Four ways Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, can change education
A new study highlights how blockchain technology can be a game-changer in education.
13 January, 2018
Bitcoin representation (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images). Rutgers University students. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)
<p></p><p class="p1">A fascinating report highlights another potentially game-changing use for <strong>blockchain</strong>, the technology propelling cryptocurrencies like <a href="http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/is-now-the-right-time-to-invest-in-bitcoin-or-should-you-stay-away" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> and <a href="https://www.ethereum.org/" target="_blank">Etherium</a> that have taken the stock market by storm. Can blockchain transform <strong>education</strong> like it has the financial sector? </p> <p></p><p class="p1">The report comes from the <span class="s1">European Commission's <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Joint Research Centre (JRC)</span></a> - </span>a science and knowledge service that has scientists conduct research to advise EU policy-makers. The JRC looked at case studies carried out at European Universities and came up with specific ways blockchain can impact education, a process the researchers themselves admit is in its “infancy”.</p> <p></p><p class="p3"><span class="s3">How does blockchain work? Like authors Don and Alex Tapscott from the Blockchain Research Institute <a href="https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/" target="_blank"><span class="s4">explain</span></a>,</span><span class="s2"> “the blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”</span><span class="s5"> <span> </span></span> </p> <p></p><p class="p5">This revolutionary distributed ledger technology for data management uses networks of nodes, with all data not stored in any single location but instead spread out between millions of computers at the same time. Basically, everyone in a community has a copy of the information and all community members validate updates collectively. The technology can create a self-checking network that is unprecedented in its transparency and cannot be corrupted. Imagine a world where there are no transaction errors and a highest degree of accountability exists. That utopia is the holy grail of blockchain.</p> <p></p><p class="p5">Check out this helpful graphic from <a href="https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/" target="_blank">BlockGeeks</a> for more on how blockchain works:</p> <p></p><p class="p5"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0MDkwMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzE2MjY0NH0.pCygQpBE-jxaVEo81u5ta7yhxUxlm5HwCClPEcP3Upw/img.png?width=980" id="c94e5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="865fc5a058b597a4fa2930b1f8228597" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p></p><p class="p4">So how can you use this for something other than the hyper-fashionable cryptocurrency market? Here are the 4 ways blockchain can remake education, according to the JRC report:</p> <p></p><p class="p5"><strong>1) Blockchain can help eliminate paper.</strong> Yes, those endless tree-killing boxes of files can go. Blockchain can securely and permanently store all records, issue reliable certificates and awards, transfer credits and keep track of learning achievements across a whole lifetime.</p> <p></p><p class="p5"><strong>2) No need for a central authority</strong> to validate certificates. No need for the Ministry of Information. Your college won’t have to send you a copy of your transcript and prove to anyone you have your degree. No more fake doctors, with all diplomas been publicly available and verifiable.</p> <p></p><p class="p5">Intellectual property management would also be simplified - the blockchain will track first publications and citations without requiring some supervising authority to do the heavy lifting. This can also help the author of the cited work to get paid automatically.</p> <p></p><p class="p5"><strong>3) Educational institutions will save money.</strong> Since the people participating in the blockchain all have ownership and control over their own data, schools and colleges would “<span class="s6">significantly reduce” the cost of data management as well as legal costs arising from liability issues.</span></p> <p></p><p class="p7"><span class="s2"><strong>4) Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will simplify payment systems</strong> in institutions. Think not waiting for your financial aid to be approved and transferred - it could happen instantly as you apply. And custom cryptocurrencies may be created to fund grants and vouchers.</span> </p> <p></p><p class="p9">To advance the cause of applying blockchain tech in education, the report recommends more investigation into the matter for specific cases, setting up an EU-wide label for “open” educational records, the formation of an expert committee and agreeing upon standards for how the technology will be employed.</p> <p></p><p class="p9">If you’d like to see the full JRC report, you can check it out <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/blockchain-education" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> <p></p><p class="p9">--</p>
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Elon Musk Is Now Linked to the Mystery of Who Invented Bitcoin
Did Elon Musk invent Bitcoin? The mystery surrounding the creator of the world's most popular cryptocurrency deepens.
