My boss is hellbent on using the blockchain and NFTs for higher ed. I’m writing this out mostly so I can make sense of it.
Posted by
Mop (aka rburriel)
Jun 2 '22, 21:25
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After a lot of circuitous talk, I finally got to the conclusion that the blockchain amounts to a public open-source virtual wallet in contrast to, say, a corporate wallet like a Microsoft account where you keep your Xbox account. Picture now an open standard instant messaging platform rather than MSN Messenger or AIM or ICQ.
Of course, a corporation can introduce a virtual wallet for higher education (imagine Peoplesoft or Ellucian) but the point is that a corporate wallet is not transportable. Why does it need to be transportable? That brings us to the use case.
In such an open source wallet (i.e. the blockchain) you keep your “tokens” or “badges” (i.e your NFTs) that are yours forever and travel with you in perpetuity. Why? Because these NFTs are your credits. Literally your college credits. The paradigm is this: you take classes from whatever institution and accumulate credits. Once you have accumulated enough credits, you qualify for a degree. You’re no longer locked into a single school or have to deal with transferring credits when you switch schools.
There is actually an existing problem in continuing education today that has to do with accreditation. Other than your resume, how does anyone know what trainings you’ve taken? A number of tech companies give you trainings where you can accumulate credits and get certification (Cisco, Microsoft, etc.) But not all of them. And then there’s also mandatory trainings (IT security, mandatory reporter, CPR, equity and inclusion, that kind of stuff). If you’ve done the training at one employer, shouldn’t you be able to carry that over to your next employer? Again, a corporate wallet could do it, but only if both employers used the same provider.
Heck, I see a use case for this “permanent wallet” in something Slackers were heavily invested in just a few years ago: digital movies. We saw the problem with corporate wallets when UV went under and MA became the standard. What happens when MA decides to close up shop? If the movies in your library each have a unique ID, they each can be tied to your wallet, and they become yours forever, without having to rely on a clearing house like Ultraviolet or MoviesAnywhere to authenticate your “property”. Ditto ebooks or digital music or digital comics or (yes) a fancy custom hat that you can put on your avatar in Fortnite or GTA Online.
So I definitely see the use cases. But it gets dragged down into all this nonsense about crypto and monkeys. I think there’s more traction in language like “open-source wallet” or “transportable wallet”. I think if Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. can get together and agree on a standard, we’re there. Then we can get out of the conversation of “minting NFTs”. When you frame it that way, it doesn’t sound that crazy… or stupid.
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