The Cardano Foundation and the University of Zurich have announced a three-year collaboration to promote high-level academic researches in the sphere of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT).

The Cardano Foundation is an independent Swiss-based non-profit organisation that oversees and supervises the advancement of Cardano (a blockchain platform created by Input Output Hong Kong and Charles Hoskinson, the former co–founder of BitShares, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic). The Cardano Foundation also works with regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions to form commercial standards and legislation on blockchain.

On the 5th of April, the announcement of the Cardano Foundation’s three-year collaboration with the University of Zurichappeared on the foundation’s website. The goal of the cooperation on the side of the Cardano Foundation is to establish research cooperation with the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (BDLT) group at the University of Zurich. The two main goals of the collaboration are contributing to the expertise of the BDLT Group and the continuous development of Cardano.

According to the announcement, in the process of cooperation, research will be conducted in the following areas:

  • The integration of the Cardano blockchain ecosystem in the nascent UZH Blockchain Observatory;
  • Transaction growth and lifecycle analysis for UTXO growth, scalability, and large wallet management;
  • The organization of Cardano token economies;
  • The efficacy of consensus protocols and incentive schemes;
  • The analysis of protocol parameters effect on staking dynamics and reward distribution;
  • The analysis of the decentralization of block production and the participation of long-term interest groups;
  • Facilitating the analysis of reward system manipulation and attack vectors specific to Ouroboros, the Proof of Stake system for Cardano.

That cooperation is profitable for both the Cardano Foundation and the University of Zurich. Cardano receives image benefits. The University receives funding for the implementation of collaborative researches. And both sides receive positive publicity in the media.

Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, said, “Our collaboration with the University of Zurich will provide crucial insights to nurture the ecosystem and enhance understanding of Cardano. As blockchain moves from the margins to the mainstream, considerably more academic research is required to enhance understanding and, ultimately, bring about adoption. This is why we have even specifically called out education as a core goal of the Foundation for the year ahead.”

This is not the first such cooperation between industry and the government. For example, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggested last month that institutions provide regulators and policymakers with educational resources about blockchain. Also, in September last year, entrepreneur Charles C. Hoskinson has made a $20 million gift to Carnegie Mellon University to establish the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics.

Such a large-scale cooperation will certainly bring blockchain out of the tight circles of enlightened computer scientists into the higher academic society. Right now, blockchain is becoming the subject of academic research and the subject of education. Very soon there will be certified blockchain specialists who will be able to further develop the industry.

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