The Immutable Research Institute

As blockchain networks gain utility they are coming under more scrutiny than ever by lawmakers and regulators.  Members of the blockchain community will need to expand existing organizations and start new organizations to organize community members and educate government agents and legislators.

We are in the process of forming a non-profit entity tentatively named "The Immutable Research Institute" (IRI) to organize such activities within the United States.  We have retained Gordon Law Group, LTD in Chicago, IL as legal counsel that is preparing our corporate filing.  We should be able to begin activities in good faith as soon as our paperwork is filed.

The mission of our organization will be to educate the public about blockchain technology and advocate for good regulatory frameworks that support the industry. We will be proceeding on this mission with or without Catalyst funds but getting funds from the Treasury will give us a longer runway for success and allow us to produce more documentation that will be useful for the wider community.

IRI will be based out of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, which is the home of the University of Illinois as well as the headquarters of companies like Runtime Verification and Wolfram Blockchain Labs.  Our directors are members of the Champaign Blockchain Meetup group sponsored by the University of Illinois Research Park with ties to the public policy world and traditional finance.  Illinois is a hub of technology and finance in the Midwest United States and has a progressive outlook on blockchain with the Illinois Blockchain Technology Act officially recognizing Smart Contracts as legally binding and immutable blockchains as legally acceptable ledgers.

What will make IRI distinct and valuable in the realm of blockchain advocacy groups is that we intend to focus our regulatory advocacy at State level policy within the United States.  While the US Federal Government has jurisdiction over commerce, the various State governments greater control over property law and contract law.  Focusing efforts on State policy allows easier access to the process since local legislators are closer to their constituents. By engaging in the Catalyst process we have already networked with like-minded groups that are engaged in similar causes.

Catalyst funds will help pay for the legal and administrative work necessary to start a non-profit organization like ours. The bulk of our money will be put toward our legal retainer and anything left over will be used for operational expenses.

While starting a regular corporation is relatively easy in the United States there is much more work involved in justifying a non-profit organization that is exempt from taxes.  However, the benefit is that we will be eligible for more grants in the future and gifts to our organization will be tax-deductible for US Persons.   We will also ask our attorneys to make notes and templates out of our materials so that other groups can use them in their own process for non-profit filing - which will be an important part in fulfilling the mission to expand our positive influence.

We have a set of goals to achieve in the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month timeline to launch our project.

Within 3 months we will have properly filed a non-profit application with the IRS with the help of our legal representatives. This step should allow us to begin activities in good faith, with the expectation that our application will be approved. We have already commissioned the legal memo that will inform this filing and been in talks of the best way to proceed under the law.

Within 6 months we will be ready answer any questions that the IRS may have in regards to the granting of our non-profit status. We will have started engaging in educational activities and building our organization to facilitate more programs. We will also have built bridges with other like-minded organization to promote our educational mission and engage the Cardano Community.

Within 12 months we will be part of a robust network of blockchain advocates that are making a positive impact on the ecosystem. We will be operating quality education programs that helps people understand and appreciate blockchain technologies. We will also provide resources for other blockchain education and advocacy groups to form and help them get involved with our network.

Up until now, we have been operating as an informal Meetup group. With an official organization backing our efforts we plan to build a network of like-minded individuals who can coordinate education and advocacy.  We will be a resource to anyone who wishes to learn more about favorable blockchain policies and put them into action.  We will also seek partnership with the University, corporations, and other blockchain groups that have interest in our mission.

Attached is a video of an event our Meetup group held in partnership with the Disruption Lab at Gies College of Business in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This discussion featured State Representative Keith Wheeler, Ranking Member of the Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, & IT committee and author of the Blockchain Technology Act for Illinois, who talked about ways we could build better frameworks for blockchain regulations. Many more events like this will possible when we have IRI formed as an official organization and the community supporting us.

The Team

Adam Rusch holds a PhD from the University of Illinois in Education Policy where he works as a Lecturer and eLearning Specialist. He is the organizer of the Champaign Blockchain meetup group with a passion for cryptocurrency education and public policy.

Matthew Plomin has been working in finance in New York for over a dozen years. His work has been primarily on fund management, credit risk management, and portfolio management for fixed income mutual funds. He is currently working on mutual fund tokenization and ESG integration issues within structured finance. 

Kris Knigga is a technologist with a decade of experience in the Fintech industry. He currently holds a position engineering infrastructure solutions for an electronic futures and options trading platform.