Blockchain & Education, a handy Combination!
The Rise of Blockchain Technology around the world has been pretty amazing and heartening to see, personally as a Developer. What started with a whitepaper from Satoshi Nakamoto has grown into something, that very few of us had imagined. In the current landscape, Blockchain is just not limited to the implementation of Cryptocurrencies, it’s expansion is growing day by day to various industries around the world like Finance, Real Estate, Energy, Supply Chain, Healthcare, Food etc.
Why is Blockchain Technology needed in the Education Industry?
Recently there have been cases of student, degree data breaches in the industry after finance and healthcare industries, which results in students/schools/colleges suffering in one way or the other, lack of transparency of data has affected a lot of Industries and, Surprise Surprise, the story with the education industry remains the same. With technology changing so rapidly, there are new advances almost every day, I feel Blockchain can come in really handy in preventing such things from happening, streamlining all processes. But the big question is, How can Blockchain contribute and change the way we look at Education? this is indeed the most interesting part of this blog, so BRACE YOURSELVES!
How can Blockchain revolutionize the Education Industry?
There are plenty of potential use cases that come to mind when we talk about Blockchain & Education. I am going to list the most logical, popular ones.
Storing Student Data, Degree
This is one of the most obvious use cases that come to mind when we think of Blockchain. There have been cases happening around the world where students get admission in “so-called” fake universities, they get shut down due to obvious reasons and poor innocent students who are still pursuing their course have to start all over, after wasting their precious time and money.
That’s where Blockchain can play a major role, if all student data including credentials, course credits, certificates, grades, etc. can be stored on Blockchain then even if a student has to leave his/her University/College in between, he/she can easily continue from the same point, since all data is validated, encrypted and distributed.
Also forging degrees has become common in many places with the help of skilled forgers, so Blockchain can be really useful in handling this problem.
Learning Machine is a startup that has partnered with MIT Media Labs to solve this problem by launching a BlockCerts Tools Set. There are many other companies doing some really innovative work in this space.
Prevent Institution Level Frauds
As I mentioned above there are many Fake University cases that come to notice. But what if we can prevent this from happening from the first place where we have a Blockchain Network which stores University level digital identities in Blockchain. Since it’s transparent and distributed so each student applying can get that information, verify it and take the admission if he/she feels satisfied.
Civic is a company which is into digital identity management on Blockchain, and there are many other’s joining in on this use case.
Cloud Storage
Many Colleges and Universities provide online cloud storage services to students & faculty, to promote collaboration, provide exposure to cloud-based services. But services like Dropbox and AWS charge a hefty price for this usage, and this price is eventually added up in student’s fees. I feel Blockchain-based storage services is the way to go as it can bring down the cost of storage services drastically.
Companies like Filecoin and Sia are leasing out unused hard disk space in exchange of payment in cryptocurrencies
Challenges & Suggestions
Now let’s discuss the challenges in the adoption of Blockchain Technology in the Education Industry. First of all if we talk about any education system globally, there are a lot of Regulatory Bodies involved, so they need to be made aware about the pain points that exist today and how Blockchain can come in and play a part, and not just for the sake of it, but for real use cases that I mention above. Secondly, all respective institutions need to come on board with the idea and in order to scale it, we need that kind of infrastructure to develop such applications.
I would suggest that we define a goal, by a mutual agreement and slowly move towards it by organizing various workshops, creating awareness among the stakeholders, developers to catch their attention on to this.
I really believe that Blockchain is the way to go ahead, and as we can see people are adopting it some or the other level, various companies have been doing tremendous work in this space, and this will only increase as time passes.
Thank You guys, for sparing your precious time and reading this blog, hope you find this blog insightful and encouraging. I will come up with more such blogs in the future. Do give your honest feedback and don’t forget to Clap:)!!
