State of the Ledger 2019

Blockchain at Berkeley recently celebrated its 3rd year anniversary, and we would like to look back at what we have done over the past year. Thanks to the endless effort from our members and the support from our community, Blockchain at Berkeley has quickly evolved into the largest and most impactful collegiate blockchain organization in the world.

Through the passion and dedication of team members from Blockchain at Berkeley, the organization has gone a long way in defining a new industry standard for blockchain education, research, and consulting.

This article is an overview of the highlights from the past year. To see how much we’ve grown, take a look at our State of the Ledger from 2018.

Table of Contents

Below are some of B@B’s highlights from 2019. — Continue reading below for more details about each of these categories:

• UC Berkeley Courses and Online Educational Offerings
• Consulting
• Internal Projects
• Education Projects
• Research and Development
• Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator
• Community Node Initiative
• Offshoot Organizations
• Berkeley Bitcoin Meetup
• Conferences and Hackathons
• Blockchain at Berkeley Alumni Association
• Jobs and Career Development

UC Berkeley Courses and Online Educational Offerings

In 2018, B@B designed and taught for-credit courses about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at UC Berkeley. Our courses are some of the most in-demand student-run offerings on campus. They are completely free and open source with a goal to educate the public about blockchain:

• Blockchain Technology and Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies on edX: these courses are developed by Blockchain at Berkeley and faculty from UC Berkeley’s Computer Science department. With 102,000 students attending online from 192 countries, these courses, which can also be found on YouTube, teach students about the basic properties, intents, and mechanisms of blockchain, distributed consensus, and various enterprise-level blockchain implementations. Course produced by Rustie Lin and others.
• Blockchain Fundamentals: A comprehensive survey course of interdisciplinary topics bridging the technical and non-technical spheres of the industry. Topics range from game theory, economics, and finance to cryptography and distributed systems. The course has been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Spanish by various organizations. Course staff include: Oscar Chaix, Justin Yu, Janice Ng, Gillian Chu, and Rustie Lin

Consulting

B@B’s consulting division provides consulting services to Fortune 500 organizations and established blockchain projects. Offerings range from technical Proof of Concepts to advisory and consultation. We work closely with clients who are seeking to better understand and implement blockchain-based solutions, and provide clients with a full suite of resources, education, and access to our qualified consultant and developer pool.

Internal Projects

Each semester, selected members are presented with the opportunity to build internal consulting projects to be showcased to B@B’s greater community. We use these projects to educate our members under the philosophy that the best way to learn is by doing. Below are the projects that our talented members have decided to work on.

1. Textbook Rental Project：Textbook rental and purchasing are problematic on various fronts — , particularly regarding online textbooks. A blockchain network has the ability to solve these problems. The issue of ownership could be alleviated by recording the transfer of rights from one individual to another upon the sale of these textbooks through tokens and could be used to lock out individuals and prevent them from accessing content that they have resold.

2. Curated Academic Journal：By creating a blockchain-based academic archive where anyone can submit a paper or contribute to the process of peer review, we hope to standardize and streamline the publishing process. This project will consist of a direct feedback system where verified experts are incentivized to review curated papers on a global scale.

3. Campaign Funding: For the target audience of individual campaign funders who want to fund and keep a record of the spending of campaigns without the need to trust other organizations, the team proposes the solution of building a hybrid blockchain platform. The first level of this platform is that individuals will send their donation from public blockchain, and platform will deposit it to the designated campaign. For this second level, the team aims to design a consortium blockchain with nodes of campaigners, companies that will work with campaigners and regulators for validating spendings to create an environment for recordkeeping of spendings.

4. Columbia Notary Project: We are building out a blockchain solution that will reduce both inefficiencies and corruption in the property/land creation and transfer process in the country of Colombia.

5. B@B Coin: The BAB Coin team is developing a private blockchain system to incentivize participation among club members. Members will be able to redeem tokens in exchange for event tickets, B@B retreats, and B@B merchandise. First roll out will include staking and earning mechanism through RSVP’ing to internal events.

6. Micropayments: The Micropayments team is building an escrow dApp to reduce selling friction for microentrepreneurs in Latin America. Small businesses in the region can use peer-to-peer financial transfers, and avoid traditional payment processors and banks that are slow, expensive, and lacking in transparency.

