Blockchain is now an omnipresent term. While it excites some people, many people actually get intrigued by it. So, in this post, let us explore the application of Blockchain Technology in Education.
What is Blockchain?
According to euromoney.com, “Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system.”
Think of it as a ledger of things, only that no one can alter its contents once recorded. That is exactly why it excites people in every industry which wish to prevent counterfeit products – be it in industries, NFTs, banks, etc.
How Is the Use of Blockchain Technology in Education Possible?
It is an open secret that many people in India take the utmost disadvantage of unemployment and sell counterfeit(fake) degrees and certificates. While the law enforcement agencies try to prevent this from happening, the reality is they still work without much hindrance with a steady demand(probably even growing) for their “services”.
This has made it very difficult for Educational Institutions and employers in identifying genuine documents.
Blockchain technology can be applied in such a scenario where an institute can issue blockchain-enabled certification to its students and affiliated institutions so that its authorization cannot be faked by malicious elements.
The security and privacy of a student may also be protected by giving them a blockchain-enabled document-issuing system that can neither be traced nor be transferred to someone else. So, one person’s marks card remains their marks card.
Advantages of Blockchain Technology in Education
As seen above, Blockchain has immense capacity to ensure good quality in education and training and in maintaining the genuineness of the certificates a candidate possesses. This helps to improve trust between the students, employers and educational institutions and avoid any misuse of any such documents.
So, we would be one step ahead in battling counterfeit in education.
Disadvantages of Using Blockchain Technology in Education
There is only one disadvantage, as I can think of at this moment. Blockchain passwords, once lost, cannot be retrieved. So, clumsy and forgetful students have a risk to lost access to their own documents forever. Hence, utmost care is to be taken in training all the stakeholders so that they may preserve their precious documents.
So, blockchain technology in the field of education is an exciting and growing field, which may add more applications as innovations come up. I think that the advantages here overweigh the disadvantages. With proper training and appropriate grievance address system, the ill effects from the disadvantageous situations could be mitigated without much confusion.