The European Union has published a new report on blockchain technology (over 130 pages). In the report, the E.U. hails the tech as having eight major use-cases that could help optimize education in Europe going forward.

E.U. Blockchain Report

During the last couple of years, companies and governments throughout the world have understood that blockchain tech, the technology behind Bitcoin, holds massive potential across a wide variety of industries. This represents the main reason why so many Bitcoin-related research programs have been started in 2017.

Not long ago, the executive section of the European Union concluded a research project, and hence submitted an interesting report on how blockchain technology can be used in the education sector.

The report, entitled “Blockchain in Education,” talks about the challenges, benefits, risks, efficiencies, and feasibility of introducing the technology in schools and universities throughout the European Union. At the beginning, the report mentions that “This exploratory study addresses the value. . .blockchain may bring to stakeholders within the educational sector, with a particular focus on its potential for digital accreditation of personal and academic learning.”

The report contains a total of 13 key conclusions to use cases of the technology in the education industry. These use cases include digital certification, the transfer of university credits, payment transactions, and accreditation:

Blockchain applications for education are still in their infancy The full benefits of blockchain technology are only achieved through open implementations Blockchain may disrupt the market in student information systems Vested interests have an interest in locking down blockchain technology and creating standards based around partial implementations Public private partnerships are necessary to fully exploit blockchain Blockchain technology has the potential to accelerate the end of a paperbased system for certificates Blockchain technology removes the need for educational organizations to validate credentials Blockchain has the potential to release a wave of innovation around learners’ data Self-Sovereign Identities have the potential to significantly reduce educational organizations’ data management costs Blockchain technology enables much more sophisticated systems for reliably tracking usage of intellectual property Educational networks can automate and standardize many of their functions through decentralised autonomous networks Regulation and Standardization may determine the extent and speed of progress People are unaware on the social advantages and potential of blockchain technology

For instance, in the case of university credits, distributed ledger technology would be a great way of tracking how many credits each student has, and an even better way of securely transferring credits, depending on the courses that a student takes in their university tenure.

With added security and more efficiency when compared to other systems, this could be a great use case for DLT, besides cryptocurrencies.

It is important to point out the fact that, at the end of the report, the executive branch of the European Union mentioned that blockchain applications meant for educational purposes as still getting started, hence the technology remains in the beta-mode for this niche. However, as institutional interest in blockchain continues to grow, chances are that we will see the tech being pushed forward in the near-future.

After all, Malta is already beta-testing the technology for academic certifications.

Additionally, other universities are offering blockchain courses, and giving out blockchain-based diplomas, which can be easily checked by employees for accuracy. Diplomas being stored on distributed ledgers allow easier tracking and verification of credentials, thanks to the immutability protocol. In return, this can reduce the number of fraud cases, where individuals create their own fake diplomas using photo editing tools.