We are excited to announce that the University of Basel’s Center for Innovative Finance, a research facility run by Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär, is being awarded a Chainlink Grant to support its Blockchain Challenge. This grant will support a project looking into the utilization of dynamic NFTs to represent real-world assets, with a specific focus on contractual agreements within CeFi and DeFi. 

The University of Basel has been a leading institution of higher learning within Switzerland since its founding in 1460, making it one of the world’s oldest universities. The University’s Center for Innovative Finance focuses on the analysis and practical implementation of blockchain technology. 

This grant will support the 2022 University of Basel Blockchain Challenge, specifically in helping to facilitate the organization and administration of the program as well as going toward a prize pool for the students taking part. 

The team supported by Chainlink Grant has the following goals: 

• Define real-world asset classes that can be represented by dynamic NFTs and deploy a smart contract that can be triggered by real-time events using Chainlink Data Feeds and Automation. 
• Define the customer journey for a peer-to-peer trade between a current and future owner of a real-world asset. 
• Explore how dynamic NFTs can continue to evolve with a real-world asset over time. 

As a research-focused faculty, the Center for Innovative Finance identifies innovative financial solutions that apply blockchain technology to real-world problems and supports the practical implementation of these projects. By supporting the University of Basel Blockchain Challenge in exploring the representation of real-world contractual agreements as dynamic NFTs using Chainlink services, this grant will help drive the development of new hybrid smart contract utility and the adoption of blockchain technology as a whole. 

Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär, Managing Director of the University of Basel’s Center for Innovative Finance, is also the Professor for Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) and Fintech at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Basel. He has a Ph.D. in Cryptoassets and Blockchain economics, and is the co-author of the bestselling book “Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets”. He is also an advisor to the Multichain Asset Managers Association and Blockchain for Europe.

“We are pleased to receive support from the Chainlink Community Grant Program to give our students the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge towards a practical application,” stated Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär. 

The Chainlink Community Grant Program provides financial resources to the many development teams and researchers building a more functional and accessible Chainlink Network. We encourage talented individual developers and development teams to apply to the grant program here, or if you are a researcher and want to collaborate, contact us.

Through the Chainlink Community Grants program, we look forward to continuing to empower Chainlink ecosystem teams and researchers who are both researching and building key tools and infrastructure that accelerate the development of hybrid smart contracts and secure oracle networks. We will continue supporting the community as a key driver of Chainlink’s rapid growth, because only together can we make hybrid smart contracts into the dominant form of digital agreement.

About the Chainlink Grant Program

If you want to learn more about the Grant Program, check out our blog post that further expands upon its goals and the criteria for submission. If you would like to participate in the Chainlink Grant Program, please apply here.