Ex MakerDAO partner pledges $4.2m for DeFi research

Nikolai Mushegian, the former technical partner at blockchain project MakerDAO, donated 3,200 MKR to his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University.

The Pittsburgh-based university is also set to receive another 6,800 MKR over the next 1 to 3 years to research dapps and protocols for Web3, Mushegian said.

Nikolai Mushegian, a former technical partner at the MakerDAO blockchain project, seems to share this opinion.

In a blog post on his website, Mushegian announced that he donated 3,200 of his MKR tokens to his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University.

Mushegian said he donated the money to the Pittsburgh-based university to enable the university to work on DeFi-specific protocols.

While the detailed agenda and a concrete plan of action most likely won't be available until the end of January, Mushegian said that the main use for the funds will be to sponsor master and Ph.D. students working on "a few key areas of research," such as algorithm design and game theory.

Mushegian plans on giving away almost $3 million more to CMU. Mushegian said that the main thing that led him to set up the fund was the increasing "Rent-seeking behavior" from some of the industry's biggest players.

The 3,200 MKR Mushegian paid out on Dec. 31, 2019, was just the first out many donations Carnegie Mellon University is set to receive.

According to his website, Mushegian said that he has "Informally committed" to donate another 6,800 MKR to the university.

The $2.8 million donation won't be a one-time payout like the Dec. 31 one, but will be spread out over the next one to three years, Mushegian said.