ANN ARBOR, MI – JULY 30: The University Of Michigan North Campus signage at the University Of … [+]
One of my core theses for why cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are directionally inevitable is that young people find them wildly exciting and interesting.
For Zoomers who have grown up fully immersed in the internet age, the argument for why digitally native assets exist is self-evident. To them, crypto represents new job opportunities, intellectual interests, money-making ventures and ways of finding community in a digital age.
They simply aren’t deterred by FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and other detracting arguments that older generations stumble over. They aren’t phased by hackneyed arguments that cryptocurrencies can’t have value because they “aren’t backed by anything” or that they’re only used by criminals, etc.
And they certainly aren’t losing sleep fretting about whether a particular digital token should be considered a security or a commodity.
My core thesis was reinforced, and largely proven correct, during a recent visit to the Midwest Blockchain Conference — a collegiate blockchain conference hosted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in conjunction with College DAO.
The concept for MBC started off as a way to convene various blockchain clubs from the Big 10 region (primarily schools in the Upper Midwest). The event quickly mushroomed into a gathering of 500+ students from 34 different universities including University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, University of Virginia and University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Several notable brands from the industry looking to make inroads with university-level talent signed on as sponsors: Coinbase, Ripple, Franklin Templeton, Uniswap Foundation, Filecoin Foundation (disclosure – my employer), Sui and more.
My initial expectation was a vibe similar to that of a cryptocurrency meetup in 2016-17: some nerds mingling with tourists and other onlookers who’ve heard about blockchain but want to better understand it so they can sound smart.
The reality I encountered was far more extreme — these university groups are far beyond crypto curious. Some of them are operating actual crypto funds – complete with their own investment committees and structures that manage 6-7 figures worth of assets.
The range of participating students represented a spectrum of computer science majors trying to position themselves for future careers, to full-on “degens” who spend more time trading memecoins than engaging in normal college student activities.
“If this sample is representative of all the blockchain talent nationwide, the industry is in good hands,” said Evan Solomon, a University of Michigan student and organizer of the event.
Numerous clubs are actively running validator nodes on Ethereum and other public blockchain networks. Several others do bespoke consulting and research work for crypto projects.
The University of Michigan club actively participates in Uniswap protocol governance with 3.9 million UNI tokens delegated by venture firm a16z and other groups.
Many students present are already working full-time or part-time gigs in the blockchain industry while simultaneously working on their degrees.
I met one guy who started working at a crypto hedge fund when he was 16.
What’s intriguing is that these clubs have achieved a level of on-campus prominence and respect that wasn’t present in previous market cycles. College students were certainly buying into ICOs in 2017 and swapping NFTs in 2021, but these weren’t trends that universities were excited about putting institutional support behind.
During a panel discussion, representatives from the University of Michigan’s $20 billion endowment fund explained their thinking on why alternative assets like crypto can be a valuable vehicle for diversification (though they aren’t allocating to crypto just yet).
The mainstreaming of the industry and the growing interest among students has made the trend difficult to ignore, explained Carl Zielinski, co-founder of the Princeton Blockchain Club. Attendance at his events typically vary between 50 and 250 participants, depending on current market vibes.
There was also a lot of interest in non-financial use blockchain use cases like DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure) and the convergence of blockchain with artificial intelligence technologies.
Overall, I found it refreshing to participate in a blockchain conference that wasn’t tribalistic by nature — where everyone self-selects into (and shills) their own particular chain or community.
Most of the students were quite agnostic and hardly “maximalists” of any sort. Rather, they see digital assets as an obvious long-term inevitability and are trying to front run the opportunity.
Naysayers hoping that crypto fades away into the bush like Homer Simpson will have a hard time convincing them otherwise.
Disclosure: Filecoin Foundation, one of several organizations that supported MBC, is my employer.