Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., stands out through its bustling student engagement with the blockchain space as well as its contributions to the wider academic conversation.

Stanford has not one but two student societies engaged in the blockchain space, the Stanford Blockchain Club and the Stanford Blockchain Collective. The former was founded as long ago as 2014, when bitcoin only cost a few hundred dollars. The latter counts software developers and blockchain entrepreneurs active from Berlin to Hong Kong among its alumni.

The institution operates its own academic publication focused on the relation of blockchain to society and the state: “The Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law and Policy.” It describes itself as the first law journal to address blockchain in particular and features peer-reviewed work by academics from all over the world.

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It aims to fill “a critical need in the field for a neutral, disinterested and reputable platform to publish high-quality content and to advance discourse.” The academics editing the publication are drawn partly from the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research within the university.

The center works as a meeting ground for researchers in engineering, law and economics and also serves as a platform for students’ education. Its primary purpose is to develop new technologies for application within the blockchain field.

Stanford also held its fourth annual blockchain conference last year. It featured speakers from household names like the Ethereum Foundation and Facebook as well as from universities as far afield as London, Warsaw and Tel Aviv.

California is a natural hub of blockchain innovation too, meaning graduate opportunities and career openings lie within relatively easy distance of Stanford’s doorstep.