Just over a decade ago, the word “blockchain” is only known to a very select few. Fast forward to 2021, and more people than ever have heard of blockchains, even if that knowledge is limited to “the thing that makes cryptocurrency work.”
That said, blockchain technology has far more uses than Bitcoin and the booming cryptocurrency market, which is exactly why its importance should be introduced into formal education, or even added into the curriculum.
Overlooked Technology
When blockchain was first introduced years ago, it was but a new technology that enabled the very first Bitcoin transaction. Not long after, it was made clear that the distributed ledgers have an abundance of real-world use cases such as in healthcare, education and many others. Unfortunately, many nations lacked the understanding behind the technology. This led to many dismissing its potential, or, at the very least, lag behind in terms of using it.
Luckily, the last few years have seen governments glancing in its way and looking at widespread adoption, and it starts with education.
Blockchain in the School Curriculum
According to Coinbase, 56% of the world’s top 50 universities offer a course that focuses on either cryptocurrency or blockchain technology. Furthermore, statistics also reveal that 70% of students taking crypto and blockchain classes are not from computer science but instead from courses like humanities, economics, and law. A recent survey of 735 students in the U.S. also unveiled that they believe America’s financial system is “unstable” and “efficient,” alluding to blockchain’s decentralization and faster process. The same students have also shown interest in real-world use cases for both crypto and blockchain technology.
This shows clear demand, with the numbers showing that students are not only interested in learning about the technology regardless of what they’re taking up in university, but learning how to apply it in their majors. Law students, for example, can study how blockchain is challenging traditional legal terms, while business students can look at it from the lens of the nature of money and its inherent value. And as more and more students take an interest in it, so too the amount of young people learning how to apply it (and its concept) into various fields and disciplines.
In addition, blockchain technology itself is particularly useful in learning institutions, as it can aid in accreditation, student verification, reduce fraud cases, decentralized online learning, and of course, create better learning platforms.
Emerging Technology
While relatively young, blockchain is a fast-growing new technology that worldwide scale and reach, as well as a number of interdisciplinary applications. As the world moves to a more digital direction, giving our young students the tools to understand this exciting new technology will not only be useful for them outside of school, but further increase the possibility of unlocking blockchain’s full potential.
Today, numerous universities have already taken steps to invest and include blockchain into formal education, and it’s only a matter of time before more and more students truly understand its uses, importance, and place in today’s technological landscape.