IS it worth spending multi million Euros on research to build bug free software?

[ataraxiaceleste]

Concordium is currently working to build the world’s leading "science" based open-source, permissionless, and decentralized blockchain with built-in user identity at the protocol level. Concordium supports regulatory compliance, allowing businesses to harness the power of blockchain technology. I think this approach is really important when we look at it from an enterprise point of view. Business', especially the private centralized ones are in general very "skeptical"  when it comes to open sourced technology mainly because they are scared that the 'openness' may affect their IP or to lose power over their technology, or fear organizations without any head, because they want someone to take responsibility in case they need support at any point of time.

I also like their research and science first approach. It is obvious to see great technology when some of the most brilliant minds come together.

Concordium has put together Concordium Blockchain Research Center Aarhus (COBRA) to provide the basic research needed to build energy-efficient and scalable blockchain technology that is provably secure.

20 researchers and scientists at COBRA are performing research in blockchain technology, foundational blockchain theory, and cryptography. They are developing new protocols for efficient and secure consensus algorithms,sharding mechanisms, new cryptographic techniques supporting privacy-preserving identification, anonymous payments, better zero-knowledge techniques, and languages for smart contracts.

All research performed in the center is open source and patent-free and will help build a solid foundation for the entire blockchain space. COBRA was created as a partnership between Aarhus University and the Concordium Foundation with grants from Concordium running into a few Million Euros.

Concordium even has some prestigious partners from the Academia like ETH Zurich which is ranked 3rd in the world for engineering and technology (1st in Europe). ETH Zurich has been affiliated with 32 Nobel Laurates,4 Fields Medalists, and 1 Turing Award winner including Albert Einstein.

IT University of Copenhagen, one of Denmark’s leading universities on IT research and education is a partner too. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) India's leading Research, Science, Engineering Institute is associated with Concordium as well.

There was no ICO for this project and looks like the money is being judiciously put to use for research purposes. I am glad that the industry is maturing and so are the players. ICO's and IEO's are great ways of funding models as well but more often than not, take too long to meet their goals with respect to provable research and results. Making sure protocol's are technically sound will be important in gaining enterprise adoption. The true potential of blockchain technology lies with public permissionless blockchains, enterprises have realized this as well especially after experimenting a plenty with closed and private blockchain environments.

I will be doing a deep dive into their research papers in the coming days. Are you aware of any other blockchain projects who are giving importance to research first approach?