RMIT injects $6m into Blockchain Innovation Hub

RMIT’s Blockchain Innovation Hub (BIH) is set to get a new ‘Blockchain Business Lab’ as part of a $6 million investment issued by the university.

The Lab is expected to harness RMIT researchers’ expertise in business, law, economics and sociology, among other subjects, to “help develop the new regulations, skills and capabilities needed by industry”, according to the university.

Established in 2017, the Hub has helped shape the blockchain industry internationally, as well as the Australian Government-released Blockchain National Roadmap, and prepared students with “the digital skills of tomorrow”, RMIT said.

“As the world’s first dedicated social science research centre into blockchain technology, the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub is leading the way in both research and education,” said BIH Co-Director Dr Chris Berg.

“Our goal is to ensure that Australian students are ready for life in the blockchain economy and that Australian research makes its mark in this incredibly exciting space,” he added.

Blockchain technology could generate an annual business value of over US$175 billion by 2025 and more than US$3 trillion by 2030, Gartner predicted.

As a transparent and decentralised way of recording lists of transactions, blockchain has the potential to support supply chain management, health data protection and social services deployment, as well as cryptocurrencies, RMIT said.

“It also paves the way for ‘smart contracts’, programmed to perform a transaction automatically, with blockchain technology having the ability to cause significant economic and social change,” the university concluded.

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