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Fourth of five children, Joe Ferrara ’19 grew up cooking meals and treats for his family. As a teenager, he spent summers tossing pizzas and accompanying tables, imagining a day when he would run his own business. “I really enjoyed seeing people smile and give them the best experiences,” he says.
So it wasn’t a surprise when Ferrara moved to the School of Hotel Administration in her sophomore year in 2016.
But he couldn’t have predicted what would happen after his arrival.
“My brother started talking to me about Bitcoin,” says Ferrara, referring to the cryptocurrency that was creeping into the public consciousness and on the verge of a dramatic rise in value. “I didn’t really know what it was, but it got my attention.”
His enthusiasm for Bitcoin spread to Lynette Ban ’19, a neighbor of Flora Rose House who had also recently moved to the Hotel School. “The more I learned, the more I wanted to try and understand this new concept,” says Ban.
When Ferrara realized that the powerful part of Bitcoin was the underlying blockchain technology, he started asking questions on campus.
“Nobody could really explain it,” he says. “At the time, Bitcoin didn’t have the best reputation and some people would question the technology or even laugh until I talked about what blockchain could do.”
Over time, Ferrara, Ban and other undergraduates from a number of majors and colleges would create Cornell Blockchain, a student club that aims to develop the next generation of blockchain leaders.
Forming a campus-wide club
Ferrara soon discovered that the resources he was looking for were hiding in plain sight. While scouring the internet for blockchain news, he came across an interesting tweet.
“I looked up his bio, and he said he was a Cornell professor,” Ferrara said.
The author of the tweet was Emin Gün Sirer, associate professor of computer science and co-founder of the Cryptocurrency and Contracts Initiative, a consortium of eight major computer science institutions around the world, from London to Zurich – and based at Cornell. Tech.
“We had no idea,” Ban says. “Cornell had this organization of professors and graduate students researching and developing blockchain protocols, but there were no university organizations. This was an opportunity waiting to happen. “
Ban and Ferrara envisioned a campus-wide club that would welcome students from all academic backgrounds. They asked Sirer to serve as an adviser.
“I would have expected someone incredibly technical with a background in computer science to come to me. Instead I brought in these hotel school students who showed great interest in the area, “says Sirer, who had tried unsuccessfully to set up a blockchain club a few years earlier.” They were pretty savvy.
In autumn 2017, Cornell Blockchain held its first meeting. “There was a growing enthusiasm for technology,” says Ferrara. “The price of cryptocurrencies was skyrocketing. We were expecting 30 or 40 people, but 120 came “.
Sirer predicted that 80% would have degrees in computer science or electrical engineering. “But it was all over the map,” he says. “Hotel school students, bio students, economics students and philosophers. It was my first indication that this area was truly interdisciplinary. “
What gives the blockchain field such broad appeal is its decentralized nature. Tech fans argue that the platform will ultimately make everything we do – from banking to buying real estate to mapping a supply chain – more efficient and transparent.
“Each new technology brings with it a little bit of hardcore technology, but also a different set of values,” says Sirer. “The values embedded in blockchain technology are about democratizing business, opening up new fields for new startups, excluding people in office and creating space for newcomers.”
So it makes sense that the hotel school students launched Cornell Blockchain, says Sirer. “Business management is an integral part of the skills taught in the hotel school,” he says. “Students tend to be entrepreneurial. And they also tend to be quite adaptive and quite eager to acquire new technologies. “
A request for blockchain know-how
Ban and Ferrara Hotel School’s experience was put to the test in Spring 2019, when the club hosted its first Cornell Blockchain conference at Cornell Tech in New York City. The conference attracted 250 academics and industry leaders from across the country. The Cornell Blockchain team kicked off the conference by ringing the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square.
“I’m so proud of this,” says Sirer. “We were the first blockchain institution to open Nasdaq, to push that button.”
Ban and Ferrara are now club consultants and work in blockchain startups. Ban’s unlikely background often elicits a surprise reaction at his workplace, the derivatives exchange and the clearing house CME Group.
“Once I explain to them what the hotel school has taught me and the experience I bring, they agree that it’s actually really interesting and much better than the traditional path,” says Ban. “What makes the hotel school truly special is that each class focuses on providing excellent service. And every company aims to provide a service. “How can we ensure the success of your business and our company?” The hotel school teaches it. “
Ferrara works at AVA Labs, a Cornell-based startup co-founded by Sirer that is building a high-performance blockchain facility.
“Joe is all about human processes,” says Sirer. “He is incredibly good at talking to groups of people and describing a technically difficult field with effectiveness and enthusiasm.”
Eric Hu ’20, a biology and economics grad who helped found the club and was president in 2019-2020, works in investment banking at Evercore. “More and more,” he says, “companies try to work with technology and they want people who know something about it.”
Cornell Blockchain today
Xavier Lu ’22, a computer science graduate, and Brian Kim ’22, a linguistics graduate, are the new leaders of the Cornell Blockchain, which now includes 40 college students.
Using LinkedIn Live, members are turning the club’s transcribed Q&A interviews with leaders from blockchain-enabled companies into live interactive virtual events. “Last semester, many club members were interested in blockchain protocols and off-chain interactions, so we decided to look for experts in those fields,” says Kim.
And club members are prototyping a central bank digital currency with the club’s new faculty advisor, Robert C. Hockett, Edward Cornell law professor at Cornell Law School. These currencies are inspired by Bitcoin, but they are different.
“[They] are issued by a central institution and have government-declared legal tender status, “says Lu,” all while maintaining the benefits of a blockchain-based digital currency: low transaction times, low processing fees and anti-money laundering features implied. “
The club’s research and development team will develop a prototype using languages such as JavaScript, while the consulting team will focus on implementation operations and strategy.
Club members continue to represent a number of majors.
“Some may work on the code, some on marketing, and some on the implications of the technology,” Hu says. “Everyone adds to the story.”
This article is adapted from the original by Karen Gross, freelance writer for Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
