Members from Arizona State University’s (ASU) Blockchain Research Lab made an appearance on The Crypto Show on KFNX 1100 radio in Phoenix, Arizona, USA to talk about Dash, cryptocurrency, and blockchain to the general public that tunes into the show.
Throughout the show Jeremy Liu and Avery Carter from ASU’s Blockchain Research Lab discussed cryptocurrencies and Dash with Danny, the host, in various degrees trying to be cognizant that listeners could be at various knowledge levels. Around the 20:00 minute mark, they discussed how most people do not understand how money, banks, debit, and credit cards work; that people simply know that they work and use them. They related back to cryptocurrencies to discuss how it is a goal to make cryptocurrencies and Dash so easy to use that people do not have to truly understand the code, mathematics, and economics to use them.
Around the 29:00 minute mark, Jeremy and Avery dived into ASU’s Blockchain Research Lab and how it was started last year through a Dash treasury proposal. The two then described how Dash’s treasury system works and how it enables projects like the Blockchain Lab to exist. Then the two discussed how the team has been researching Dash scalability and gave a brief overview.
“For example, PayPal, they’re a centralized service so they can always ramp up when necessary or decrease when necessary. They have a lot more control over that. Because they’re centralized, you’re losing some of the trust aspect, some of that decentralized aspect, but you’re gaining some of that speed. Now, a big problem in the blockchain space or the cryptocurrency space is how can we keep the properties that we like, in terms of decentralization, and we own our own money. But then how do we scale up so we can do those transactions like PayPal?”
To relate to the entire audience listening, the group discussed how with legacy systems consumers have to give up very private information to complete strangers and trust that they will protect that information, which is not the case with Dash and cryptocurrencies. The group then began to discuss how to solve the issue of maintaining that security with Dash and cryptocurrencies, while still scaling to handle more transactions.
Dash and ASU’s Blockchain Research Lab is working together to solve problems
Jeremy and Avery discussed how ASU’s Blockchain Research Lab recently released a research paper that “created a simulation” of the Dash network to see if they can scale Dash. Jeremy mentioned how the team found that they “can scale Dash at least five times more” from 2 MB blocks to at least 10 MB blocks without losing the key features of Dash, which is unique among cryptocurrencies. Jeremy later went onto explain, to potential novice listeners, how in “cryptocurrencies, you’re restrained by the block size, which is how much data you can fit inside”. He also emphasized how it is important that they are finding these results while the technology is still very young; Bitcoin is just under ten years old and Dash is a few years younger.
Avery then pivoted to discuss that he got into cryptocurrencies and blockchains because he tried to teach it to himself and realized it “was the hardiest thing ever to learn” and “wanted to improve that process for other people”. He added that ASU has the Blockchain Lab for research, but they are also working to educate people, in general, about cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and Dash. Avery also mentioned how ASU and the Blockchain Research Lab is planning to launch an online Coursera class to further make cryptocurrency education easily attainable.
They also touched on the fact that ASU’s Blockchain Lab and Dash have partnered to offer scholarships to students ranging from incoming freshman to graduate students. Jeremy added how “education is one of the biggest aspects of blockchain technology that we’re all, clearly, interested in, but it’s kind of neglected in the space”. Jeremy discussed how the “Dash Scholar program, [gives] 15 scholarships” that are intended to allow the students to participate in the ASU structured blockchain and cryptocurrency program to help the Blockchain Research Lab, while also helping the student learn along the way.
Dash enables greater participation through education
Jeremy and Avery representing ASU’s Blockchain Research Lab on The Crypto Show, which is also sponsored by Dash, demonstrated that Dash has the ability to not only fund intensive research to improve the network, but to also fund activities that make Dash more inclusive. Simply by appearing on The Crypto Show, which is broadcasted on a local radio station, to talk about Dash in a digestible way for the average consumer will introduce Dash to numerous new users.
As mentioned above, education is very important in the blockchain space, especially since it is such a young industry. Education not only helps increase the research and pool of talent surrounding Dash, but it also creates more informed Dash consumers. Dash provides education via formal research and knowledge from the Blockchain Research Lab, ASU’s classes, informational content through Dash Force News or Dash.org, and educational outreach by treasury funded community outreach specialists. Dash is striving to become very user friendly with Evolution to eliminate the need to know the details of how Dash works, but until that happens an educated consumer base will help further increase Dash usage and adoption.