Education Projects

Education’s mission is to learn by teaching and offering accessible, open-source, world-class blockchain education to everyone, free of charge. Education members have put a lot of effort into enriching these educational experiences; this past year, they have also put in a lot of effort into conducting research on different topics whose results will be integrated into our educational resources. Here are some highlights of these projects:

1. Blockchain for Developers: Blockchain at Berkeley is planning on relaunching the Blockchain for Developers decal in Spring 2020 which will provide prospective developers a comprehensive overview of relevant topics in blockchain development, as well as hands-on experience in developing and deploying their own smart contracts. The course will cover the fundamentals of blockchain, the Solidity programming language, as well as relevant industry tools such as Metamask, Geth, Truffle, and Ganache. Through completing the course, students will be confident in their ability to develop and deploy blockchain-based solutions on important industry issues.
2. Distributed Systems Simulation: Consensus mechanisms are a core topic in distributed systems. Consensus can be approximated or avoided (as with traditional internet architecture) or can be explicitly defined and executed in conjunction with Sybil control systems, as with many of the projects in the blockchain space. We design a system for simulating relaxed instances of various consensus mechanisms. Our system is firstly an educational tool focused on clean user experience, but the modularity of design and data pipeline have been carefully considered for future data analysis/ML workloads.
3. Financial Class Papers: The Financial Instrumentation team of Blockchain at Berkeley has switched gears from its past semester of researching bonds, derivatives, and credit swaps to topics in developing economies and the potential blockchain have in stimulating and revitalizing economies. From corruption and fluctuating currencies to foreign direct investment and identity ownership, we are eager to investigate how blockchain can reduce income inequality, curb centuries of societal injustice, and move towards global progression.
4. Decentralized Index of Knowledge: The Decentralized Index of Knowledge (DIoK) is a curated collection of resources for blockchain, grouped by topic and ordered by pedagogical dependency. We store data as a graph, allowing programmatic creation of front-ends such as interactive graph visualizations as well as awesome-lists. Users can contribute to the DIoK by using a web-based tool which will fork the IoK, generate corresponding graph data, and make a PR to sync to our copy. For now we’re bootstrapping off of GitHub, but the goal is to integrate with IPFS via a graph database plugin and also layer a reputation system on top to allow users to rate resources.
5. NFT Experiments: Non-fungibles (NFTs) are meant to be fun! We’re exploring how we can create different NFT experiences and make them accessible/usable! For more information, please check out nfty.fun!
6. Decentralized Identity Chain: This is an educational project dedicated to teaching the components of building an actual blockchain using the use case of digitizing physical identity. Some features of the chain will be permissioned access by certain nodes (hospitals/insurance nodes) to certain individual nodes (customers), and also the exploration of using biometric sensors to create a private key in order to maintain a strict one identity per person policy. The chain itself will become open source for anyone to use and we also hope to build an application on top of it.

Research and Development

Besides our initiatives in education, we have also put in a lot of effort in conducting original academic research on various topics in the field. Here are some of the highlights of our accomplishments for this semester :

1. Distributed Hash Table Research (DHT): The DHT team is focused on creating a distributed hash table that has byzantine fault tolerance built in as a primitive. It works via a traditional DHT with a protocol that reaches local and shard-level consensus through simple gossip-based views similar to avalanche and a main Byzantine fault-tolerant chain that is used to settle disagreements with the rest of the network.
2. Bitcoin Network Analysis: The team conducts a literature review process that has covered 28 articles published between 2011 and 2019, which analyze data from the Bitcoin Network. Using research methodologies including, clustering, labeling and graph modelling, the team comes up with the research result that shows literature related to Bitcoin Data analysis is centered around three main objectives: Presenting descriptive analytics of the networks and study its evolution; evaluate privacy guarantees, attempt to de-anonymize entities (users) and characterize their behaviour; create software or theoretical frameworks to better process data or model the network.
3. Cryptoeconomics Research: Innovators in the blockchain space are beginning to bring financial products sold and traded in traditional markets to a decentralized marketplace. The objective of our project is to design a robust and secure decentralized market for insurance products. The cryptoeconomics research team is focused on designing a distributed Oracle, marketplace, and reputation system to facilitate the offering and purchase of insurance policies.
4. Privacy Research: This project is focused on learning and contributing to zero-knowledge research. We start with modular math, RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and other cryptographic protocols, so we can understand their relation to the technical implementation of zero-knowledge proofs with the goal of contributing to current open-source projects working on zk theory, development, and optimization.
5. Derivatives Platform Research: Working on revolutionizing the financial industry through a better exchange to replace the slow swaps/bonds/forwards market. We aim to equalize potential in the financial industry through decentralization.

Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator

With a joint venture between Blockchain at Berkeley, Berkeley Engineering’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the Haas School of Business, we have launched a new blockchain-focused accelerator, the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator. The new accelerator will help entrepreneurs pursue ventures in the blockchain space, tap into the vast resources of UC Berkeley and Silicon Valley, and receive expert industry guidance to create high-value blockchain startups.

On March 19, the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator welcomed its first batch of teams. Drawn from a very competitive pool of applicants from all over the world, these teams were selected based on their unique approaches and potential for delivering real-world use cases for blockchain. The Spring 2019 cohort is made up of 12 teams (AnChain.ai, Bitmark, DataAgora, Dyson Network, FourthState Labs, Insolar.io, PlayTable, Source, SWFT Pay, TruSource, Vinc, and zkSystems) that utilize blockchain technology in a variety of ways, ranging from data ownership to tabletop gaming. The Fall 2019 cohort is made up of 15 teams (Lino, Sheeld, RIPshield, Puma Browser, Pinata, Nickel, Mt.Hash, Leaf Global Fintech, KrypoGo, EverMedicalTechnologies, Eluvio, Coin Assistant, Cincel Digital, Bounty0X, BC Diploma) who are using blockchain to change they way people look at finance, browsers, certificates, and more.

Community Node Initiative

Ethereum, BTC, ICX Nodes

Our Community Node Initiative enables us to take a more active role in the blockchain community by operating nodes for decentralized protocols. Over the next couple of months, we will start with a couple of nodes and through community engagement, we aim to host more. As a student-run organization, our motivations for running nodes are purely educational We also have a desire to help progress innovative projects led by our community members. We are not led by profits. We bring a unique perspective to the community to ensure that the proper motivations are behind every single network decision.

Offshoot Organizations

With the ceaseless effort to make an impact in the decentralized community, our members have founded various organizations this past year to offer additional blockchain and crypto-related services.

DataAgora: With just a few lines of code, DataAgora allows you to train your machine learning models while maintaining privacy, security & compliance for your customers.

Vinc: Accelerating our transition to a low carbon energy grid by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of carbon credits.

Opyn: Opyn lets you easily track and manage your long and short positions. It helps you keep tabs on your returns, reminds you to adjust collateralization, and helps you close out positions. ETH, REP, 0x, and BAT trading are available immediately, with other tokens coming soon.

AstroWallet: Skip the learning curve and jump straight into to the decentralized world with Astro. Use every dapp with dollars.

Meetups

The Meetup program is a place for B@B members and the community to engage in comprehensive technical workshops and openly discuss advanced topics relating to blockchain technology and decentralized systems. These insightful and comprehensive technical workshops are primarily geared toward developers.

1. Cosmos Introductory Talk ~ Many Chains, One Ecosystem: An introductory overview of the critical infrastructure and tooling provided in the Cosmos technology stack.

2. Smart Contract Security: Overview of security vulnerabilities in solidity such as overflow as well as typical attacks/defenses and analyze historical hacks like DAO hacks.

3. Blockchain for Social Impact: Blockchain and decentralized technologies stem from ideologies of personal freedom and equality; naturally, their potential for social good is vast and has been explored by many humanitarian organizations. Examples include energy and the environment, democracy and governance, agriculture including ethical sourcing, financial inclusion, and digital identity. However, with such a nascent technology, many challenges must be overcome before true impact is possible, and the blockchain space is constantly evolving with new advancements and breakthroughs every day. Our goal is to get an idea of what has been made possible by blockchain so far, what problems need to be solved to make more progress in social issues, and what we can expect in another ten years.

4. Blockchain in 2019: How we got here and where we’re going: The blockchain industry has undergone massive change, both good and bad, since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009. While there has been a Cambrian explosion of over 2,000 crypto assets, many of these are, or will be, failed experiments. Despite setbacks, the industry continues to innovate on scalability solutions, use-cases, and user adoption. Come learn from the world’s leading crypto investors how the landscape has developed over the last decade, the state of the industry today, and how it will evolve in 2019 and beyond.

