University College, the oldest College at Oxford University have announced that they are to open a blockchain research centre, led by the ex-head of Oxford’s computer science department, Professor Bill Roscoe. This comes just as Coinbase released details of extensive research that has been carried out into looking at how cryptocurrency education is having a more prominent role within higher education institutes and Universities across the world.
According to E&T:
“The research group based at the centre will work with industry to improve the efficiency of blockchain mining, which has attracted controversy due to the extremely high energy usage associated with cracking complex computational problems on which the technology is built (to the extent that there are concerns that cryptocurrency mining could hamper climate mitigation efforts). They will also be working to build new privacy and fair exchange models to support cryptocurrency exchanges. The blockchain research centre staff will also be looking into approaches to new challenges to the technology, such as how blockchains may be protected in the long term as quantum computers threaten standard security measures with unprecedented computational power.”
In essence, the research centre will be used to find new solutions to existing blockchain technologies, with the backing from one of the world’s most prestigious universities, it’s expected that the research carried out in this centre could very well be groundbreaking in terms of improving blockchain technology.
Professor Roscoe has said:
“The new centre focuses on bringing the blockchain to the mainstream. This vision will be achieved by using green mining technology and embracing regulation through appropriate Know Your Client (KYC) guidelines.”
Furthermore, according to E&T:
“The centre will be interdisciplinary, covering areas such as law, business and economics in relation to blockchain, as well as the technology itself. Researchers based at the centre will work with other leading institutions around the world.”
This news comes at a time when blockchain research is becoming more and more important. There’s a big future in this industry and it’s great that now, big and prestigious institutions are finally starting to recognise it. We will see more of this. Universities are going to have a big role in both the adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, therefore in 5, 6 years time we should expect to see a lot of people with graduate level qualifications in this area.
References
