Princeton University’s Blockchain Center, One Year On

Summary

Bloomberg Crypto – “Princeton University’s Blockchain Center, One Year On”

Aired: March 16, 2023
Host: Stacey Marie Ishmael (Bloomberg Crypto Editor)
Guest: Francesca Maglione (Bloomberg Reporter)
Overview:
This episode reviews the first year of Princeton’s Center for the Decentralization of Power Through Blockchain Technology, examining academia’s evolving role in blockchain research. Host Stacey Marie Ishmael and reporter Francesca Maglione discuss the center’s origins, its response to the ongoing “crypto winter,” how universities rein in hype to focus on broader technological, ethical, and societal impacts, and how shifting trends like AI now compete for student interest in tech-driven disciplines.

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Main Theme and Purpose

A year after its ambitious launch, Princeton’s Blockchain Center serves as both a case study and a bellwether for how leading universities are grappling with blockchain’s promise and controversy. The discussion contrasts initial excitement with pragmatic academic engagement and considers fluctuating interest in blockchain versus the contemporary surge in artificial intelligence (AI).

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Key Discussion Points

The Center’s Origins and Mission

• Background: Princeton launched the Center for the Decentralization of Power Through Blockchain Technology in March 2022, backed by a $20 million donation from alumni Mike Novogratz (Galaxy CEO) and Joe Lubin (Ethereum co-founder).
  • Stacey Marie Ishmael: “An ambitious name for an ambitious program.” (01:21)
• Mission: The center aims to pursue new software, explore real-world blockchain applications, and analyze ethical and societal impacts.
• Academic Value:
  • Francesca highlights the center’s intent to “provide as neutral as a voice as possible” following the tumultuous events involving FTX and the ongoing crypto winter (03:18).
  • Quote: Dean of Engineering: “It's essential for universities to play a major role in the technology development use cases and societal and ethical implications of blockchain. And to harness its powers for good.” (03:48)

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Activities and Research Initiatives

• Events: Hosted a pivotal event in November 2022 with ~60 participants, including donors and CFTC regulators, to establish focused research questions around:
  • Blockchain applications
  • Technical innovation
  • Ethical/social implications (04:15)
• Class Offerings: Began with a single course; now offers three crypto-related classes, indicating academic expansion (06:10).
• Research & Partnerships: The center is in the process of hiring dedicated faculty and discussing partnerships with blockchain startups for hands-on learning. (06:10–06:49)

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Academia’s Approach Amid Market Volatility

• Academic Detachment:
  • Mike Novogratz, donor, praises academia for its “longer-term view,” especially in turbulent times (05:36).
• Value in Volatility:
  • Francesca: The “hype or volatility creates a space for intellectuals…to break through what’s true, what’s not” (07:38).
  • Christian Cassellini (MIT, ex-Diem co-creator):

    "Students are very attuned to what's happening in society...It's not about the number of students, it's more about can we really train the ones that should know about this the most in the best possible way?...universities should be somewhat detached from what's happening in the market." (08:32)

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Student Interest and Boom-Bust Cycles

• Changing Demand:
  • Initial explosion in course demand at Princeton—some classes filled in 90 seconds (12:28)—contrasted with lower current enthusiasm due to crypto’s recent negative press and waning hype.
  • Francesca Maglione: “The energy is not the same, has definitely been tainted…He [JP] really wants…students that care about the technology, that think what can this bring to a developing country…” (12:30–13:32)
• AI Overtakes Crypto’s Allure:
  • Francesca observes rising interest in AI courses, much like early crypto enthusiasm, especially after ChatGPT’s emergence (13:55).
  • Stacey: “One of the areas that's been, shall we say, competing with interest for crypto is artificial intelligence.” (13:32)

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The Societal and Ethical Mandate

• Beyond Hype:
  • Princeton’s focus is shifting away from speculation towards examining utility in areas like economic development, governance, and social systems (13:32).
• Ethics Parallels in Crypto and AI:
  • Both disciplines are now magnets for ethical debates and societal concerns—universities are uniquely positioned to lead these conversations (14:43).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the effect of crypto’s downturn on academia:

  Francesca: “If anything, kind of the FTX drama and everything that came with that and the crypto winter kind of reinforced the need for this kind of center...” (03:18)

• On keeping perspective amidst hype:

  Stacey Marie Ishmael: “Academia is not neutral. We acknowledge that…” (03:48)

• On student demand post-crash:

  Francesca: “The energy is not the same, has definitely been tainted…He really wants…students that care about the technology…” (12:30–13:32)

• On cycles of tech interest:

  Christian Cassellini (MIT): “...universities should be somewhat detached from what's happening in the market.” (08:32)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:21 – Introduction to the Center and its founding vision
• 03:18 – FTX, crypto winter, and the renewed case for academic study
• 04:15 – Day-to-day activities: events, research focus, student/faculty involvement
• 06:10 – Course expansion, outreach, and industry partnerships
• 07:38 – Academic versus speculative approaches to blockchain
• 08:32 – Christian Cassellini on academic detachment and student motivations
• 12:28 – Student demand in boom versus bust cycles
• 13:55 – Rising interest in AI and shifting academic priorities

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Conclusion

Princeton’s blockchain center, now a year old, epitomizes academia’s nuanced approach to frontier technologies—moving beyond flash to substance, harnessing volatility to generate foundational research, and shaping the next generation of critical thinkers. Universities remain at the intersection of technology and society, helping bridge knowledge gaps amid the ever-shifting excitement of crypto, AI, and whatever comes next.

