Groups from Harvard, MIT, Oxford, and Others Join EduDAO to Foster Web 3 Innovation via Decentralized Funding

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BitDAO, one of the world's largest decentralized treasuries with over $2.5 billion in assets under management, and Mirana Ventures — a venture partner of BitDAO — have today announced the launch of EduDAO in partnership with student groups and faculties of eight of the world's most prestigious universities. EduDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) connecting disparate university ecosystems to enhance collaboration and data exchange and foster a new generation of blockchain and Web3 innovators.

University partners include Berkeley RDI, Blockchain at Berkeley, Penn Blockchain, Harvard Blockchain Club, MIT Sloan Blockchain Club, Blockchain at Michigan, Blockchain@USC, Oxford Blockchain Society, and Tsinghua University Students Blockchain Association.

Financed by the BitDAO treasury, EduDAO will serve as an independent steering committee, allocating up to $11 million in funding annually for project grants, research, and standalone product development with $33 million in the fund to start. Each university group will operate autonomously, controlling allocated budgets to provide students and faculties creative freedom. This will also serve as an incentive for alumni to remain with the projects post-graduation.  

In return for funding, university groups will participate in BitDAO governance votes — determining the protocol's development — and provide recurring contributions back to BitDAO itself. Contributions may include building governance or treasury tooling improvements, contributing to other BitDAO funded DAOs, or building standalone products that benefit the BitDAO ecosystem.

EduDAO is the brainchild of Jon Allen, managing partner for Mirana Ventures.

A founding member of Blockchain at Berkeley, Allen attributes his career trajectory to the support and resources gained by being part of the university group. He believes that with greater funding and a more explicit focus on blockchain technology, universities can unearth new talent and nurture the next generation of innovators.    

"Tomorrow's most promising products and designs are being devised at the university level right now; this partnership facilitates that growth at a scalable level by giving students and faculties access to sorely needed investment capital," said Allen. "Bridging early-stage VC investments with innovative academic research will build the foundation for the next generation of Web3 technologies. We're starting with these eight universities to prove the concept but will soon be onboarding hundreds of schools."

The EduDAO model aims to provide university groups with a wider reach, enabling blockchain innovation through funding as well as advancing collaboration and information sharing worldwide. The research will be shared among the participating universities and the general public via the BitDAO protocol.

Roman Ugarte and Virat Talwar, co-presidents of the Harvard Blockchain Club said, "Placing the power of targeted funding and information distribution in the hands of a decentralized collective of students, faculty members, and alumni is a revolutionary step forward for institutions such as Harvard. As a young organization, we're especially excited about the possibility to use the resources and mentorship offered by BitDAO to help build and grow our community in order to further the ability of the students we serve to learn about and contribute to the world of crypto. More generally, we're thrilled to be able to pioneer this innovative model and encourage the overall maturation of Web 3 as well as promote blockchain education for the general public."

UC Berkeley's Deputy Director for RDI, Jocelyn Weber Phipps, added that "UC Berkeley is honored to partner with EducationDAO and further build on our new Berkeley RDI Center's efforts to act as a hub and platform for for collaborations globally with other organizations & researchers, as exemplified in leading the first DeFi MOOC with thousands of students enrolled from 30+ countries and our non-dilutive Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator open to teams around the world.  The funds from BitDAO will be used to support activities in the focus areas of DAOs and blockchain for the three RDI pillars - Research, Education and Community / Entrepreneurship.  We look forward to working with all the members of the EducationDAO community in the year ahead.

About Mirana Ventures:
Mirana manages billions in digital assets with a broad mandate for all things crypto related including: equity, token, and fund investments; liquidity support, and other asset management strategies.
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About BitDAO:
In under one year, BitDAO has become one of the largest decentralized treasuries in the world with billions in assets. Leveraging a tokenized governance system, BitDAO continues to display and execute on its open mandate to foster technologies that present entirely new ways for people to work, engage, and transact together. BitDAO's mission is to support builders of the decentralized economy and showcase the potential of DAOs.

A primary activity of the BitDAO ecosystem is to partner with "autonomous entities" (AEs), like Game7, that are funded in part by the BitDAO treasury. These AEs consist of independent governance systems, and create aligned economic links back to the treasury itself, enabling the viral growth of more value producing AEs. To learn more, please visit: https://www.bitdao.io/

SOURCE EduDAO