Friday, Sept. 23, as a concluding event for the 5th Annual Wyoming Blockchain Stampede and WyoHackathon, the University of Wyoming Blockchain Club hosted a free Chancey Williams Concert.
The University of Wyoming is the first division one university in the country to have a degree program in the field of blockchain, offering a minor in blockchain, the study of cryptocurrencies and how they are transacted.
The university also hosts a blockchain club which consists of roughly 80 members who meet weekly and operate a Bitcoin mining operation.
“We were thinking, how do we excite students about blockchain and blockchain technology? We thought, let’s throw an event that gets students together and hopefully they’ll talk about the concert and why it happened, “ Steven Lupien, Director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Initiatives, said.
“It’s all about the students and letting them know the incredible things we’re doing here with blockchain on campus.”
Williams, who performed at the concert, is a Wyoming native and an alumni of the University of Wyoming.
“Everywhere we play across the United States, we always like to represent our state well, because we’re hard workers, and this is the best state,” Williams said. “We tell everybody wherever we travel, we think the world needs more cowboys.”
While the ASUW could provide up to $10,000 to help fund the concert, the weeklong Blockchain Stampede and WyoHackathon, as well as any remaining charges for the concert, will be paid for by private donors.
“The student government here is absolutely fantastic; and clubs get some degree of funding,” Lupien said.
“We’re very appreciative of the university for that, but most of the funding for this came from private donors. Input/Output Global (IOG) Cardano was our title sponsor this year, and a lot of this is happening because of support from industry like that.”
Concert staff reported nearly a thousand students attended.
First responding with an enthusiastic expletive, Cody Meissner, a junior studying farm and ranch management, expressed his review of the concert saying, “It was absolutely fantastic. I never got to see him in person, and plus he’s a graduate and he came here; that’s even better.”
The concert also sparked interest in blockchain.
“I don’t know what blockchain is,” Meissner said, “but now I want to know.”
“I’d be interested in learning more,” Thomas Loyd, a sophomore majoring in criminal justice, said, “I know blockchain does like crypto and stuff; I know there’s a whole lot more that goes into it, so it’d be interesting to get to understand that.”
