Blockchain for Education
What is Blockchain?
It is simply tamper-proof logs that are publicly accessible. If you want to know more, please read my previous story A Beginner’s Guide to Blockchain.
Credits : xkcd
Sponsoring Students
This post was sponsored by LiveEdu
Olivia is a thirteen-year-old orphan. She is the brightest in her class. An NGO was supporting her all this while. Due to some internal politics the NGO decided to support Frank instead of Olivia.
How sad! The problem is humans can be biased, you can’t expect them to always act morally. Immoral acts cause corruption in the system. We don’t want corruption. We want our systems to be fair. This can be only achieved if decisions are made solely on logical reasons instead of human biases.
This is where computers come into the picture. Give them instructions. They will do exactly as commanded. They are not biased and don’t have emotions. Can we use this feature to our benefit?
John, Olivia’s School & the NGO can be part of a blockchain network (In other words their computers are interconnected with each other and they share the logs). Every transaction in the network is logged in the tamper-proof system. When John sponsors Olivia, he would be able to track the money he spent. He can be assured that his money was put to good use. He can even ask the computer to sponsor only if Olivia’s performances are good. This can motivate her to achieve good grades.
Skill Profile
Credits : xkcd
Olivia has an EduBlock profile(It’s another tamper-proof log of one’s educational accomplishments). She can pursue courses from different institutions, MOOCs, etc. Everything will be reflected in her public blockchain profile.
We have a lot of online MOOC’s that can help us with industry skills. Coursera, EdX, CodeSchool, CodeAcademy, etc. Instead of having individual profiles on these websites, Edublocks allows you to maintain a public profile on the Blockchain. You can learn from anywhere, your achievements will be reflected in your public profile. Employers can go through these profiles to send you job offers.
Skills In Demand
Credits : xkcd
When an employer hires through EduBlocks, it gets logged. Since these logs are public, we can track them to find which skills are in demand. We get real time insights. Presently we have to rely on data provided by companies like LinkedIn. These are not reliable since it could be tampered. Delayed data is inaccurate.
Olivia can benefit from reliable data, she knows in advance which course will guarantee her success.
Publishing Research Papers
Credits : xkcd
Olivia submitted her research paper to a journal for publication. It has been six months, she has no clue about its progress.
Blockchain can enable Olivia to send her work to a small set of audience. Get their feedback real-time. These audiences can upvote or downvote their peers work. The more upvotes it gets, it will be pushed to a larger audience (Medium stories reaches a wider audience based on claps).
Olivia’s paper on cryptocurrency gained a lot of attention. She was offered an internship at Microsoft.
Educational Platforms
Credits : xkcd
LiveEdu is working on a Blockchain based learning platform. They connect different participants like content creators, learners, API developers, moderators, etc. You can register on their platform and learn from industry experts.
You can purchase EDU tokens from LiveEdu. These tokens can be used for various purposes like downloading course materials, requesting custom projects, getting replies from the content creator, etc. The more you learn, the more you earn. You earn EDU tokens for watching project videos, submitting project suggestions, inviting friends etc. You also get rewarded for being a community moderator. You get rewarded for quality assurance activities such as reporting bugs, content moderation, etc.
LiveEdu incentivises its content creators. They receive EDU coins for creating content. The more learners engage with the content the more its creator is rewarded.
We are still in the early stages of Blockchain disruptions. The best use cases are yet to be imagined. Claps Please 👏 😬 . I don’t put my content behind a paywall. If you like my content, you can support me by buying me a coffee.
Follow HackerNoon and me (Febin John James) for more stories. I am writing a book about Blockchain. If you wish to get the pre-release version sign up here. I also recommend one book with every story I write. For this story, it’s Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World. Reading is invaluable. (If you don’t have time for reading checkout Mentorbox).