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Bitcoin is volatile. Even so, a growing number of colleges are studying how the technology behind cryptocurrencies could change the way students communicate their academic achievements to employers.
This technology is called blockchain and is a way to preserve digital records that can not be tampered with.
So what are universities already doing to experiment with blockchain?
We recently held an online discussion to explore this question as part of our monthly EdSurge Live series. To help us solve it, Michael Mathews, vice president of technology and innovation at Oral Roberts University and a frequent speaker on the use of blockchain in higher education joined us.
Not everyone is sold if this technology is worth the effort. A cryptographic expert who introduced himself during the session insisted that other, earlier, more common technologies could be used to do the job of helping people share their credentials easily and in a way that is hard to forge. .
Listen to the recording or read a partial transcript below, which has been slightly modified for clarity.
EdSurge: So why do you see blockchain as a transformation technology for education?
Mathews: Here's an example: I get a call this weekend from someone who was an athlete from a different school, and said: "I can not get my transcript, and I need it for a job."
In the old way, it takes eight days to get your transcript. If I invest time and money to earn a degree or a certificate or a diploma, I paid, I invested the time, I should have immediate access to it.
[With a credential on blockchain, a student can bring up a digital record proving their credential instantly, without having to ask the college to do anything.]Blockchain has nothing to do with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. Blockchain should be perceived as internet 4 [a new version of the internet]. It is a secure way to transfer information on the Internet.
Could you give a quick primer on Blockchain?
What is truly new about it and revolutionary is the security of it. If you've ever used an online library, you'll go to a computer, you'll look at the bibliographic information and behind it there are 700 lines of code you do not see, called the MARC code. That code allows me to look at any book on any bookstore around the world, but the promise is that there are no two books in the exact same place.
The entire MARC code and the ISBN numbers of each book are managed by the United States Library of Congress and this ensures that neither book ends up in the same place on a bookstore. So basically, what I'm doing is that I'm checking the book and double-checking it without taking it forever. I can not really change anything in that book because it's already been typed or if it's a digital version, the same thing.
So blockchain is exactly the same thing. It allows me to check my transcription or other smart contracts, but I can not change it. And there are no two contracts or two transcripts that can end up in the same place where they started. And so, it's a secure mechanism to make sure people do not use other people's information or data.
Just for a minute the devil's advocate, it seems like a lot of technology and a lot of efforts to address the challenges of transcription fraud or the speed of delivery of the transcripts. What would you say to someone who thinks it's beautiful, but is not it worth it?
I would say they are uninformed. So for me to make blockchain certificates it took three phone calls and [was not difficult to set up]. So it's a very small investment of time. It does not cost any extra computers, no extra system on our campus. It's almost a breeze.
How many colleges are you seeing out there amusing yourself with certificates and blockchain credentials?
I would say there are probably 400 colleges and universities that say "Hey, we want to know how it works". In fact, we just had one at Oral Roberts University yesterday.
New Mexico College was actually the first to do the entire community college on blockchain.
And so I would say it is still low at this time [who are actually using it]. The consumer will say, "How is Walmart doing blockchain and I can actually keep my smartphone at the height of the product and find out what field it comes from, but I still can not get my transcription?" sense.
[audience question] So I do not mean to look aggressive, but I'm a cryptographer. I do research in this area. I have taught lessons and I think it is a wonderful technology. I simply do not get education applications at all. It seems to me that the speaker is talking about electronic documents with digital signatures. This is old technology, beautiful and wonderful, well established and not disruptive, which deserves to be used more widely, but has nothing to do with the Blockchain. [Why not just use that?]
Because universities like yours and mine will close at Christmas and Thanksgiving and people will not be able to access it [to their credentials] unless you are registered with a clearing house. And if there's a suspension on their account, they still can not get it from the clearing house. If your university and mine prevent people from accessing what they paid for, is that right for them?
Member of the public: this is not how digital signatures work. A digital signature is something that is issued on a document that can be verified at any time, regardless of whether the person is at home or on holiday, provided that he has his public key.
You may be right, but I would challenge you: go to your student information system and do it for me by Monday. Do exactly what you just said. [Colleges don’t actually do that.]
