Stanford University

Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents no longer on the Stanford Law School roster

Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried have started facing professional consequences for their son Sam Bankman-Fried’s actions.

The domino effect of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s actions came full circle as his reputation began impacting the professional lives of his parents, Stanford Law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. 

SBF’s father, Bankman, had to cancel his winter session course on tax policy, which, according to The Standford Daily, was at a time when the family was accused of acquiring an FTX-owned $16.4 million vacation home before the crypto exchange’s collapse.

Stanford Law professor Joseph Bankman’s tax policy course was canceled. Source: explorecourses.stanford.edu

On the other hand, SBF’s mother, Fried, was not even listed as an instructor for any of the courses. While this event coincides with FTX’s fallout, where Fried became a focal point of discussion owing to her political ties, she distanced the move from the ongoing investigations, saying it was a “long-planned” decision to retire. Speaking to The Daily, Fried shared her “hopes to” return as a teacher in the future.

Most recently, SBF accused Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao of FTX’s fall, claiming that CZ “threatened to walk at the last minute.”

Related: FEC probe demanded after SBF ‘admitted’ making dark money donations

On Dec. 9, Bankman-Fried revealed his willingness to testify at a United States House hearing about FTX’s collapse in the future.

However, Bankman-Fried missed the deadline to respond to a Senate Banking Committee request to appear and testify during a hearing focused on FTX’s bankruptcy in early December.

This story was edited on December 12 to clarify allegations within the original story.

Tech talent migrates to Web3 as large companies face layoffs

Web3 companies continue to hire amidst a bull market as tech giants undergo layoffs and hiring freezes.

As inflation continues to grow, coupled with a looming recession, many tech firms are having to cut portions of their staff. To put this in perspective, data from Layoffs.fyi found that over 700 tech startups have experienced layoffs this year, impacting at least 93,519 employees globally. It has also been reported that tech giants like Google, Netflix and Apple are undergoing massive job cuts. 

While many of these layoffs are likely due to an economic downturn, this has resulted in an overwhelming amount of talent flocking to early-stage Web3 companies. For example, Andrew Masanto, a serial entrepreneur who has founded a number of startups, told Cointelegraph that he recently launched Nillion, a startup specializing in decentralized computation, to help ensure privacy and confidentiality for Web3 platforms.

Although Nillion is still in its early stages, the technological innovation behind the company has already proven to be appealing. Since the company’s inception in October this year, leading talent from companies like Nike, Indiegogo and Coinbase have joined the growing startup.

For instance, Slava Rubin, founder of the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, told Cointelegraph that he had recently joined Nillion as the company’s chief business officer based on the opportunity to join a startup with an innovative business model.

“The tech behind Nillion is massively innovative, as it focuses on advancing secure multiparty computation (MPC). MPC is known for being slow and unable to work for certain use cases. The risk of failure doesn’t concern me here since it’s such a huge opportunity to solve this problem,” he said.

The notion of building technology to advance MPC also attracted Lindsay Danas Cohen to Nillion. Cohen previously served as associate general counsel at Coinbase before joining Nillion this year as the company’s general counsel.

Although Coinbase announced in June that it was cutting its staff by 18%, Cohen explained in a recent blog post that she left Coinbase to join Nillion due to the opportunity to help advance privacy and data sharing through MPC. “This would be a true zero-to-one innovation,” she wrote.

While the crypto industry continues to face a bear market, it’s clear that the projects being built during this period are seen as an exciting opportunity. “I built Indiegogo during the 2008 bear market, and I think we will see the same thing in this market. In about three to five years, we will see some very strong companies emerge that know how to use capital efficiently,” Rubin remarked.

Indeed, well-funded Web3 companies continue to hire, while large tech companies face layoffs and hiring freezes. Sebastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, told Cointelegraph that the popular metaverse platform currently has a total of 103 job openings. “The excitement of working in the front row of Web3 is big, and we are enjoying this interest towards our open positions,” he said. 

According to Borget, The Sandbox has grown to 404 employees this year, almost doubling in size from its 208-employee workforce it had in December 2021. Borget added that The Sandbox’s virtual real estate known as “LANDs” is now worth over $1 billion in total market cap.

Moreover, as Web3 companies continue to bring on both new and acquired talent, young jobseekers seem to be displaying a greater desire to obtain the skills needed to join these firms.

Priyanka Mathikshara Mathialagan, president of the Stanford Blockchain Club, told Cointelegraph that she has seen an increasing number of undergraduate students at Stanford taking blockchain-focused courses in preparation for careers after graduation.

Recent: What the Russia-Ukraine war has revealed about crypto

“This year, we had more students enrolled in professor Dan Boneh’s cryptography class than those enrolled in traditional computer science courses,” she remarked.

