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Project Chicago is a new research initiative aiming to explore a question fundamental to all cryptocurrencies: what resources are being exchanged in blockchain markets, and how can we accurately price these resources? Project Chicago is an interdisciplinary effort with top blockchain researchers from around the world, headquartered at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts. You can stay updated on Project Chicago's progress by following us on social media. Project Chicago, a broad cross-university research effort, aims to answer these questions. It aims at a fresh reconceptualization of ways in which cryptocommodities, including blockchain storage, computing, and networking, are managed and consumed. Its goal is to alleviate problems, like volatility, that degrade the utility of blockchain systems. As a springboard for cryptocommodity market creation, we’ve implemented a contract called GasToken. GasToken allows gas in Ethereum to be “banked” in the form of an (ERC20-compatible) token, and released to pay for future transactions. GasToken is a first example of an explicit open market for a cryptocommodity. By enabling users to freely stock and tokenize gas, we open up avenues for trades on surpluses and shortages of gas in Ethereum (i.e., in periods of low or high computation in the network). In turn, such markets may hold the promise of stabilizing gas prices and transaction fees by absorbing part of the uncertainty associated with price movements.

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