DCI Update

By Joi Ito, director, MIT Media Lab

When we decided to launch the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) at the Media Lab early last year, I reached out to Brian Forde, who had just left the White House, to join us as the initiative’s director. Although Washington, DC, remained his home base, he traveled almost weekly to Boston to assume his new post. (Thank goodness it was basically a snowless winter for us!) Brian was instrumental in building our team, increasing awareness of the initiative, and raising funds for our work.

Now Brian will be transitioning from his position with the DCI and moving back home to Los Angeles with his fiancée at the end of the year. He will, however, be keeping his connection with MIT, being named senior lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, co-teaching two classes this fall and researching and writing a new book.

In saying our farewells to Brian, I’d like to acknowledge some of the important contributions he made over the last year and a half with the DCI:

• Leading fundraising efforts that resulted in the DCI team raising more than $2 million to advance MIT cryptocurrency research and bitcoin protocol development — and helping Wladimir van der Laan, Cory Fields and Gavin Andresen transition to MIT.
• Co-teaching classes and participating in research that brought us projects like MedRec — a pilot with Beth Israel Hospital that just won the Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research Challenge by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
• Working closely with colleagues in the DCI to define a prospective research project with the Finance Minister of Mexico.
• Meeting with the White House, the Prime Minister’s office in the UK, and other leaders in city and state governments to discuss how cryptocurrencies could be used as a tool to create a more transparent government.
• Helping advance the inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities in the cryptocurrency community.

We wish Brian the best of luck with this next venture!