Blockchain has the potential to touch every aspect of our daily lives by enabling individuals and companies across the globe to operate with a newfound level of trust and confidence. However, at present, most people know nothing about the technology aside from its association with Bitcoin. Beyond the lack of general awareness surrounding Blockchain, university students already interested in the subject have scarce educational. BAF addresses the hurdles to blockchain mass adoption by inspiring and educating its next generation of leaders and users.
It is abundantly clear that blockchain can enable individuals and companies to operate with a newfound level of trust and transparency. From electoral systems to digital payments to insurance premiums, the number of areas blockchain can help revolutionize for the better are abundant. Taking this idea from concept to reality, however, requires companies to develop products that seamlessly improve people’s lives without them needing to understand the underlying technology. And in order for companies to do so, they need talent sufficiently trained in blockchain, distributed systems, and cryptography.
When uniting several university-affiliated blockchain clubs under the same roof, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit seemed the best organizational structure. Being a nonprofit gives us the legitimacy needed to manage the delicate balance between a nascent industry and legacy academic institutions. Moreover, having the presidents of each club as a board member ensures each university has a voice at the table. This better aligns the common efforts toward the goal of accelerating blockchain education. Finally, since most universities do not accept cryptocurrency-based donations, establishing a 501(c)(3) nonprofit was the only way to guarantee donors tax deductions when they donate cryptocurrency to tangible blockchain education at universities. We like to see this as an incentivize-aligned way for wealthy crypto investors to invest in the future of this emerging industry.
Being "501(c)(3)" means that a particular nonprofit organization has been approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, charitable organization. You may deduct charitable contributions of money or property made to qualified organizations if you itemize your deductions. Generally, you may deduct up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income, but 20 percent and 30 percent limitations apply in some cases. Learn more about how donating to a 501(c)(3) can help lower your capital gains taxes here.
Although we currently don’t have the pressing need for a token, we are working toward making our organization fully digital to streamline decision making processes and allocating funds. We plan to launch a voting token by the end of 2020. There will be no monetary value to our token and it will only be available to active members.
Our vision is to become a completely autonomous and self-sustaining incentive-aligned nonprofit, a landmark where passionate people can easily come together to build the future of this industry. Ideally, we aim to grow BAF to a self-sustaining machine able to operate with little central administration, guidance, or leadership. We see BAF as the prototype for a new model of organizations and we are working hard to make this model scalable and replicable.
If your university-affiliated blockchain club is interested in becoming BAF’s next partner organization, please fill out this form (It’s not complete). Check out our membership page if you wish to learn more about the benefits your club will gain from joining BAF.
Email info@baf.network to schedule a call to learn more about the best ways to engage students and faculty to join the blockchain revolution!
Yes! We believe in a world of many blockchains and are most interested in the benefits blockchain can provide rather than unproductive tribalism.
BAF or any member of its team does not provide any financial advice. Please do not contact us with this sort of request.
We are proud members of She256’s Coalition for Diversity that is formed around the thesis of bringing data-driven changes to the blockchain community to encourage a diverse and inclusive ecosystem. We believe decentralization will only come to fruition if the movement is composed of people from all genders, color, economic backgrounds, and walks of life. Despite the industry's overwhelming white male majority, we work hard to ensure the majority of our speaker events are composed of at least 50% women and/or underrepresented people.
The majority of our management team is based in Santa Barbara, California; however, we have board members distributed all across California and Mexico.
