Interview with Duke Blockchain Lab
Disclaimer: This article is not intended as investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
The brightest minds across America are starting to dive deep into blockchain technology. Duke Blockchain lab recently announced that they are hosting a hackathon accelerator where Duke students will learn about Harmony Protocol, a proof-of-stake blockchain. We had a chance to speak with Daniel Chong, who is helping manage the partnership between Harmony Protocol and Duke Blockchain Lab.
Exclusive Interview with Daniel Chong from Duke Blockchain Lab
How interested are Duke students in blockchain technology? What are the goals of the Duke Blockchain Lab?
Duke is decently cutting edge in blockchain, but blockchain is still super super niche. I am thankful that students here want to learn about blockchain and what it does. We’re here to help our students learn the actual use cases of blockchain, and then show them that building something cool in the industry is possible, even for a student.
There still is a long way to go for Duke. We have faculty that are well-known in the blockchain sector and students that have went on to create the largest blockchain companies (Coinbase, 0x). But I feel like there isn’t too much love being brought back, and that’s what we’re trying to facilitate at Duke Blockchain Lab.
Duke Blockchain Lab recently announced a partnership with Harmony Protocol. Harmony has built a worldwide community and is one of the most promising blockchain protocols. What message would you like to send the Harmony community?
We love the passion that Harmony shows towards the project, and hope that the same passion can be shown towards student projects as well. One of the biggest issues I’ve seen from the larger blockchain community is that there isn’t too much love for student projects — product support usually only comes to people that already have a reputation in the industry.
How can the blockchain community help students at the Duke Blockchain Lab?
We would love for people in the industry — active traders, developers, founders — to come and speak to the Duke community about how much opportunity there is in the blockchain sector. Students here are pretty traditionalist in terms of job outlook: it’s the Goldman/FAANG pipeline. I would love for people to show my peers what other opportunities await them in blockchain.
At times the blockchain community could be closed minded. Are there any changes that you would like to see happen?
To be fair, the blockchain community is closed-minded as a defense mechanism: there are too many scams and rugs out there for people not to put their full faith in blockchain idols like Hoskinson or Buterin. A community effort in auditing and supporting lesser-known projects in lesser-known blockchains will be amazing for opening up the community to new ideas. Until then, blockchain will continue to be driven by whales and long-time players, which can bring close-mindedness.
Universities across the United States and the world are starting to recognize the importance of blockchain. It is likely that the top companies are currently being created across campuses. What areas/industries are Duke students trying to change with blockchain technology?
There aren’t a huge amount of projects that I know of off the top of my head, but I know that our student projects at Duke involve infosec, coworking spaces, digital art, among other things.
Can you share a start-up from Duke that is related to blockchain?
The only startup I have enough info to share on is my own: Harpie (https://harpie.io). We’re open-source crypto loss prevention: if you ever lose your wallet due to password loss/disaster, we can return your Ether tokens back to you. It’s secured under a zero-knowledge proof and never requires a key to your wallet. We started only six months ago and it’s just a team of two working on it, but we’re protecting about $7000 for our twenty beta customers.
