📚 Blockchain in Education
Today's Highlights
- Blockchain and Education
- Today's Infographic
- In Other News - a few interesting developments we're tracking.
Verifiable Credentials
One of the challenges with today's education system is the difficulty is assessing a student's proficiency in specific skills being taught. Blockchain and Web3 introduce the concept of verifiable credentials that can be a potential solution to this problem.
A student can store his or her credentials as badges, commonly known as POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol), as a portfolio on the blockchain. Since the credentials are on the blockchain, they are easily verifiable meaning they can be trusted. This allows for the credentials to be easily transferable and accepted anywhere that its needed for.
Open Badge Passport and POAP.xyz are services that allow for users to store their credentials on a blockchain as a portfolio. Whenever credentials are awarded, they will automatically be stored in the portfolio a verified badge. For example, a teacher can award a credit for the student mastering a certain skill onto each of their students’ accounts on the blockchain.
So how are the badges on these services verifiable? They all use the Open Badges format, which is the world leading format for digital credentials and badges. Badges on this format get verified by first looking into the issuer of the badge. If the issuer is legit for the type of badge they are trying to issue, then they verify the badge class to make sure that the class actually teaches the skills necessary for the credentials. Then all that is left is awarding the student with their badge by putting it on a blockchain, giving them full control on how to use the credential.
Verifiable credentials will change education and future employment as the world knows it. It will not be “how smart is this person?” anymore, but instead “What makes this person smart?”