Kakao’s Klaytn sets aside $20M to blockchain research in collaboration with SG, KR universities

South Korean Blockchain protocol Klaytn, developed by internet giant Kakao, has committed more than US$20 million to support blockchain development and funding led by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Seo Sangmin, the head of Klaytn Group, announced the funding at Korea Blockchain Week on August 8, 2022. Named the Blockchain Research Center Program (BRC), the initiative will be one of the largest blockchain research efforts worldwide by funding grants.

BRC will be administered by a global research team led by KAIST and NUS researchers. According to Seo, the research conducted will be publicly disclosed in the form of either research papers or open-source software.

External researchers are eligible to participate in ongoing projects or submit their own proposals.

Out of the seven proposals received from 62 research institutes and 11 countries, the proposal from the KAIST/NUS research consortium was selected by the Klaytn Governance Council and third party experts for their “operational competence, research execution, and community engagement plans.” NUS topped CoinDesk’s 2021 University Rankings for Blockchain, while KAIST ranked 26th worldwide.

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Klaytn’s BRC program is the second academic funding program launched by a blockchain protocol this month. A week earlier, the Algorand Foundation announced the 10 winners of its Algorand Centres of Excellence Program, which include Yale University and Purdue University in the US, and Monash University in Australia.