For more detailed insights, refer to Francesca Maglione’s reporting on Bloomberg.com.

Transcript

[Francesca Maglione]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human

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[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

I'm Stacey Marie Ishmael, managing editor of Crypto for Bloomberg News, and this is Bloomberg Crypto, a Daily Bloomberg iHeart podcast. It's Thursday, March 16th. Last year, just before the crypto winter had hit in earnest, Princeton University opened up the center for the Decentralization of Power Through Blockchain Technology. I know that's a mouthful, so I'll say it again. The center for the Decentralization of Power Through Blockchain Technology, an ambitious name for an ambitious program funded in part by a $20 million gift from prominent Princeton alumni, including Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy, and Joe Lubin, co founder of the Ethereum Blockchain. The university said that the center will focus on software engineering that makes blockchain technology work on new and innovative ideas and uses for a decentralized system. And, of course, how any and all of this might affect our collective future. One year on, as the crypto winter persists, I wanted to know what's the center been up to these days? Here to discuss what's happening in Princeton and the broader role that universities are playing in studying blockchain technology is Bloomberg reporter Francesca Maglione. Francesca, welcome to the show.

[Francesca Maglione]

Thank you for having me.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Now, perhaps when you got started as a higher education reporter, you weren't expecting to have to talk about crypto. Yeah, crypto has that effect on other beats. It's just like it just shows up in places. I'm like, ta da. You're a crypto reporter now. When you started reporting on this Princeton University center, like, what did you find and was any of it surprising to you?

[Francesca Maglione]

I was revisiting a story that we wrote last year about when this center started and I was just curious, you know, they started in March of last year before all of the crypto drama kind of started. And I was just curious to see, you know, what the center had to say, what the donors had to say, and how they were thinking of developing the center. And I was surprised because when I spoke to both of the directors, they both said that if anything, kind of the FTX drama and everything that came with that and the crypto winter kind of reinforced the need for this kind of center and for academia to kind of take a step into the crypto world and kind of try and provide as neutral as a voice as possible.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

There's going to be a lot of people who are like, academia is not neutral. We acknowledge that there are lots of opinions in academia, that's fine. But when I look at your story, one of the things that you said, you know, citing Princeton's Dean of Engineering, is that, quote, it's essential for universities to play a major role in the technology development use cases and societal and ethical implications of blockchain. And, and to harness its powers for good. Like that's a lot of stuff.

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

So what are they doing day to day?

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah, so one of the things that they did, for example, in November, they had this event with about like 60 people, including I think the four donors and some people that worked for the CFTC and regulators. And basically what the the goal of this event was to discuss as academics to bigger ideas, bigger picture questions. And one of the directors said that the, the goal is to kind of est a list of questions that the center aims to tackle. They want to focus on three different things, applications of blockchain, so technology and the ethical implications. And Princeton believes that as a university that has both that access to technology, but also the access to these intellectuals that study ethics and look at, you know, what does this mean once it gets implemented and thinks about other things besides just, you know, the money, the crypto aspect of it, but more like real life applications. They think that their positions kind of in a unique way to break through. They both described as the hype that obviously we saw a lot of last year and establish more of an academic, institutional look into, you know, what can actually be possible with this technology.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Now one of the folks quoted in the piece who is also one of the people who helped donate $20 million was Mike Novogratz. And his comment was that he appreciated that academics have, to your point, a kind of a longer term view, which is definitely what you would say when the crypto market has had Such a tough time in the past 12 months. But is this a center where, you know, if you are studying at Princeton, you take classes there? Is it a center that's like publishing? What are some of their contributions so far?

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah, so they are working on. I think they have several research projects going on. They're working to hire someone like a faculty member as part of the center. And as part of the donation, there was also an endowed professor, which is jp, One of the directors, and he teaches. I think there's several classes in crypto. It started with one, and now I think there's about three classes that they offer. And I think that the goal of the center is to eventually embark on different kinds of research projects. They're still kind of working on that. I think they're still trying to formulate exactly what those projects will look like. But I think their goal is to do research with students, with faculty, kind of host these events with important people in the space. And also, at one point, they also spoke about partnering with blockchain startups and companies in order to support them and have their students kind of interact with these companies and look at blockchain that way too.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Yeah. Now you also spoke to, when you were doing the initial reporting for the story, Christian Cassellini, who in his current incarnation is an academic and researcher at mit, the Sloan School, in a previous life was the co creator of a type of crypto token called Diem, which we could do a whole episode about what happened to Diem. But what did Christian say with his academic hat on about the idea that this volatility has been good for research?

