{"id":14954,"date":"2018-01-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2019.dash.org\/2018\/01\/19\/arizona-state-university-partners-with-dash-to-fund-research-scholarships\/"},"modified":"2021-09-18T11:38:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T11:38:28","slug":"asu-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/news\/asu-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona State University Partners With Dash to Fund Research, Scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona State University (ASU) has announced a partnership with the digital currency Dash that will provide $350,000 to \u201caccelerate research, development, and education in ways that advance blockchain transaction speed, efficiency, security, and expand its uses.\u201d The funds will be allocated as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Dash Scholars Program, which provides $100,000 in scholarships for undergraduate and graduate research fellowships;<\/li>\n<li>Research lab and Industry open source projects, providing an additional $100,000 in funding for ASU\u2019s Blockchain Research Lab (BRL) and $50,000 in new funding for the Luminosity Lab, and<\/li>\n<li>Blockchain course development, with $100,000 for creating an online graduate course expected to be offered at ASU this fall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The $350,000 is funded by Dash, via a successful treasury proposal. Director of ASU\u2019s Blockchain Research Lab, Dragan Boscovic, commented:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cASU welcomes this initiative and is ready to play its role in creating a potent Blockchain research and innovation environment for young talents to develop practical Blockchain applications.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"fusion-of-research-and-development\">Fusion of research and development<\/h2>\n<p>When thinking about digital currencies, there\u2019s a tendency for the community to focus on the development side of the equation. New versions of the software, updates to add new features, roadmaps and the like \u2013 these usually get far more attention than research. However, the new features that get everybody so excited are made possible by researchers who discover the means and methods to add them.<\/p>\n<p>While Dash\u2019s Core DAO (distributed autonomous organization) is focused on development, marketing and the day-to-day aspects of maintaining a digital currency, there are at least two research groups working to move the project forward. Dash Labs is a DAO founded by Dash founder Evan Duffield, based in Hong Kong, that is working to develop hardware solutions to enable on-chain scaling using massive blocks.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, researchers at ASU are working on researching ways to improve Dash and solve the problems of cryptocurrency in general. Last summer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/dash-jumps-to-new-all-time-high-on-news-of-arizona-state-university-partnership-reaches-fifth-place-in-market-cap\">Dash funded ASU\u2019s Blockchain Research Lab<\/a>\u00a0with a $50,000 donation. Dash Core Team CEO Ryan Taylor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/forum\/threads\/proposal-blockchain-labs-sponsorship.15490\/\">wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cInitial research [will] focus on throughput capacity and latency performance of blockchain technology, model and assess it for different network architectures (including Dash\u2019s multi-tiered architecture), applications, and use cases to propose a \u201cscalability\u201d deployment guide and best practices.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/forum\/threads\/proposal-blockchain-labs-sponsorship.15490\/\">Taylor notes<\/a>\u00a0that the partnership is exclusive:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cUntil now, the majority of Blockchain research has been focused on Bitcoin, with minimal focus on other Blockchain applications\u2026The sponsorship incorporate[s] Dash as the exclusive digital currency for ongoing academic research.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"bitcoin-and-mit\">Bitcoin and MIT<\/h2>\n<p>Dash isn\u2019t the only digital currency project to partner with a major university. In the summer of 2015,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/mit-media-lab-digital-currency-initiative\/launching-a-digital-currency-initiative-238fc678aba2\">MIT launched the Digital Currency Initiative<\/a>\u00a0and solicited donations which were used to hire three full-time Bitcoin developers. This move followed the effective collapse of the Bitcoin Foundation, which had been providing much of the funding for development. None of the funds actually come from MIT, rather, they come from outside donors and are funneled through the Digital Currency Initiative.