National Science Foundation Funds DAO to leverage US based blockchain technology powering tokenized voting and solutions with global thought leaders

Constellation Network, a decentralized network tailored towards enterprise and federal adoption, has announced they will be joining the University of Texas San Antonio’s National DigiFoundry (NDF) as a founding member alongside various enterprise organizations in cloud computing and public entities, like the United States Department of Treasury.

NDF is spearheaded by Kevin L. Jackson, Vice President of Digital Assets for Forward Edge-AI, “UTSA has created a center of excellence for the secure use of digital assets, thus leading the way for many industry leaders to participate in NDF. Constellation Network has been an integral part in providing the rails and infrastructure for the NDF prototype.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided a $300,000 grant to seed the establishment of the National DigiFoundry (NDF), a consortium with the directive to help drive innovation and establish standards around the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain. UTSA is one of the first entities to align with key stakeholders in both the private sector and public sector to build a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The goal will be to establish global standards and best practices for the growing industry of digital assets that has surpassed over $1.2T dollars.

Anna Estevez-Brady, NSF Program Director for Digital Assets and Co-Chair United States’ National R&D Agenda for Digital Assets, & Central Bank Digital Currency Tech quoted in UTSA’s press release, “ The NSF is really excited to fund work focused on innovative technologies that can provide important societal impact.”

NDF DAO marks a proactive initiative to be collaborative across multiple organizations as lawmakers and regulators have been attempting to combat the business practices of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The NDF DAO will commence with working groups and the exploration of solutions across various topics including cybersecurity, access for digital assets of users, data management, climate and social change, health care, advanced manufacturing, supply chain management, energy, transportation, Web 3.0 and artificial intelligence.

“The Department of the Treasury is excited to be a sponsor of the Climate Change Disaster Response working group,” said Melissa “Lisa” Oliva, Deputy Director/Senior Business Advisor, Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), U.S. Department of the Treasury. “This initiative supports the 50 States Initiative in its goal to build economically resilient communities.”

San Antonio’s NSCC ecosystem, Texas’ largest hub for government, university and industry partners, will lead the project with their experience in advancing research and innovation in forensics, visualization, cybersecurity, data analytics, post-quantum cryptography, attack and threat modeling and mitigation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and software, hardware and platform integrity. John Huggins, interim Executive Director of UTSA’s National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) states, “This project will deliver long-term benefits. It has already attracted interest from diverse stakeholders, including multiple federal agencies, health care providers, military services, Web 3.0 companies, public transportation operators, investors and various entrepreneurial startups. This NSF grant will allow UTSA to partner in unique ways with universities, industry, government, nonprofits and national labs to innovate in the digital asset ecosystem.”

Benjamin Diggles, Co-Founder of Constellation and Chief Strategy Officer, “We are excited to be a founding member that can bring our US based distributed ledger technology to the forefront of thought leaders and decision makers in the private and public sector.”

NDF DAO will kick off in San Antonio in January 2024.

Click here to listen how our Co-founder & CSO, Benjamin Diggles unpacks the groundbreaking collaboration between Constellation, the University of Texas, the National Science Foundation, IBM, Microsoft, and more!