Tech giant IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Columbia University announced on Tuesday that they would create a center focused on research and education regarding distributed ledger technology (DLT), commonly known as blockchain. The new center will also touch upon data transparency. Besides its research branch, the center will have an innovation accelerator to help entrepreneurial students and startups develop blockchain-oriented businesses ideas.
The Columbia-IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency will include experts from academia, business, government, and the scientific community. They will research issues associated with the “policy, trust, sharing and consumption” of digital information in the context of DLT and other technologies.
The center will focus on the following:
- Carrying out research and supporting scientific advancements in blockchain and data transparency across multiple industries,
- Implementing DLT in new ways,
- Consulting on emerging regulation related to blockchain and data transparency,
- Developing methods to find an ideal balance between regulatory and data ownership issues with data monetization systems,
- Supporting professional skills related to DLT and data transparency through education and internships,
- Helping startups via a blockchain-oriented accelerator.
The new center will focus on research in technologies like secure multi-party computation, secure hardware, homomorphic encryption, fraud reduction, and others. This will stimulate the development of new business models, solutions, and policies to ensure secure data sharing while maintaining a high privacy degree.
Arvind Krishna, senior VP of Hybrid Cloud and director of IBM Research, commented on the collaboration:
“Our work with clients has shown that blockchain can benefit industries and with that comes a responsibility to deploy it in ways that will foster greater trust and transparency in data.”
“With Columbia, we are able to bring together leading thinkers on applying blockchain and data best practices based on extensive research and business experience and together prepare a new generation of technologists and business leaders.”
John H. Coatsworth, Columbia University provost, stated:
“Our students and faculty, working together with IBM, will play an important role in the vibrant exchange of ideas and research surrounding this transformative technology.”
Today, IBM also announced a partnership with financial services company Stronghold to back its stable coin Stronghold USD.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
