01Flagship initiative
MISSION:BUIDL
A student-builder pipeline connecting curious learners and early founders to workshops, hackathons, mentors, conference access, travel support, and the room where opportunity happens.
Explore the initiativeWest Virginia rooted. Builder focused.
Building the people behind West Virginia's next economy.
WVBF connects students, educators, public leaders, and industry around the technologies reshaping work, infrastructure, security, and opportunity.
WVSU CYBERSECURITY HACKATHON / APRIL 2026Teams → tools → shipped ideas
Education is the infrastructure.
9+campuses engaged
2025year founded
501(c)(3)nonprofit organization
What we are building
Emerging technology should create pathways, not spectators.
The West Virginia Blockchain Foundation is a nonprofit education, workforce development, policy, and ecosystem-building organization. We translate fast-moving technology into practical learning, credible public education, and opportunities people can actually enter.
Rooted in Appalachia's industrial legacy, our work helps communities move from extraction-era thinking to participation in the digital economy.
Our initiatives
Different programs. One talent pipeline.
Each initiative has a distinct role, audience, and identity inside WVBF.
02Signature program
Blockchain Attack Lab
A hands-on cybersecurity simulation where participants investigate how distributed systems fail, make decisions under pressure, and build an incident-response plan.
Host an Attack Lab03Access initiative
BBSN
The Black Blockchain Student Network expands access to emerging technology education through Black student organizations and student leaders. BBSN is supported by WVBF and remains distinct from MISSION:BUIDL.
Understand BBSN
Livingstone College students / WVSU Cybersecurity Hackathon / April 2026MISSION:BUIDL
Access is not a side benefit. It is the program.
Students need more than a lecture about the future. MISSION:BUIDL helps them meet founders, ship projects, enter competitions, attend industry conferences, and see themselves as builders.
- 01 Student-founder roundtables
- 02 Hackathons + builder grants
- 03 Industry mentorship
- 04 Conference access + travel scholarships
- 05 Campus workshops + workforce development
Blockchain Attack Lab
Security education with a pulse.
A team-based tabletop simulation built around real categories of blockchain failure. Participants identify exploit surfaces, assess smart-contract and governance risk, coordinate an incident response, and defend their decisions.
60–120minute formats
Students + teamsadaptable audience
Tabletopno coding required
Documented activity
Student impact, already in motion.
Programs shown here reflect events, sponsorships, workshops, and student support. Campus engagement does not imply a formal institutional partnership.
BUILDER PIPELINE
From first exposure to a shipped project.
WVBF has supported classroom learning, student-founder conversations, hackathon participation, sponsored prizes, and industry access.
WVSU / APRIL 2026
Sponsored the winning cash prize at the WVSU Cybersecurity Innovation Center Hackathon.
Consensus / MAY 2026
Through BBSN, organized the TRAC3R team, including students from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Minnesota, at Consensus 2026 in Miami.
Rare Evo / JULY 2026
Selected the CyberWVU club president to represent West Virginia University at Rare Evo's College Row exhibit in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Philadelphia
Convened a focused roundtable with Drexel University student founders and participants from multiple universities during Penn Blockchain Conference week.
Campuses engaged
West Virginia UniversityWest Virginia State UniversityMarshall UniversityBethany CollegeUniversity of CharlestonWashington & Jefferson CollegeUniversity of Colorado BoulderUniversity of Colorado DenverDrexel UniversityLivingstone CollegeUniversity of Minnesota
Workshops, events, student programs, or documented engagement. Not a claim of formal institutional partnership.Work with WVBF
Turn emerging technology into a program people can use.
Paid engagements fund high-quality education and expand nonprofit student access.
Universities
Bring a workshop, custom module, builder program, or semester-ready curriculum to your students.
Bring WVBF to your campusCompanies + foundations
Sponsor student access, underwrite a program, or build a workforce initiative around measurable outcomes.
Sponsor MISSION:BUIDLPublic leaders
Commission a plain-language briefing on blockchain, AI, cybersecurity, digital assets, or infrastructure.
Request a briefingUniversity workshopsExecutive educationCustom curriculumSpeakingWorkforce programsSponsored student programs
Founder + Executive Director
Shekinah Apedo, Esq.
Attorney · Emerging Technology Educator · Ecosystem Builder
Shekinah Apedo is an attorney and emerging technology educator working across blockchain, AI, cybersecurity, policy, and workforce development.
As Founder and Executive Director of WVBF, she builds programs connecting students, universities, public leaders, and communities to the emerging technology economy.
Marshall University · Fall 2026Beginning Fall 2026, Shekinah will serve as an Adjunct Professor in Marshall University's Lewis College of Business, teaching Introduction to Blockchain through the One Credit Wonders program.
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