Princeton University has debuted an initiative for studying the “decentralization of societal power” via blockchain technology.
For this, Princeton’s Venture Forward campaign received $20 million in donations from such high-profile alumni as Peter Bridger (Fortress Investments), Joseph Lubin (the co-founder of Ethereum), Mike Novogratz (Galaxy Digital), and Daniel Morehead (the CEO of Pantera Capital).
The initiative aims to study how modern technology such as blockchain can interfere with and change social norms, just how the internet or the printing press had done before.
According to the university, “we are at a very early stage in understanding the opportunities and challenges” associated with crypto and blockchain. “The initiative will convene scholars across disciplines to understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of blockchain and other technologies, and their potential to disrupt centers of societal power.”
Princeton’s Venture Forward campaign represents an engagement and fundraising campaign meant to create community and alumni engagement, look for critical philanthropic support for the University, and share the defining principles of Princeton and their impact on the world.
Professor Jaswinder Pal Singh will lead the initiative at Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He began serving on the Blockstack PBC Board of Directors in 2019.
Singh supports a “highly collaborative research” approach to find out how blockchain can “result in the most benefit and the least harm.”
He also stated:
“The decentralization of trust may be just as powerful and transformative as the worldwide web. It may transform existing systems and lead to new applications that we cannot even imagine today.”