The prestigious University of Princeton has launched an initiative to study the “decentralization of social power” through blockchain technology in an effort to explore the vast depths of its social capabilities.
For launch, Bloomberg reported that Princeton’s Venture Forward campaign received $20 million in donations from high-profile alumni, as Peter Bridger, of Fortress Investment; Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin; the CEO of Pantera Capital, Daniel Morehead; and Mike Novogratz of Galaxy Digital.
The initiative is designed to study the ways in which modern technology, especially blockchain, can interfere with and change social norms, much like other technologies, such as the printing press and the Internet, in the past. In a video released Friday by the university, it states that “we are at a very early stage of understanding the opportunities and challenges” associated with cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
“The initiative will convene scholars from all disciplines to understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of blockchain and other technologies, and their potential to shift the centers of power in society.”
Princeton’s Venture Forward Campaign is a fundraising and engagement campaign to encourage community and alumni engagement, seek critical philanthropic support for the University and share the principles that define Princeton and its impact on the world.
The university believes that a focus on decentralization will promote growth in three areas of study. An official university post claims that it will help you understand “the underlying engineering behind blockchain and related technologies,” discover new uses of blockchain in finance, voting, news, and elsewhere, and determine “the implications that such technologies they could have for society.”
#PrincetonU is launching an initiative on blockchain and its potential to disrupt and redistribute power in society, supported by Peter Briger, Jr. ’86, @ethereumJoseph ’87, @dan_pantera ’87 and @novogratz ’87 in a combined major gift to #VentureForward: https://t.co/MZyEfSApL2 pic.twitter.com/w85CHzMPh4
— Princeton University (@Princeton) March 10, 2022
#PrincetonU is launching an initiative on blockchain and its potential to change and redistribute power in society, supported by Peter Briger, Jr. ’86, @ethereumJoseph ’87, @dan_pantera ’87, and @novogratz ’87 in a donation important combined for #VentureForward:
The Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will take on the work of the new initiative led by Professor Jaswinder Pal Singh, who has sat on the Blockstack PBC Board of Directors since 2019.. Singh takes a “highly collaborative research” approach to determining how blockchain can “result in the most benefit and least harm,” according to a statement from the university.
Singh commented that computer scientists have faced a long uphill battle to figure out how to achieve consensus “among a distributed set of entities that don’t trust each other.He added that while Bitcoin (BTC) has largely solved that problem, decentralization may be a new turning point for society.
“The decentralization of trust can be as powerful and transformative as the global web. It can transform existing systems and lead to new applications that we cannot even imagine today.”
This is the second time in as many weeks that Princeton has revealed its involvement in the blockchain industry.. On March 2, Cointelegraph reported a partnership with the Metaverse and NFT project Radio Caca (RACA) and the Princeton Blockchain Society.
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