MIT Media Lab launches Digital Currency Initiative

The MIT Media Lab

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab recently announced the launch of the Digital Currency Initiative. The project is designed to bring together international experts in disciplines such as cryptography, economics, privacy, and distributed systems to take on this new area of research.

The Digital Currency Initiative has three goals:

• Conduct research and engage more students on digital currency topics that address questions about security, stability, scalability, privacy, and economics.
• Convene governments, non-profits, and the private sector to research and test topics that have high social impact.
• Provide evidence-based research to support existing and future policy standards.

The Media Lab has recruited Brian Forde, a former White House senior advisor for mobile and data innovation, as its first-ever director of digital currency. In his role, Forde will collaborate with researchers across MIT and leading experts at other higher-education institutions worldwide as part of the Digital Currency Initiative.

“As a technologist, there’s no more exciting place to work than the MIT Media Lab,” Forde said in an MIT News article. “The innovations that come out of the Media Lab have made a truly global impact. I look forward to working with the faculty and students and collaborating with developers, academics, entrepreneurs, governments, and nonprofits to help us get closer to a more robust and viable digital currency that could have tremendous benefits around the world.”

Also joining the initiative is lead Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen. On his blog, Andresen wrote that Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Fields, both formerly of the Bitcoin Foundation, have also joined the Media Lab.

Image credit: Knight Foundation