INTRODUCTION
Academics and schooling have become major components of our lives in relation to the acquisition of knowledge, but what we may have been used to is the traditional classroom settings where students will convene at a place and a teacher will be physically present to impact knowledge. Obviously, this type of setting has many limitations, both in time and in space. This is the reason e-learning systems were initiated; the likes of Coursera and NIIT. Looking at some of these e-learning platforms, you will be required to pay for tution, but how will you like a system where you will study to earn a degree and get paid in cryptocurrency for the completion of certain tasks? I present to you BitDegree.
WHAT IS BITDEGREE?
BitDegree is an e-learning platform created by the trio of Andrius Putna, Arnas Stuopelis, and Roberto Santana and built under the Ethereum blockchain where academics will hold in a gamified process. By gamification, I mean; for every task a student performs in the course of their studies, they will be rewarded with cryptocurrency. One of the good things here is; your academic activities are saved immutably in blockchain, and can be accessed anywhere and anytime. Not only does BitDegree offer incentives for studying, but they provide state-of-the-art educational materials that would provide easy-to-understand procedures on knowledge acquisition. Many great additions have been going on in BitDegree's portal: Just very recently, other languages (Portuguese and Russian) were added to the official English language of the portal.
Just like Coursera I sighted earlier, BitDegree offers different electronic materials to download from, and at every stage, you will be required to take an online test so as to qualify for the next stage. But unlike Coursera, after completing a test in BitDegree, you will be rewarded with tokens. For the reward system, BitDegree is powered by tradable "BitDegree token" (BDG), and it is currently trading on some major exchange sites like HitBTC. Is there a better way of studying than to get paid for studying? I have already made some tokens myself (as shown on the right). Asides getting rewards for studying, you can earn more tokens by referring your friends to study in BitDegree.
BitDegree has recently secured partnership with some big companies like Marketwatch, Huffpost, Mogul etc, to provide employment opportunities for their students with outstanding performance - I'm sure this is what has given them an edge over Coursera. I once undertook a tutorial in Coursera without receiving any incentive throughout my period of study; so I will give BitDegree a plus there - No wonder BitDegree has earned a place in the prestigious StateOfTheDApps ranking.
After your period of studying, the points (which is equivalent to tokens) you earned can be traded for BTC or any other available trading pair, but you can also request for cash-out in the course of your study period. Also, getting started as a student will grant you access to some tokens, but you can purchase more to have higher stakes within the community - just the same way you can purchase Steem to have more Steem Power to create more influence within the Steem community.
GETTING STARTED WITH BITDEGREE
BitDegree works on both mobile and desktop platforms, but like other erc-based Dapps, I will recommend you download Metamask plugin, so you can link your erc wallet with you BitDegree account. To get started, you will need to create an account in the BitDegree portal, and you will be required to fill up the on-screen details; with you biodata, the course of your choice, and the duration of study. This is a decentralized system and the study time is without recourse to anyone; which means, you can study at your own pace.
Apart from a few professional courses that were recently added which come at a very subsidized token fee (basically for online practicals), all other courses are completely free. For every course you study, you will be awarded a certificate at the end of your study period. Another great feature here is; you can choose between video tutorials, pdf formats, or both of them. You can get a list of the courses offered in BitDegree from here. If you are knowledgable in a particular field, you can apply to be an instructor and be paid in cryptocurrency for giving tutorials - so it is not only for students but for teachers as well. I'm sure you want to see a little video overview of what BitDegree represents; here's one for you.
FINAL REMARK
Firstly, I will give kudos to BitDegree for the openness and transparency they have brought to the education system, and for becoming the first platform to fully integrate e-learning system into the blockchain technology. However, there are places I hope to see more updates: The major part of the courses I found in the curriculum are computer/ICT related, it will be good if they can diversify to other courses, so as to reach more users. On the overall, I give BitDegree a rating of 4/5.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is not meant to serve as financial advice, please do your own research.
Images are properties of BitDegree and are used for the purpose of reviews
