The technology behind NFTs enables a variety of use cases for them. In this post, I'll discuss an interesting application of NFTs in the education industry.
Anyone who has any involvement with crypto has more than likely heard at least one story or piece of news about NFTs and I would say that there is a significant probability that at least one of those stories involved hacking, a rug-pull or scam of some sort.
Incidents such as Evolved Apes, Lana Rhoades' CryptoSis and many others that were obvious scams or simply very dumb and poorly executed projects are giving NFTs a bad name. Not as much among crypto people but most of the so-called normies I know already think that NFTs are part of a big crypto scam, and they don't want anything to do with it.
As a big supporter of NFTs, I believe that are many great use cases for them. Still, due to many factors, including FUD strategies by mainstream media, the masses only hear about the cases where things went wrong, or the project was just very dumb in its essence. I don't have as nearly as much reach as the mainstream media does, but I want to do my part to try and change this general idea that normies have about NFTs.
NFTs and education
One piece of news related to NFTs that had way less attention than the crypto scams I mentioned above was this:
This is a fascinating use case for NFTs and it shows how education and crypto can be a great match.
Instead of getting paper degrees which are expensive, susceptible to forging and other manipulation practices, the graduates of this university in South Korea will get NFT certificates.
There are no reasons to believe that this decision was made purely due to NFT hype because it's not like they are making money with these. Actually, there are many valid reasons to tokenize educational credentials.
For one, NFTs exist on a public blockchain, which can be accessed and verified by anyone, granting transparency to any certification process that issues a degree in that format.
Another thing is that, because the blockchain is "borderless," it would be much easier to validate one's credentials anywhere in the world. I have double citizenship, and I went through the process of validating my degrees from one country to another. It's not only an expensive process but also a lengthy one. This process would be completely unnecessary if I had my degrees in the form of NFTs in a public blockchain where people from anywhere in the world could access and verify that I am indeed the first and only owner of that token, that it was indeed issued by the institution that I claim to have graduated from and that my academic performance was what I claim it was.
Also, if you are more bound to tradition and dream of having your degree framed and hung up on a wall, you can still do that because NFTs can be minted as an image file which you can print and do whatever.
Of course, there is at least one downside that would need to be addressed. People need to learn the importance of owning and keeping their keys safe. We all know the dire consequences that can result from losing access to our keys, and that's something that most "Normies" don't understand or don't give proper attention to. Still, in my opinion, that is a minor issue when confronted with all the positive aspects of using NFTs to record educational credentials.
I like this quote by Deborah Ojengbede, the CEO of AFEN Blockchain Group, in the article I linked above. She said:
“The digitalization of existing processes for accessibility is the main driving force for the world of today, which is still very much dominated by web2 companies. Due to the [amount] of time humans spend online, NFTs can, in turn, validate educational activities digitally.”
Final thoughts
I don't have anything against NFTs used as collectible or digital art, but I think there are many other use cases that could benefit society.
Using NFTs to issue educational certificates is one of those use cases. It would bring more transparency to verification processes, reducing cases of forgery, manipulation and other malicious practices while also helping to make education more accessible to the people.
Such is the power of crypto and the technologies it's built on.