TrustEd, an Australian project conceived in 2017, is aiming to put academic credentials on the blockchain. TrustEd are reintroducing honesty, transparency, and efficiency to the storage of education-related data. From a cost perspective, this has wide implications, as government-managed institutions and processes are known to be grossly inefficient.
The purpose of TrustEd
As it stands, each university is a distinct entity with a unique record keeping and accounting process. This system is incredibly inefficient with layers of redundancy. A disparate database is required for each university, and these universities often rely heavily on third-parties for the purposes of database management, examinations, and the validation of academic credentials. This is an additional cost, payable by either the students or the taxpayers. Blockchain has the potential to address all of these issues, the main difficulty being the transition from the traditional model which students, universities, and employers are so familiar with.
TrustEd are one DLT company seeking to optimize this process. They have already partnered with Dubai’s Block Gemini as well as California’s Net Objects. The solution intends to be of benefit not only to universities but also to employers and students. Each party should have the required access to university credentials. Many fresh graduates have to physically scan their results when attending a new role, and up to a third of students in the UK report that their (expensive) courses are of poor value. The TrustEd project is only a year old but has already expanded to the USA. Its ICO begins in January 2019 and it expects to raise USD 21 Million.
Blockchain in academia
When the archaic system of completing exams with a pen and paper has finally been abolished, students will be graded via computer. The online files will then be sent to the correctors who will dispense the grade, automatically recorded on the blockchain (in time, the results will simply be corrected in real-time by artificial intelligence without needing to transfer files to a corrector). Like most industries, DLT and AI are going to completely transform education. Moreover, the cost of third-level education is simply unacceptable, with certain classes having distinct socio-economic advantages.
TrustEd are not the only blockchain-based organization who are seeking to revolutionize a very underwhelming third-level education system. Woolf University is a new decentralized third level education system started by Oxford professors. They are seeking to put the entire educational network on a DLT system including lectures, attendance, fees, module selection, grades, examinations, etc. Instead of trying to integrate DLT into a grossly inefficient model, it could be a better bet to simply create new universities that are designed from the ground up to be purely decentralized.
Digital Nomad with an interest in Zen and Blockchain technology.
Law graduate with 3 years experience as a consultant in the capital markets industry and 4 years experience freelancing on UpWork as a Creative Writer.