Taplin, operating under the name Carbon Copy Assets, was launched by two UC professors: Michael Jones, PhD, director of the Kautz-Uible Cryptoeconomics Lab in the Digital Futures research building, and Jordan Tate, professor of fine arts at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Tate is moving away from daily business operations; however, both continue to jointly hold the technology’s patent.
The team’s goal is to address the complex verification requirements for maintaining scholarship eligibility. It’s a process that proves challenging for students to document, ranging from situations such as event attendance to letters of recommendation.
Jones and Tate joined forces and applied as a cohort to the Venture Lab program at the UC 1819 Innovation Hub, where they received $115,000 in seed funding. The startup’s core technology allows users to tap their phone at a physical location to verify their presence. First built to help scholarship students track volunteer hours, the technology soon revealed far broader potential.
