After all this investigating done for the last year or so, I have grown more and more certain about the great possibilities and big revolution the blockchain can be for education and other social ecosystems.
There was a night when all this new information started to connect with what I know about education. Mainly what is wrong with education and also a started to see some light on what a game changer Blockchain really is.
Some of this ideas are not completely original, and Blockchain is way to “young” for anyone to know what is even possible. That’s why I’m more and more convinced that a project in education done right can be a real game changer.
Bitcoin as the original Blockchain was born during the 2008 crisis almost like a response to a failing centralized failing economy, that is in control of some reckless entities. Education is definitely a failing centralized system, also control often times by reckless entities. In the case of education seems harder to see the failures since this is a XVII century system design to serve what was called the modern state, and the factory production system. Parking kids all day long so the parents can produce and educate them enough to participate on that system that requires a subjugated will more than what we would consider an educated person. All this while failing at preparing people in their difference or potential, politicizing the matter and somehow leaving every player dissatisfied. And all this without forgetting how it failed preventing the holocaust or even slavery. Being declared Dead by Adorno during the XX century.
I think this situation can be addressed by blockchain, and the ability of giving value that blockchain has. We can give identity to everyone and assign them a “currency that could be only exchange for education”, but allowing the educational institutions to exchange it for other values, and add other players to the game that can participate of the market of education without extortion and in a real free way. We can decentralized education, and have it all over the place using AI, smartphones, VR, regular schools, adding actors already invested like Sony or the different governments, subtracting the negative pressures, freeing the possibilities and really working on transparency and an even field. Without having every part able to access every corner of the information, but what’s relevant for the exchange of value. understanding value in a very new way too. This could aloud things like the Declaration of Humans Rights to be more realistic by not depending on the governments to structure the access to basic rights that could then be accessed with a $20 cellphone(in 3 years), an identity, food credit, education credit, access to resources, relevant information and alert… Very unrealistic sounding right now. But Bitcoin is $5,967 as I write this and you can buy in more than 50,000 stores with that money.
And what’s most exciting is that this is going to affect everyone, but the revolution is coming and it should go first for the people in the worse situation, the people in need and the most abused by our current system. System that we keep just because is favoring some.
This whole thing might look like castles in the air, but there is baseline of freedom and justice that powers the movement and I think the least we should do is riding the wave but actually standing on the board and stirring on the right direction.
We cannot be even sure if it’s a good idea yet. And every paragraph has a lot to unveil in terms of technology, but also in educational theory and impact analysis. It’s so powerful that we all should be a little intimidated.
Well, tell me what you think!