Despite the bear market, Mathialagan also believes that there have been significant improvements made within the Web3 space, resulting in a more positive outlook toward the sector. For example, she mentioned that the Ethereum Merge that took place on Sept. 15 has helped ensure a more energy-efficient platform, creating appeal for students that may want to leverage the Ethereum network for Web3 projects. Mathialagan added that while a numerous amount of theoretical research has been performed for years within fields like computer science, Ph.D. students are considering Web3 due to new opportunities for advancement. She said:

“The math used in theoretical computer science and cryptography is similar to the math needed to advance zero-knowledge proof-based applications. There is now an industry that wants to pay Ph.D. students for their research and put these findings to use. For example, there is a large demand for distributed system engineers since every single blockchain is really a distributed system. These are the people who can design consensus algorithms and new architectures for scalable and secure blockchains.” 

This seems to be the case, as Masanto shared that Nillion has hired 10 engineers within the last six months. Borget added that The Sandbox is currently hiring 17 engineers, along with game designers, architects and other individuals capable of supporting brands building in the company’s metaverse.

Skepticism remains

While it’s notable that Web3 companies are actively hiring, a number of concerns remain. For instance, although companies remain focused on building during a bear market, fundraising may be problematic. 

Given this, it’s important to point out that Nillion is currently being bootstrapped by its founding team. A spokesperson from Delphi Digital, a crypto-focused research firm, also told Cointelegraph that while the company is currently hiring across the board, no funds have been raised.

“We have been completely bootstrapped up until now.” While impressive, running a company based on personal finances or operating revenue may be concerning for job seekers. For instance, Mathialagan noted that students starting a career in Web3 want to be assured that the company will exist two to three years down the road.

Jessica Walker, chief marketing officer of Fluid Finance — a fintech company focused on revolutionizing banking with blockchain — further told Cointelegraph that it is a waiting game to see what companies have the strongest communities and teams capable of withstanding the crypto winter, adding:

“It’s important for organizations to build partnerships and roll out products, while also being able to budget their overhead costs during this time.” 

Moreover, Mathialagan believes that it’s challenging for students, along with individuals within the Web2 sector, to get connected with Web3 companies. For instance, while companies like Nillion have brought on individuals from organizations like Coinbase, Indiegogo and Nike, Masanto shared that he already knew a handful of these people prior to hiring. 

Recent: Does the IMF have a vendetta against cryptocurrencies?

Walker also remarked that due to the bear market, recruiters need to pay additional attention to detail when onboarding new team members. “Some uncertainty comes from new hires about the security of their role, especially during a bear market. At Fluid, we often try to hire from our community first,” she said.

Although strategic, Mathialagan mentioned that the Stanford Blockchain Club is compiling a list of job postings to help students connect better with Web3 firms as more hiring takes place: “For students, hiring remains the biggest single problem even beyond security issues faced by Web3 companies today.”

Blockchain firms fund university research hubs to advance growth

Universities implement physical and virtual research hubs dedicated to advancing blockchain technology through scientific and educational knowledge.

The demand for organizations to adopt blockchain technology is growing rapidly. Recent findings from market research and advisory firm Custom Market Insights found that the global blockchain technology market size was valued at $4.8 billion in 2021, yet this amount is expected to reach $69 billion by 2030. While notable, it’s become critical for the industry to enable rigorous research into the development of the blockchain sector. 

Tim Harrison, vice president of community and ecosystem at Input Output Global (IOG) — the developer arm behind the Cardano blockchain — told Cointelegraph that during the past year, the blockchain ecosystem has witnessed various risks from projects that have taken a “go fast and break things” approach.

“Not only do these companies run these risks for themselves, but mistakes and failures can also negatively impact their end consumers,” he said. As such, Harrison believes that peer-reviewed research can help prevent such situations while also resolving issues that continue to linger from earlier iterations of blockchain development.

Companies fund university-led research hubs

In order to ensure that blockchain projects are thoroughly researched moving forward, Harrison noted that IOG recently funded a $4.5 million Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford University. According to Harrison, the hub’s goal is to enrich the body of scientific knowledge within the blockchain and distributed ledger industry while driving a greater focus on fundamental research. 

Although the Blockchain Research Hub at Stanford was just announced on August 29, 2022, Aggelos Kiayias, chief scientist at IOG and a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Cointelegraph that he believes the center will help the industry collectively solve current challenges.

For instance, Kiayias pointed out that IOG previously donated $500,000 to fund research for blockchain scalability with Stanford. This was an important initiative, as blockchain scalability remains one of the biggest issues hampering industry adoption. Yet, Kiayias noted that Stanford’s new Blockchain Research Hub will take this a step further since the projects being funded will come from researchers across a range of disciplines and backgrounds.

Kiayias added that research hubs associated with universities will likely add more value than typical blockchain-focused courses. “Stanford’s research hub will allow researchers to investigate the kinds of subjects that they are specifically interested in, giving them more freedom than taking a standard class,” he remarked. While many universities currently offer blockchain courses within their curriculum, research hubs funded by the industry may be the next step for universities aiming to advance the industry.

