How can we Create Interactive Communities through Creative Token Economy?
Learning has to extend beyond what is taught to us in classrooms. We’re not being preachy about education here — it really isn’t feasible for everyone to sit in classes to really learn all they can. For many, affordability is a big factor. It’s why MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are increasingly growing in popularity, as they offer an affordable and flexible way to learn. One’s expertise in a field cannot particularly be determined by the degree, but comes from the practical work they have done, and the peer reviews they get.
Peerbuds aims to provide such an environment, with an online learning system which offers courses from experts and democratizes learning by bringing it the blockchain. By removing dependency on inefficient and often slow central institutions that impede learning more than promoting it, an entirely new, massively interacted community can be created through creative token economics.
The experts here are people who have excelled in their field and are willing to spread the knowledge to others. A Gyan unit is your stake in this economy. Karma is what you get when you teach something. This exchange and reception of knowledge is tracked by a blockchain system — the very system that powers all cryptocurrencies today. What you teach and what you learn is efficiently recorded on to a common ledger — the blockchain — and displayed on your profile. This could be now used by employers and companies to assess your education on an all-round basis.
What is a token economy?
In psychology, the concept of a token economics is used as a reward system for positive reinforcement of desirable behaviour. The same principles can be used in creating an interactive community to promote both learning and teaching. In a modern setting therefore, a token economy implements economic and psychological principles on blockchain technology. According to this system, and in the case of an interactive environment focussed on learning, teaching classes could lead to rewards in tokens, which in turn can be exchanged for money, or anything else of value. The learners themselves can earn tokens on successfully completing a course with high efficiency, to provide incentive for working hard and learning more.
Karma as Tokens
Peerbuds plans to reinvent learning as we know it, by introducing a new token economy to education. As karma is given in forms of weekly payments or rewards, the concept of interactive token economies is a good way to create communities which offer a learning environment. Such a system employs extensive use of the blockchain system. Community Token Economies require the creation of tokens, called Community Tokens, which are modelled after cryptocurrencies, which will be exchanged for services. Each service, in this case, teaching, can be allotted a certain number of tokens, which will be given in form of karma. The economic principles can be programmed into the server to ensure payment on the designated time. These tokens can then be exchanged for rewards, or money.
It is beneficial for the whole community to run on the token economy system, as it not only promotes the idea of teaching, but also ensures that the promised amount will be delivered on time and cause no conflict between the users and the providers.
Blockchain tech provides for the use of a decentralized network, which is controlled by the users, and not a central party. This allows peer to peer transactions, which eliminates the need of compensation to a third party. The people can also employ the use of Smart Contracts, which are agreements between parties and automatically executed.
The use of tokens in the Peerbuds system, using karma and gyan introduces a new, creative dimension to the system of online learning. Taking the use of this methodology further across platforms can enable the making of a new community which works based on token economy. A well organized system can create an interactive community which facilitates learning in all aspects.
Originally published at peerbuds.
