Midwest universities have been playing an integral role in technology since the development of the modern internet and the browser wars. This paradigm has not waivered with the emergence of blockchain technology. Despite the downturn in market prices of top cryptocurrencies, the interest continues to grow amongst the academic communities, led in large part by Chicago students.

When we first set out to launch the DePaul Blockchain student organization we were looking for 25 students to prove the initial concept. Within a week of our first survey deployment we had received 500 responses! More than 90 students, professors, and alumni attended our first meeting and we haven’t looked back. In an effort to expand into the professional community of the Chicago crypto sphere the idea of CUBS was born.

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What is CUBS?

The Chicago Universities Blockchain Summit, or CUBS, is the largest student-run blockchain conference in the Midwest with topics ranging from blockchain scaling solutions, to venture and public investing in crypto, to blockchain use cases. Our speakers include some of the most respected in crypto and blockchain world including:

• Enterprise Panel: Abigail Sirus, IBM, and Kevin Shtofman, Deloitte
• Crypto Custody: Richard Burton, Balance CEO and former ETH Designer
• Crypto in Economics: Dr. Gina Peters, UChicago
• Venture Investing Panel: Peter Johnson, Jump Capital

This event is the result of the collaborative efforts of the student blockchain organizations from Northwestern University, DePaul University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, and University of Illinois at Chicago. Our goal is to connect our student communities with the best resources in the professional blockchain community for an annual day-long event of speaking engagements, workshops, and networking.

Chicago: A global blockchain hub

We are fully committed to building Chicago as the hub of blockchain innovation for the Midwest and also the country. Chicago’s rich history of financial and trading excellence paired with the relentless innovative mindset of its many universities make for a unique ground to create this ecosystem. The city has already established itself as a world leader in trading cryptocurrency through CME Group’s efforts to run the first ever Bitcoin Futures markets.

We are also proud to call Chicago home to our Gold Sponsors Bloq and FRST. Bloq builds and incubates technologies that prepare organizations for a world of multiple blockchain networks, and is led by co-founders Jeff Garzik and Chicagoan, Matthew Roszak. FRST is a Chicago venture-backed blockchain company seeking to provide enterprise level tools to professional cryptocurrency traders. Joining us also as a Gold sponsor is Mousebelt, the only full-service blockchain accelerator in the world. Bringing together the professional community with our fellow students would not be possible without them or our Silver sponsors: Deloitte, CMT Digital, the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Blockchain Institute.

Join us!

Whether you are a first-year student or 10-year veteran of the industry we invite you to come join us on Saturday May 18, from 9 AM to 6 PM, at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for the first ever Chicago Universities Blockchain Summit!

From time to time, we invite industry thought leaders, academic experts and partners, to share their opinions and insights on current trends in blockchain to the Blockchain Pulse blog. While the opinions in these blog posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM, this blog strives to welcome all points of view to the conversation.

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