Blockchain firms fund university research hubs to advance 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, 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…