Blockchain Technology Research Innovations Corporation
(Just call us BTRIC for short.) SUPPORT OUR WORKOur Mission
Our mission is to identify, foster, research, develop, and launch next-generation businesses that will create a better world. We’re especially excited to tackle projects that advance the Decentralization Revolution, such as cryptocurrencies and tokens, distributed content providers, and Personal Data Store (PDS) to help realize its true potential of dismantling structures of power and control, many that have existed for centuries. We also believe that other technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML/DL), and Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) have great potential to improve humanity, making distribution of social and economic power more fair, more equal, and with more freedom and user control of their own data.
These emerging technologies – and others that will surely come about in the years ahead – make this possible for the first time in history. And it’s just getting underway! We will work with great ideas, promising projects, and exciting concepts and incubate them in our non-profit, charitable organization of a R&D laboratory, keeping them on track and infusing them with best practices guidance expertise, and access to valuable partnerships. When they’re ready, we set them free as independent, investment-ready, viable businesses or non-profits, and let them take on the world!
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BTRIC
What is BTRIC?
BTRIC is short for Blockchain Technology Research Innovations Corporation (try fitting that on a corporate seal). We are a newly-formed 501(c)(3) non-profit economic development organization. We have three main initiatives which we believe are of huge benefit to everyone involved in the emerging technology field:
- BTRIC Innovations Incubator: Our Innovations Incubator program is a business incubation and startup accelerator for emerging technology businesses. Its mission is to identify, foster, promote, and launch businesses that focus on emerging technology. BTRIC provides support in key areas to make sure that great projects can complete their research and development phase, be infused with best-practices guidance, and launch as separate, independent businesses, investment-ready, meeting all applicable legal and regulatory requirements and poised for growth.
- BTRIC Institute: BTRIC Institute is our advocacy, education, and policy development initiative. By working with projects and organizations across our industry, we develop and promote best practices standards and frameworks, provide advocacy and education to policymakers and lawmakers that benefit the entire community, and develop educational programs to inform the public about our field and the transformation it is bringing about. BTRIC Institute will facilitate industry-wide collaboration among business partners and competitors alike to benefit the industry as a whole.
- BTRIC Labs: BTRIC Labs is the part of our organization that focuses on advancing research and development in the emerging technology field. We conduct research and development work in the emerging technology field, especially in areas that are not highly-researched by commercial ventures. We also enable our employees to contribute to open source software projects that are crucial to our industry. Finally, we provide independent infrastructure at-cost to the best projects in our ecosystem.
As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, contributions to BTRIC may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Contact your tax advisor for more information.
What is decentralization and why is it important?
Decentralization is the underlying principle that enables society to be restructured. In the past, and up to the present day in many cases, control is held by a few centralized institutions, be them banks, businesses, the media, and even governments. Decentralization removes these “gatekeepers” and enables everyone to compete on a level playing field. For example, just a few decades ago, all news and information available to most people were from a very small number of sources: a local or regional newspaper, a weekly or monthly magazine, and a few radio and television stations in the area. The Internet changed that, with information flowing instantly from anywhere in the world to everywhere in the world. However, even on the Internet, businesses like Facebook, Google/YouTube, and Twitter have become large centralized services. These businesses, like the news sources of the past, hold enormous power to highlight what they choose, and even more dangerous, to censor what they choose. As corporations, they are driven by a mission to provide ever-increasing profits to their shareholders. In so doing, they may choose to “curate” the information available to the users of their services in a manner that they believe to be favorable for increasing advertising revenue or even affecting public policy to favor their interests. This is counter to a well-functioning society, and decentralization offers a solution to this challenge.
In a decentralized world, there would be many “Twitters”, each operating independently, but working together in concert with all the others. The actions of one of these services would not impact the service as a whole. From the user’s perspective, the experience could be much the same as it is today. However, from an architectural standpoint, decentralized servers would ensure that no party can control the message, selectively highlighting and censoring content. In order to make informed decisions in a representative democracy, voters need access to uncensored information. Decentralized services are one of the best ways to ensure this occurs.
What are crypto assets and why are they important?
Crypto assets are any electronic form of assets. Two of the most popular are called cryptocurrency and tokens. Cryptocurrency, the most popular of which is called Bitcoin, is a way of transfering monetary value between users in a fair way that is virtually impossible to counterfeit. It uses decentralization to establish what is called a blockchain, which is a distributed ledger (like a bank account ledger) that exists on many computers and that is structured in a way that is virtually impossible to tamper with without the tampering being detected and rejected as invalid.
Tokens are similar, except they typically operate on top of a different currency platform. For example, Ethereum enables the creation and trade of tokens on it’s platform. Ethereum is the cryptocurrency, but thousands of types of tokens exist on top of that platform. They can be exchanged with each other. Tokens could be created to represent credits in a store, in place of gift cards, or even to represent assets, such as a bushel of wheat or an ounce of gold. A special form of token could also be issued to represent a deed of a house or some other unique asset.
Together, these are called crypto assets and they are a newly emerging class of financial asset.
What is business incubation and why is it important?
Right now, we’re reaching out to projects that have great potential, and we encourage any project that is interested in exploring becoming part of our Innovations Incubator program to reach out to us. We are also staying abreast of any government opportunities to implement emerging technology projects or research. We also come up with ideas on our own on a regular basis, and some of them might be of the calibre to be incubated into businesses. We want to make sure we can handle the workload, so are being careful as we begin our organization and growth.
After BTRIC launches, we will be developing an application and review process to evaluate projects that want to be a part of the program. Those guidelines, like everything else we do, will be freely available for anyone to review, use, modify, remix, etc.
What is the benefit of having a charitable organization provide this service?
If you have more questions about BTRIC’s Innovations Incubator program you can check out our launch white paper, reach out on Twitter or Telegram (or any of our other social media profiles), or just fill out our trusty contact form. We will get back to you as soon as possible!
Are the incubated projects owned or controlled by BTRIC?
No, when a project has completed our Innovations Incubator program, they are a completely independent, separate, and distinct legal entity. Depending on the project and where it decides to form a business entity, we may serve as its Incorporators during its initial organization period. But once a business has been launched, we, of course, remain in contact and are here to encourage and help them every step of the way, but we retain no ownership of the business. Some projects may come to us already incorporated or formed as a business entity. In those cases, we also do not have any ownership interest in the business.
How do I get involved with BTRIC or one of the projects?
If you’re involved in the industry and you want to get involved, reach out to us. You can also subscribe to our email newsletter on our participate page.
How do I donate to BTRIC?
We accept donations of money, cryptocurrency and other crypto assets, products, services, and even discounted rates (these are called “in-kind” contributions). BTRIC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity so contributions to us are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Consult your tax advisor for more information. Here’s our donation page. And thank you for supporting our work!
What if I have more questions?
If you have more questions about BTRIC you can check out our launch white paper, reach out on Twitter or Telegram (or any of our other social media profiles), or just fill out our trusty contact form. Media inquiries can be directed to media@btric.org. We will get back to you as soon as possible!
