Featured by Forbes, CCN and many other enterprise site, this start-up is bringing an innovative twist to how the education system works. On Demand Education Marketplace, abbreviated to ODEM is using the blockchain technology to change the way students can pursue education as well as to how educators can teach.

What is ODEM?

ODEM is an online platform that works on the blockchain technology to bring together students and educators, learning and teaching, on the basis of a smart contract. It allows educators to create their own content; anyone who feels that they need to learn the set syllabus by some educator can engage in its learning process by signing a smart contract with the educator. ODEM is the first decentralized education marketplace that provides education programs which can be customized by the users.

The start-up is meant to broaden the reach of quality education at lower prices.

Why the need?

Education processes today are the same as were followed almost a hundred years ago. At the higher education level, students are to enroll in universities which take about 4 years to grant them a degree. It is often the case that universities are not able to equip their students with skills needed in real time, and at times, the curriculum and the teaching strategies at these institutions are outdated, so when a student leaves university, he finds himself lagging with the career-establishing needs.

Not only that, today, universities can only be availed by the well-off of the society. Education is emerging as a business and with the high tuition and other fees, quality education can only be afforded by well-off people. Lets not forget the burden of student loans that students need years to pay off.

Using the blockchain technology, ODEM wishes to eliminate intermediaries (universities, entrance exam organizations e.t.c) and let students establish a direct learning opportunity with the educator. Moreover, it will allow students and professionals alike to take up any learning event relevant to their career or interest. They will be directly interacting with their teacher for any curriculum, and will also be rewarded with a degree at the end of the program.

Technical Infrastructure

ODEM infrastructure is based upon the use of dApps, ODEM Cloud and its token – ODEM-T.

Education at ODEM will work on smart contracts. An educator will create his/her own curriculum and will stake his/her ODEM-T to offer the program. Students interested in the program will stake their ODEM-T to show their commitment and enroll in the program. Once the requirements of the program set in the smart contract are fulfilled, the smart contract issues the student(s) educational certificate(s). These certificates are digital in nature and are owned by the student. They are made indelible, portable and transferable. Meanwhile the staked ODEM-T are unlocked and the educator (or the service provider) is paid. A detailed map as in the whitepaper of the procedure is shown below:

The dApp’s smart contract links students, educators, and service providers considering educational offerings; it also stores data about participants to assist on decisions about their future engagement in academic programs on the platform. While the ODEM is central; it is meant to:

• Stake tokens for educational offerings

• View other user’s educational data

• View aggregated educational data

• Sponsorship

• Self-locking token for rewards

The ODEM cloud serves as an interface, functioning as a clerk, storing, delivering and updating information and records to teachers and students. Other than allowing students to enroll in courses, it will let them view different profiles and important information regarding their courses, while also letting them to contact other students.

It also gives multiple other services which are mentioned in the company’s whitepaper that you can view it here.

The Token

ODEM-T is an ERC20 token, and the ODEM staking architecture is based on adoption of the Ethereum ERC-900 interface. Its (ODEM-T) economic model is based on the Sweetbridge Foundation’s discount-token research.

The token was put for sale on February 17th 2018, and it ended on March 19h. Its pre-sale occurred in December where the token was sold at a discount.

Valued at $0.264799 USD, it is currently ranked 114 on coinmarketcap and also has a circulating supply of 179,107,081 ODE with a total supply of 268,946,131 ODE.

Further details can be viewed here.

Behind the Project

The Chief Executive Officer, Richard Maaghul and the Chief Token Officer, Bill Bayrd both have worked together at Excelorators Inc. Excelarators Inc. also has a major contribution in ODEM by providing it with a network of over 200 professors from top universities.

Progress

The company launched ODEM 1.0 BETA this June and is expected to launch ODEM 1.0 Live this September.