Howard University Blockchain Lab Turns One
Who We Are, What We Do, and Why
The Howard University Blockchain Lab, a premier university level blockchain community, has turned one. To help celebrate, we wanted to provide a clear explanation of who we are. Founded in late 2017 at Howard University, our mission is to serve as a central resource for education about blockchain technology, entrepreneurship, and investment. To work toward that mission, we actively conduct research, engage in development, and build community on our campus and in the Greater DC area. That’s a quick summary of what we do, but let’s go more in depth about what all that means and why we do it.
Conducting Research
Blockchains and other web 3.0 technologies are extremely young and susceptible to advancing a myriad of fields including cryptography, distributed systems, economics, finance, and many more. We at the Lab recognize this potential and are committed to advancing the body of knowledge in this space. From exploring the feasability and implications of consensus algorithms to studying the best user experiences when using decentralized applications, we’re just as curious as the next organization about how blockchain will impact our lives and the world around us.
Building Community
Being so new, blockchain is still a niche technology, so the communities surrounding it are relatively small. It’s evident that this will change, however, as the communities of those who take an interest in blockchain have grown alongside the global awareness of blockchain. With our location in the global city of Washington, DC, we’ve noticed that we’re in a unique position to not only help grow the area’s existing community but also leverage our position to expand outreach to politicians, policymakers, financiers, students, and more in addition to creating a welcoming environment to provide education and engagement with respect to this new, high tech field.
Engaging in Development
As this space matures, it will need an increasing amount of infrastructure on which it can grow. And, said infrastructure comes from both the communities that help provide knowledge, education, and discussion about blockchain and the technological protocols, paradigms, standards, and libraries that not only comprise the blockchains themselves but also enable developers, designers, product people, and entrepreneurs to build next generation applications around these novel technologies. We’re on the front lines of this effort.
Why We Do It All
Blockchain will change our lives, and it’s our decision whether we want to help drive the discussion and innovation or become the laggards as this technology approaches mainstream usage. We want to play a huge part in this, which is why we’ve given ourselves a set of goals to accomplish: to establish a space for blockchain education, research, and analysis at Howard University and the Greater DC community and to create an alliance with other student and professional organizations to spur innovation driven by blockchain technology, ideation, and cross-discipline collaboration.
We can’t do all this without you! If you’re curious about Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, or blockchain, be sure to follow us on Twitter or shoot us an email at HUBlockchainLabs@gmail.com to learn how you can get involved and join today!