23 December, 2017
Credit: Getty Images
<p></p><p class="p1">Bitcoin has taken investors for a ride in 2017, its price rising astronomically from less than a $1000 per coin earlier in the year to peaking at $20,000 by its end. It has its <a href="http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/is-now-the-right-time-to-invest-in-bitcoin-or-should-you-stay-away" target="_blank">share of detractors</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/22/bitcoin-plunges-below-12000-on-coinbase-as-rout-accelerates-now-down-40-percent-from-record.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">a recent price drop</span></a> of 27% of its value underscores the unknowns and the volatility inherent<span> to</span> this 21-st century currency. Regardless, one person who probably benefited tremendously from the cryptocurrency's booming popularity is its inventor, <a href="https://qz.com/1159188/bitcoin-price-approaches-20000-making-satoshi-nakamoto-worth-19-4-billion/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">becoming</span></a> the world's 44th richest person on account of owning around a <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/12/12/bitcoin-satoshi-trillionaire/#lyLMHKB5mZqV" target="_blank"><span class="s1">million bitcoins.</span></a> The only problem is, we don’t know who that person is, or if they even exist at all.</p> <p></p><p class="p1">The mystery surrounding the creation of Bitcoin is one of its unique characteristics. In 2008, someone named <strong>Satoshi Nakamoto</strong> published a <a href="https://bitcoin.com/bitcoin.pdf?utm_source=get-started&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=info&utm_content=how-bitoin-transactions-work" target="_blank"><span class="s1">paper online</span></a> titled <em>“Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.</em> The paper, posted to a cryptography mailing list, described how the digital currency would work.</p> <p></p><p class="p1">In 2009, Nakamoto released software for the currency, which utilized the concept of a <strong>blockchain </strong>as its core design component. The invention of the blockchain is an influential achievement in its own right as this technology, that uses a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_ledger" target="_blank"><span class="s2">distributed ledger</span></a><span class="s3"> to record transactions between two parties in a verifiable and permanent way, has been adopted by other cryptocurrencies and is now even <span class="s1"><a href="https://www.siasat.com/news/dubai-plans-become-worlds-first-blockchain-powered-government-1285518/" target="_blank">powering governments.</a></span></span></p> <p></p><p class="p1"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0MDY3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjA4Nzg0M30.Lrxp5Z1w4y4BhSRoaJPumk-dRIKckYY_BIjLuHbXpFk/img.jpg?width=980" id="b0f2f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="493f4ad7ba24712b8b87bc2b108b486c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p></p><p class="p1"><span class="s3"><span class="s1"><em>A man looks at ATM machines (L and R) for digital currency Bitcoin in Hong Kong on December 18, 2017. (Photo credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)</em></span></span></p> <p></p><p class="p1">While he was so instrumental to the existence of bitcoin, also creating <a href="https://bitcoin.org/en/" target="_blank">bitcoin.org</a> in 2010, who Satoshi Nakamoto really was never became clear as all communication with him was online. In his profile, he claimed to be a Japanese man born in 1975, yet his perfect English had many doubting whether this identity was true. A number of people were pinned as being Satoshi Nakamoto over the years, like the Australian academic <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/5/11595904/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity-craig-steven-wright" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Craig Steven Wright</span></a> but no one theory about him stuck permanently.</p> <p></p><p class="p1">One person who could have created Bitcoin? Elon Musk. The notorious entrepreneur is so known for starting iconic and transformative tech businesses that eventually the internet pointed its finger at him. In fact, a <a href="https://hackernoon.com/elon-musk-probably-invented-bitcoin-9d6c7b7f9c3b" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Medium post</span></a> by the former SpaceX intern Sahil Cupta pointed out a number of factors that could have connected Elon to Bitcoin.<span> </span></p> <p></p><p class="p1">As proof of the fact that the SpaceX CEO could have done it, he cites Musk's polymath ways, with extensive knowledge in many varying fields like economics, cryptography and programming. Gupta also singles out the language of the original paper as similar to Elon’s, even conjecturing that the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” sounds made-up and could really be an anagram for the phrase “So a man took a shit” - the kind of less-than-adult humor Elon is sometimes prone to.</p> <p></p><p class="p3"><span class="s4">Responding to Gupta, Elon Musk <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/28/elon-musk-denies-he-is-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">flatly denied</span></a> he created Bitcoin, sounding quite dismissive of the whole thing. “</span>A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is,” he claimed in a tweet, as if to say it’s something that doesn’t even cross the field of his attention.</p> <p></p><p class="p3"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0MDY3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTI3NjIwM30.BcxLcxyG_gUZ1YMMkMBMZUCrCF8G8axXR49khVNXBdg/img.png?width=980" id="00ee6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e86fb2810ced6ff6299711de55c2379" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p></p><p class="p3">Surely, Musk is just the kind of person to create a world-changing technology on a lark and stay silent about it out of some conviction or simply because of not being sure if it would work. But for now, we’ll have to live with his word that it’s not him and wonder if the real Satoshi Nakamoto will ever stand up.</p>
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