<\/p>\n<p>By May 2016, MIT\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/mit-media-lab-digital-currency-initiative\/announcing-a-900-000-bitcoin-developer-fund-6e8b7e8b0861\">had raised $900,000<\/a>\u00a0to fund these developers\u2019 salaries. Later that year, this number\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/mit-media-lab-digital-currency-initiative\/dci-update-5bcda9255e8\">had risen to $2 million<\/a>. This funding is crucial,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/article\/who-funds-bitcoin-core-development-how-the-industry-supports-bitcoins-reference-client-cm602664\">as Nasdaq points out<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFunding Bitcoin development seems to have always been problematic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While some developers are willing and able to work full-time on open source projects like Bitcoin without compensation, most are not. Therefore, funding is desperately needed to maintain and advance the project.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-different-method-of-funding\">A different method of funding<\/h2>\n<p>While MIT has serious fundraising muscle, dependence on the altruism of others is always a shaky proposition. While most digital currency projects rely on donations or an initial endowment (via ICO) to fund development, Dash has chosen a different method. Dash self-funds its development team, paying developer salaries out of a portion of the block rewards.<\/p>\n<p>Each month, 10% of the block rewards are reserved for successful treasury proposals. This means that as much as 6,650 DASH, worth $5.8 mln at press time, can be paid out directly by the network to those who manage to get their treasury proposals passed. Dash\u2019s treasury system pays for marketing efforts, business development and integrations, conference sponsorships and more.<\/p>\n<p>Most important, Dash\u2019s treasury pays Dash Core developers\u2019 salary each month. At present,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/forum\/threads\/proposal-core-team-compensation-november.17499\/\">Dash employs a staff of 50<\/a>, including 23 developers, four project managers, eight marketing specialists and 15 other administrative employees. These team members are paid a total of $300,000 per month, directly from Dash\u2019s treasury system. No donations are necessary, and nobody is required to work for free.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s this treasury system that funded the $350,000 partnership with ASU.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"direction-of-influence\">Direction of influence<\/h2>\n<p>One of Dash\u2019s community members who goes by the handle of \u201cTanteStefana,\u201d wrote that while MIT funds Bitcoin\u2019s development, Dash funds ASU\u2019s research lab. She points out that the direction of influence is completely different: Bitcoin is at least partially dependent on the good will and fundraising efforts of MIT. This means the university could theoretically attempt to influence the project.<\/p>\n<p>With the partnership between Dash and ASU, money and influence flows in the opposite direction. It\u2019s Dash that\u2019s providing funding to ASU, making it impossible for the university to wield any influence over the project.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"good-fit\">Good fit<\/h2>\n<p>Cointelegraph had the opportunity to speak with Dragan Boscovic, director of ASU\u2019s Blockchain Research Lab, who commented on why Dash is such a good fit for the university:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFirst, the Dash Core team\u2019s offices are at ASU\u2019s SkySong Innovation Center in Scottsdale, which is also where the Blockchain Research is located, enabling an excellent level of interaction between Dash, ASU faculty and students in a variety of disciplines, including computer science, engineering, business and law. Second, ASU is focused on \u201cbuilding problem solvers and entrepreneurs,\u201d with a large Research and Development budget. Dash is one of the most innovative digital currency solutions with breakthrough algorithms, network topology and services. It\u2019s a natural partnership. Third, there\u2019s been quite a demand for an online graduate course focused on Blockchain technology enablers and applications. The course will help ensure that Blockchain finds an accelerated path toward rapid, mainstream adoption.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked what set Dash apart from other digital currency projects, Boscovic replied:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAfter partnering with Dash this summer and evaluating the possibilities of expanded collaboration, scholarships, Blockchain specialization courses and an accelerated research and innovation effort were identified as ways to move Blockchain applications forward. This speaks volumes about Dash network governance and their capability to self-fund strategic initiatives such as this one.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona State University (ASU) has announced a partnership with the digital currency Dash that will provide $350,000 to \u201caccelerate research, development, and education in ways that advance blockchain transaction speed, efficiency, security, and expand its uses.\u201d The funds will be allocated as follows:<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arizona State University Partners With Dash to Fund Research, Scholarships - 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