For example, Dawn Song, founder of Oasis Labs and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told Cointelegraph that Oasis Protocol, along with a number of other blockchain companies, has provided funding for the Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence (RDI). According to Song, RDI was founded about one year ago as a multi-disciplinary, campus-wide initiative focused on advancing the science, technology and education of decentralization. 

Song explained that the research at RDI is focused on areas including blockchain scalability, security and privacy, usability and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). For example, Song noted that research for zero-knowledge proofs is critical for ensuring scalability and privacy for blockchain projects.

Given this, she pointed out that RDI researchers have started working on a project called Orion, which is a new zero-knowledge argument system. Song also mentioned that RDI researchers are developing a new type of key maintenance mechanism that will ensure greater usability. The project is known as the “multi-factor key derivation function” and expands upon password-based key derivation functions with support from other popular authentication factors.

While innovative, Song added that RDI’s research is unique in the sense that the center is interdisciplinary:

“RDI contains faculty from Berkeley’s computer science department, finance and economics and the law school. RDI’s research covers many different disciplines that are more in-depth in comparison with blockchain courses. We focus on research, education and entrepreneurship, which can then help develop courses to train a new generation of students entering this industry.” 

In addition to physical research facilities at universities like Stanford and Berkeley, virtual research hubs are being established. For example, Klaytn, an Asia-based layer-1 blockchain, recently committed $20 million in funding for a virtual research institute to support industry growth. Known as the “Blockchain Research Center” (BRC), this program will be run by a global consortium led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). 

Sangmin Seo, representative director of the Klaytn Foundation, told Cointelegraph that researchers from KAIST and NUS will also work closely with an international team of principal investigators from six other universities, such as UC Berkeley, Princeton University and Georgia Institute of Technology. “With BRC operating in an open-source manner, other researchers beyond these universities will be able to participate in ongoing research projects or submit their own proposals,” he remarked.

Seo shared that BRC research will span seven pillars focused on topics such as consensus, privacy, smart contacts, decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Metaverse. He added that although BRC is virtual, the program will regularly conduct community outreach efforts such as hosting conferences and workshops.

In addition, the Alogrand Foundation, which is responsible for maintaining the Algorand blockchain ecosystem, has committed $50 million in funding for a virtual research program. The Algorand Centres of Excellence (ACE) program started in August 2022 and takes a strong focus on the development of real-world blockchain solutions, along with social impact and sustainability projects.

Hugo Krawczyk, principal researcher at Algorand Foundation and head of the ACE program, told Cointelegraph that research teams are located across the globe to ensure a focus on local communities. He added that ACE researchers are tackling a number of problems associated with cryptography since this is the backbone of blockchain security: 

“We are also analyzing errors in smart contracts as errors in these can lead to huge losses of money and confidence.”

Importance of university-led blockchain research hubs 

While it’s noteworthy that blockchain projects are supporting the development of university-led research programs, the scope of these initiatives extend far beyond marketing tactics or research for a company’s own project. Shedding light on this, Krawczyk explained that although the Algorand Foundation is committed to developing its own ecosystem, emerging research hubs such as ACE are focused on advancing the entire blockchain industry:

“This is not just about educating developers to work on our own projects, but it’s about researching multiple projects that can help advance the blockchain sector. Even though we compete with each other, collaborating with others is beneficial for the space to mature and evolve.”

Echoing this, Harrison mentioned that although there is a lot of competition in the blockchain space, healthy competition is a vital part of any growing industry. “Especially in its early days, every player also needs to play its part in growing the space as a whole,” he remarked. 

Indeed, collaboration seems to be key when it comes to these research centers. For instance, Song mentioned that Berkeley’s RDI will work closely with Stanford’s blockchain research hub. Krawczyk added that there is an ACE research center at Yale University that collaborates with Columbia University and the City College of New York.

Another important point to note is that while it’s innovative for universities to offer blockchain courses as part of their curriculum, research hubs go a step further. Steven Lupin, director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation at the University of Wyoming, told Cointelegraph that university research hubs offer distinctive, hands-on learning opportunities. He said:

“These programs allow students to roll up their sleeves and develop and deploy blockchain and digital asset projects in a real-world environment. Universities also take a leading role in developing standards and governance that’s more difficult for the industry to create due to competitive pressures.” 

For instance, Lupin mentioned that the University of Wyoming Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation — which was founded in 2019 and is focused on developing educational programs and applied projects across campus — is working on a smart contract research group to develop standards, governance and interoperability to allow smart contracts to be deployed more effectively.

While university-led blockchain research centers may be the next logical step for advancing the blockchain ecosystem, more work needs to be done to ensure that such programs are created.

“With Web3 still in its early stages, one research center alone is unable to solve all the challenges that lie ahead. More research centers are required to collectively solve such challenges,” Seo remarked. He added that research centers such as Klaytn’s BRC are multi-year projects that take time and effort to develop.