[Francesca Maglione]

Christian has been involved in a lot of written white paper on a lot of crypto issues and blockchain issues. What all of them said is I think that this kind of hype or volatility creates a space for intellectuals to kind of step in and really, like I said before, kind of break through what's true, what's not, what's hype, what's not. Which for me makes sense that academics would kind of step into the space when other people are pushing back because the shiny things are, are kind of going away. It seems like not nerdy, but like, no, hey, this is, this is an

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

extremely nerd friendly podcast. So no one needs to describe something as not nerdy here. We put in a call to Christian and asked him about declining campus interest in crypto and blockchain. Christian said there's a natural response to what's happening in the broader crypto ecosystem.

[Christian Cassellini]

Students are very attuned to what's happening in society. I wouldn't be surprised if right now there's a massive influx on classes that deal with AI. I think it's normal, to be honest, a little bit like we've seen with entrepreneurs, quality over quantity. You'd want students that go into blockchain classes that really have a deep passion or understanding of the topic or really care about some of its potential ramifications. It's not about the number of students, it's more about can we, can we really train the ones that should know about this the most in the best possible way? We've been running an online class, for example, for executives and others for many, many years. And it is really true that depending on boom and bust cycles, applications skyrocket and then drop back down. But I think that's all natural and universities should be somewhat detached from what's happening in the market. And to some extent, if there's a really good reason in computer science, in economics to talk about these systems in class, that should be a little bit more isolated to what's happening day to day when you see the different news cycles play out.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Up next, more from Bloomberg reporter Francesca Maglione on how the universities are embracing or studying blockchain technology. We'll be right back.

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[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

In terms of higher education more broadly, so obviously MIT has its own crypto center. There's this Princeton center. Are there other institutes of learning, as it were, that have some kind of focus on blockchain crypto that you've encountered?

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah. I also spoke to, to Richard Lyons at Berkeley. I think Berkeley has been one of the schools that has been very active. They have, I think, a lot of classes on crypto and they also have some focus on startups and things like that. But yeah, I think from at least Prince's perspective, it seems like when the center started last year, there was a lot of interest from students to take these kinds of classes. JP told me that he opened a class and in 90 seconds the class was completely full last year.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Are those students like, how's this happening so fast?

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah. And by jp, you mean Jaswinder Paulsing, one of the directors of the center. And he told me that this is just when it was open to seniors. I graduated two years ago. I know exactly the feeling of clicking on the button really fast when you want to sign up for a class. When I asked him what the case was this year, he told me that it wasn't the case at all. I mean, they have more classes now. He did mention that, but he did say that the energy is not the same, has definitely been tainted. Again, from an academics perspective. He talked about how, for him, the importance of blockchain has nothing to do with money, has nothing to do with all of these crazy speculative elements. Yeah, or. Yeah, exactly, our returns or everything that we were seeing last year. He was like, I really want my students that care about the technology, that think, what can this bring to a developing country that has a really bad economy or things like that. That's kind of what he's thinking about. And I think what from Princeton's perspective, at least these institutions are trying to step into now.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

One of the areas that's been, shall we say, competing with interest for crypto is artificial intelligence. As you are both recently from an institution of higher education also reporting on it. Where are you seeing AI starting to attract some of the shininess that crypto would have been attracting, say two years ago.

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah, I think with Chad, GPT definitely brought it into into the mainstream. Like I was at Duke two years ago and there were a bunch of AI classes and I didn't see the level of excitement that I see now.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

People clicking the button really fast.

[Francesca Maglione]

Yeah, but definitely as with crypto, the more and more these names start coming up in the media, the more interest there is from from academics to kind of step in. And I think with AI it's similar in a way where it still hasn't developed. I guess the or there are potentials to be controversial, but they haven't really come into light as they did with crypto. But it would be interesting to see what these people are going to be thinking in two years.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

Totally.

[Francesca Maglione]

Definitely.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

And definitely a lot of questions about ethics and societal harm, so. Well, Francesca, thank you so much for joining us on the show. Great to have you.

[Francesca Maglione]

Thank you so much.

[Stacey Marie Ishmael]

That was Bloomberg reporter Francesca Maglione. You can find more of her reporting in the Bloomberg terminal and on bloomberg.com and be sure to check out our twice weekly newsletter, Bloomberg Crypto. This is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily podcast from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio. For more shows from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A quick programming note for you. We're working on something new that expands on how we're covering crypto and the future of finance and we'll be back soon to tell you more. Follow or subscribe to Bloomberg Crypto to stay tuned for updates. We'll be bringing you info about what's next right here in this feed. In the meantime, get caught up on all of our Bloomberg iHeart podcasts, the Big Take, Daily Crash course, and our narrative series in Trust. To stay in touch with Bloomberg Crypto. You can find our coverage as [e-mail] crypto the supervising producer of Bloomberg Crypto is Vicky Vergelina. Our senior producer is Janet Babin. Our producers are Mohamed Farouk and Sharon Barero. Our associate producers are Ty Butler and Moses Undam. Desta Wonderad is our engineer. Original music by Leo Sidrin. I'm Stacey Marie Ishmael. We'll be back tomorrow.

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[Francesca Maglione]

Guaranteed Human.