Part 1 - The problem

While there is a tendency in associating the blockchain with risky yet potentially high-return investments, the distinctive traits of this technology can be used to radically transform society in many ways. Beyond the price action lays a chance to empower the common people by eliminating the financial middlemen and centralized authorities that act as a barrier between the users, thus creating communities where wealth can be redistributed following fair, public, immutable rules.

One of the many fields that can be completely disrupted by the use of blockchain is Education, a critically important sector that suffers from multiple problems that can be solved, or at least attenuated, by technology suited to collaborative communities. Fixing these problems may have immeasurable positive results for generations to come. Here are some of these problems:

For many people, the economic effort required to access the knowledge they need is the first and the last barrier. This is particularly bad in countries with problems regarding the use of fiat money, starting with the estimated 2,500 million people without access to a bank account. Education should be universal.

For those who can afford education, lack of motivation is usually at the front of the causes of failure. A proper education takes time and effort, and there is a need to incentivize the students, many times struggling to believe that the final goal of education, which is often a job, will become a reality.

There is also a common lack of motivation among the teachers themselves. There should be a way to incentivize and reward the teachers who truly commit to their work, allowing them to measure the fruits of their work both for the benefit of the student and for their own.

At the core of all these problems lays a massive disconnection between the Job market and the Educational Market. It is especially painful in the technological field, where a huge need for properly trained workers paradoxically coexists with a great number of students that find themselves unemployed after graduating.

Part 2- Tutellus: The solution

Tutellus.com is an online educational collaborative platform working since 2013, with 1 million users in over 160 countries, and 130,000 video-courses. It is the leading EdTech platform in the Spanish-speaking market. Tutellus.io is the evolution of Tutellus.com, a decentralized platform where users can make money depending on their activity: the more they learn and teach, the bigger their rewards.

This is achieved by creating an independent financial ecosystem built on the NEM blockchain, using a dual token system. The tokens, TUT and STUT, provide a vast range of functionalities fully supported by the soon to be released new version of the core engine of NEM, Catapult 2.0

The STUT token quantifies the educational value given by the user to the rest of the community. It is earned by doing actions that prove that the user is teaching or learning, or helping other users to do so. A 'proof of learning' and 'proof of teaching' sort of system. It is built on an internal, private NEM blockchain, which makes possible extremely fast transactions -thousands in a second- at zero cost. An excellent option for a relevance, reputation, or proof-of-effort system. The STUT token lacks transactional value, being used to value the worth of the user to the community. It cannot be bought or sold, only earned through effort.

The TUT Token is a fully tradable token, running on a decentralized, open, self-sustaining public NEM blockchain, that acts as the currency of a reward point system. The system will redistribute the wealth of the community by payments in TUT tokens, divided among the users depending on the number of STUT tokens held. This way, those who have contributed the most to the platform will be rewarded for their actions. TUT tokens can be bought during the ICO, and later will be available on Exchanges. Ultimately, it will be the law of offer-and-demand on the markets what will decide how significant are the rewards.

In addition to the basic structure rewarding teachers and students, two features are added

A scholarship scheme will use the same infrastructure, with donations injected in a modified version of the reward system. The source of the donations will be NGOs and Foundations, as well as an internal pool, to incentivize specific topics or locations with economical problems. Since it follows a public blockchain, the entire process will be fully auditable, open, and secure.

Finally, the system will be used to close the gap between the Educational and the Job markets. The STUT token will be associated with skills, in multiple levels, going to as much detail as needed, leveraging on the possibilities of NEM's Catapult core engine. Companies will be able to use the blockchain to get highly-customized profiles, and the perfect match for any job position. They will also be able to select a number of micro-skills, and create a fund to train people in them.

This is the solution we offer for the chronic problems Education has endured for many years. We believe that blockchain will be a turning point in the history of this sector, among many others, and it is time to be an active part of the upcoming evolution! Click here to learn more!