University of Nicosia (IFF) Joins GoChain Network as a Signing node

The Institute For the Future of the University of Nicosia becomes the first university signing node in support of the GoChain public blockchain network

SAN FRANCISCO/NICOSIA, APRIL 22nd, 2020 — The Institute For the Future of the University of Nicosia (Cyprus) (“IFF”), a leading provider of education and research in blockchain and digital currencies, and GoChain, a leader in enterprise and government blockchain solutions, today announced the signing of a Node Operating Agreement, whereas IFF is now operating a signing node in support of the GoChain blockchain network.

As a signing node, IFF will be one of up to 50 enterprises and organizations to run specialized servers that facilitate the GoChain network’s Proof of Reputation (PoR) consensus algorithm and validate the blocks of transactions produced on the blockchain network. The IFF blockchain signing node is the first academic institution to join GoChain’s Proof of Reputation network.

This is not the University of Nicosia’s (UNIC) first venture into blockchain. UNIC offered the world’s first MOOC in Digital Currencies in 2014, taught by world leading experts Andreas Antonopoulos and Antonis Polemitis, and attended by over 35,000 students to date. In 2015, it became the first university globally to experiment with the deployment of blockchain in the issuance of academic certificates via Block.co–a Blockchain Credentialing application that fingerprints whole documents and links them to a Bitcoin transaction.

“We are extremely proud to not only welcome IFF as our first University-affiliated signing node, but also to collaborate with IFF on digital certificates and other blockchain initiatives. We admire and are thrilled to partner with the University of Nicosia, an early adopter and widely considered to be among the best academic institutions globally for digital currencies and blockchain fields.” – Henry Ines, GoChain CEO

 The partnership focuses on:

• Exploring opportunities for research collaboration geared towards advancing the field of blockchain.
• Exploring collaboration in improving the issuance of digital credentials, such as digital diplomas on the blockchain. Recently, GoChain partnered with Microsoft’s services team to build a decentralized identity toolkit that helps both Universities and Governments verify, authenticate, and secure personal information without compromising individual privacy. GoChain intends to add additional accredited Universities around the world to drive digital certificate initiatives and adoption.

“We are delighted to join the expanding GoChain family in this critical next step in blockchain evolution and adoption. Part of our core mission is to help society better prepare and adapt to a future that is being dynamically shaped by transformative technologies – one such technology in action is undoubtedly the GoChain network’s Proof of Reputation consensus algorithm, which we are thrilled to support as the first university-affiliated signing node. We look forward to collectively advancing the field.” – George Giaglis, IFF General Director

“We are very excited to be supporting the GoChain network. At IFF, we conduct academic research in distributed ledgers and digital currency to further the field. As part of our community building activities in the blockchain space, we embrace the development of innovative projects like GoChain that are based on or are inspired by the core blockchain technology. The idea behind GoChain’s consensus algorithm has truly intrigued the research team.” – Klitos Christodoulou, IFF Research Manager

GoChain’s Proof of Reputation blockchain network

Hosted by known and “reputable” corporations or organizations such as Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) and DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH), these nodes foster the growth of the network while providing security through their geographic distribution. As a result, Proof of Reputation has several advantages over its predecessor, Proof of Work (PoW), which is used as the consensus algorithm for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Proof of Reputation networks can scale to more transactions per second with far lower cost and wasted energy. Since all nodes are operated by a diverse set of known, trusted businesses and organizations, there is greater security and less vulnerability to attack by bad actors than centralized ledgers or even distributed blockchains where large ‘mining’ organizations control the majority of the network.

About the Institute For the Future (IFF) of the University of Nicosia (Cyprus)

The Institute For the Future (IFF) is a leading global provider of education and research in blockchain and digital currencies. It is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Nicosia (UNIC), aimed at advancing emerging technologies and contributing to their effective application in industry, government and education, as well as evaluating their impact on employment, wealth inequality and our lives and societies in general. Our mission is to educate leaders, develop knowledge and build communities to help society prepare for a future shaped by transformative technologies.

IFF coordinates the University of Nicosia’s education and training programmes, as well as its research and community building activities on blockchain and digital currencies. This includes:

• A free “Introduction to Digital Currencies” MOOC
• An online MSc in Digital Currency
• Professional Training courses
• Research projects and collaborations
• The annual Decentralized Conference series
• Local Decentralized Chapters in 22 countries around the world

If you are interested in developing research collaborations or finding out more about IFF, please contact us at:

Website: www.unic.ac.cy/iff

E-mail: [email protected]

Twitter: @IFFunic

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-for-the-future-iff/