MIT's first digital currency director will change his role and is reported to be cooperating with the Bank of England on blockchain projects

Brian Forde, the MIT Media Lab’s first digital currency director, is transitioning to a leadership role in the research initiative, the news will be announced later today.

The former White House senior adviser will move to MIT Sloan School of Management as a senior cryptocurrency lecturer, teaching two classes. Ford said there were many factors that influenced this decision, such as his recent engagement to his fiancée, so he wanted to move back to Los Angeles, and he also wanted to focus on his upcoming book.

MIT’s digital currency initiative, which first debuted in 2015, reportedly took several months to develop, with Ford saying he had been seeking the change since May.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Ford commented that perhaps what he was most proud of was getting students interested in the emerging technology, blockchain, calling it a “top priority” for the digital currency initiative team.

A representative from the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) said that the organization has no plans to select a replacement for Ford. Currently, the head of the MIT Media Lab is still Joi Ito.

Looking back, Ford admitted to some of his more regretful things.

For example, Ford said:

“Looking back, I think we could have done more at MIT and done more good things for the community. But in the early days, we were too sensitive about supporting a role like Bitcoin too much.”

He then mentioned that the organization had difficulty choosing projects to support given the requirements behind the launch of the MIT digital currency initiative. However, Verde said he believed he could prioritize high-impact engagements, including work with the Mexican Ministry of Finance and the Bank of England.

He concluded:

“Those will be the projects that we’ll be able to see the light of day.”