed out that IOG previously donated $500,000 to fund research for blockchain scalability with Stanford. This was an important initiative, as blockchain scalability remains one of the biggest issues hampering industry adoption. Yet, 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 range of disciplines and backgrounds.
Kiayias added that research hubs associated with universities will likely add more value than typical blockchain-focused courses. “Stanford’s research hub will allow researchers to investigate the kinds of subjects that they are specifically interested in, giving them more freedom than taking a standard class,” he remarked. While many universities currently offer blockchain courses within their curriculum, research hubs funded by the industry may be the next step for universities aiming to advance the 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 for the Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence (RDI). According to Song, RDI was founded about one year ago as a multi-disciplinary, campus-wide initiative focused on advancing the science, technology and education of decentralization.
Song explained that the research at RDI is focused on areas including blockchain scalability, security and privacy, usability and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). For example, Song noted that research for zero-knowledge proofs is critical for 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 will ensure greater usability. The project is known as the “multi-factor key derivation function” and expands upon password-based key derivation functions 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 contains 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 in comparison with 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 like Stanford and Berkeley, virtual research hubs are being established. For example, Klaytn, an Asia-based layer-1 blockchain, recently committed $20 million in funding for a virtual research institute to support industry growth. Known as the “Blockchain Research Center” (BRC), this program will be run by a global consortium led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and…
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