6. Developing on Hyperledger Technologies: Hosted by Blockchain at Berkeley and members of the Hyperledger community in Berkeley, this event will walk through how to develop on Hyperledger Fabric and help the public gain a deeper understanding of the processes behind Hyperledger and Ursa. The workshop will feature developers from IBM and Fujitsu. The workshop will feature both a non-technical overview as well as a hands-on lab.

7. ZEXE: Enabling Decentralized Private Computation: In this talk, we introduced ZEXE, a system for conducting privacy-preserving decentralized computations using zero-knowledge proofs. we focused on how one can use the strong privacy, expressivity, and efficiency guarantees of ZEXE to realize privacy-preserving analogues of popular applications, such as private user-defined assets, regulation-friendly private stablecoins, and private decentralized exchanges that allow users to trade these while providing front-running resistance.

8. Next Generation Atomic Swaps Architecture: This event featured a presentation of Portal’s “ZK-Swaps”, zero-knowledge atomic swaps architecture on layer 2 and layer 3. Presented by ex-Blockstream, ex-BitPay engineer, and founder of FABRIC protocol, Eric Martindale, and doctor-turned-crypto and CEO of Portal, Dr. Chandra Duggirala. They covered layer 2 architecture, transaction mechanics, privacy-preservation, and distributed exchange akin to bitcoin mining. Following the presentation was a cryptoeconomics panel where we aimed to answer the following questions: Are regulated centralized exchanges compatible with long term adoption of bitcoin? Are alternatives needed? What will regulatory framework look like for crypto trading and will that increase or decrease market adoption for assets intended to be private & censorship resistant? Here is a link to the livestream

9. Humans and Digital Technology | Jaron Lanier at the Forum: We co-hosted a talk with the Berkeley Forum where Jaron Lanier, founding father of Virtual Reality, shared his thoughts on the history and future of humanity’s relationship with digital technology.

Conferences and Hackathons

1. she256 Recolor: Annual Conference 2019: she256 is a nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and breaking down barriers to entry in the blockchain space. Recolor is meant to be an amalgamation of experiences, opinions, and takeaways from this foundational year in the blockchain space. Because this is space is still in its infancy, we have the opportunity to set a precedent right now, to build in diversity and inclusion as a priority and value from the very beginning.
2. SFBW: San Francisco Blockchain Week was a week-long event including ETHSF, Epicenter, and Cryptoeconomics Security Conference (CESC) that brought the world’s blockchain community together for educational events focused on consumer adoption, technical innovation, and insight from blockchain leaders in academics and industry.

Hackathons

• CalHacks: Many Blockchain at Berkeley members participated as hackers and mentors at the world’s largest collegiate hackathon held at UC Berkeley.
• Xpring Blockchain Interoperability Hackathon: Xpring is hosting a Blockchain community event with Berkeley at Blockchain for UBRI Connect — the first annual conference of the University Blockchain Research Initiative sponsored by Ripple. This is an exciting opportunity to learn, collaborate with other developers and build on the XRP Ledger and Interledger protocol, alongside Xpring product + engineering teams.

Blockchain at Berkeley Alumni Association

1st B@B Alumni Forum image taken by Arvin Palma

The B@B Alumni Association provides all Blockchain at Berkeley graduates with rewarding connections to the organization, to fellow alumni, and to current students. Established by some of the pioneering members of Blockchain at Berkeley (B@B), the B@B Alumni Association represents what it means to be an innovator in the blockchain industry and beyond. This year we hosted our first ever Blockchain at Berkeley Alumni Forum exclusive only to B@B Members. The Forum was centered around a lineup of talks primarily composed of B@B alums, who shared cool ideas, useful insights, and other things they’ve learned while working in industry after leaving UC Berkeley.

Career Development

At Blockchain at Berkeley, we attract the BEST that UC Berkeley has to offer. The talent and energy of our members are unprecedented. Because of this, the best companies recruit heavily for our members. Here are where are members are at today:

Alumnus working in traditional tech + consulting companies

Blockchain / Crypto companies members are working at

Blockchain startups members have founded and are working at

Want to stay connected?

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YouTube: Our YouTube Channel features notable videos from our conferences, meetups, whitepaper circles, deep dives, and lectures.

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Educational Inquiries: education@blockchain.berkeley.edu

Consulting Inquiries: consulting@blockchain.berkeley.edu

Research Inquiries: research@blockchain.berkeley.edu

News and Media Inquiries: marketing@blockchain.berkeley.edu