As the cryptocurrency industry matures and public interest heightens, blockchain research and educational efforts have made their way into the halls of some of the world's leading universities. Courses on cryptocurrency finance, blockchain development and related law are developing into serious avenues of study. They're academia's response to a formerly stigmatized space's debut into mainstream culture, a formal and accredited extension to the work of innovators and leaders who propelled the space forward when it was still relatively underground.
Complementing classroom offerings, university-led blockchain research and development initiatives are on the rise, as teams of professors, blockchain developers and students work to take the industry from market speculation to mainstream application.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) features the oldest and perhaps best-known university-sponsored blockchain development lab in the world. Since 2015, the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative has brought together some of the space's leading independent developers with MIT faculty to extend the development of such applications as the Lightning Network.
Halfway into 2018, some of the world's top universities are joining MIT and vetting initiatives of their own. New in structure but by no means new to the field, Stanford's month-old blockchain R&D lab was launched with a bit of a jumpstart. Co-directors Dan Boneh and David Mazières have three years of blockchain-focused research and academic papers to set the lab into motion. Both directors are computer science professors at Stanford and have taught courses on blockchain technology since 2015.
As these labs begin operating in the background of academia, these professors can take the work they've done in the classroom and work toward tangible developments. At the intersection of education and innovation, these R&D efforts show the potential and need for industry growth - and the plethora of talent that can nourish it.
They also show us that market cap and investor returns alone may be poor indicators for whether a fledgling industry is growing. These labs aren't paying the way themselves; they've tapped into the pocketbooks of some of the space's most notable entities, including the Ethereum Foundation and Ripple. Disregarding the market's steady decline from all-time high prices this year, these big players are investing heavily in research and development for the future growth and health of the space.
Together, these funds and the labs they support are creating the infrastructure to push blockchain development through a new era of mainstream exposure to mainstream adoption.
