We’re thrilled to announce that Michigan State University (MSU) will be adopting the EdgeCloud platform for AI research, joining University of Oregon as the second US academia customer. MSU’s Secure and Intelligent Things (SEIT) Lab, directed by Associate Professor Qiben Yan, will leverage Theta’s decentralized GPU infrastructure to drive innovation in AI, cybersecurity, and distributed systems.

As a major Tier 1 research institution, Michigan State University adds a new dimension to Theta’s academic collaborations in the US. EdgeCloud will soon expand its US cloud-based GPU infrastructure with locations in California, Texas and the Midwest. June 2025 will also see the release of the Beta of EdgeCloud’s fully hybrid cloud-edge computing platform, incorporating an edge network of over 30,000 edge nodes operated by community members globally. The US and North America account for nearly one-third of these nodes, providing significant synergy to US-based customers.

About Professor Qiben Yan and the SEIT Lab

Professor Qiben Yan, the director of MSU’s Secure and Intelligent Things (SEIT) Lab, is a renowned expert in IoT security, AI privacy, blockchain resilience, and cybersecurity. His lab conducts pioneering research on safeguarding connected devices, systems, and networks from advanced cyber threats. Professor Yan’s work has been featured in top conferences, including USENIX Security, ACM CCS, and IEEE TIFS, and his projects have earned prestigious funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

“Theta has achieved significant customer traction in Asia with some of the top South Korean universities like KAIST and Seoul National. They’re our respected peers in the academic circle and we’re excited to have SEIT Lab join Theta EdgeCloud’s platform. We believe that EdgeCloud can help us scale various AI projects that require high-performance computing cost efficiently. We think in the long-term this will help us push the boundaries of decentralized technology as we expand research in secure, intelligent systems for IoT and AI applications.” — Professor Qiben Yan

The SEIT Lab specializes in developing secure, intelligent systems for IoT and AI applications, with an emphasis on distributed systems, federated learning, and blockchain-powered platforms. Recent achievements include an NSF-funded project on adversarially robust AI for speech recognition and groundbreaking research on secure transaction frameworks for smart contracts. Prof. Yan’s leadership has positioned the SEIT Lab as a hub for innovative solutions in cybersecurity and decentralized computing.

Advancing AI and Blockchain Research

By adopting Theta EdgeCloud, the SEIT Lab gains access to a decentralized cloud platform that enables efficient training and deployment of AI models. EdgeCloud reduces the time required to spin up GPU resources by up to 5x compared to traditional cloud providers, accelerating research in secure AI, federated learning, and blockchain-powered systems.

This partnership strengthens Theta’s growing academic network, which includes top-tier universities in the United States, China and South Korea. These collaborations underscore Theta’s commitment to supporting academic research tackling complex challenges in media, healthcare, bioinformatics, and finance.

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During yesterday’s Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, the topic of cryptocurrency barely came up. However, the one mention it received related to anti money laundering (AML). He confirmed he does not see the need for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is in favor of the independence of the Federal Reserve.

On the topic of AML, Democrat Senator Ben Luján asked whether Congress will have more transparency over suspicious activity reports at FinCEN. Mr Bessent replied, “There is a sleeve of Treasury called TFI, terrorism finance, that deals with this within FinCEN. And I believe that we have to have a 2025 approach to – as you and I talked about – digital currencies and all branches of government. So yes.”

Senator Blackburn quizzed Mr Bessent on CBDC, to which he responded that he sees “no reason” to launch a CBDC. He argued that in other countries, there may be fewer options for parking cash.

There’s been some media coverage that President Trump wants to be involved in Federal Reserve decisions. When asked, Mr Bessent said, “I think on monetary policy decisions the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) should be independent.” While this is a supportive statement, we’d note the caveat ‘on monetary policy decisions‘.

The incoming Treasury Secretary said he believes Mr Trump’s comments on the Fed may have been misconstrued in a “highly inaccurate Wall Street Journal article”. His gist is that Mr Trump is entitled to express his opinion on where he’d like to see rates, as various Senators do from time to time.

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