Blockchain technology is not limited to cryptocurrencies, since its applications disrupt territories so varied that go from the world of digital art, with NFTs, to the academic world, where its main example is university degrees, which makes them more difficult. to falsify and even represent benefits in the world of work.
According to Anabella Laya, CEO of the Acreditta platform, the pandemic created an ideal context for the development of this technology in relation to the issuance of university degrees, since it allowed digitization not to occur in classes and, in addition, contributed to Contact between people will be minimized to avoid contagion.
“Education and learning processes went to a virtualization of almost 100% and what makes sense is that the evidence of this learning also migrate to the secure, reliable, scalable and verifiable digital format by anyone in any country in the world” , says the specialist.
In Mexico, obtaining a falsified university degree can cost about 5,000 pesos, however, through this technology it is possible to reduce this type of practices, since the verification of the information contained in the document can be done online from a decentralized database in which no other person or institution should interfere.
The foregoing, Laya points out, is extremely relevant for professionals, since it allows them to seek employment opportunities anywhere in the world, without the need to transport documents that prove their knowledge.
In this sense, a study by the educational market analysis firm, HolonIQ, points out that more than 85% of university institutions worldwide see this type of alternative as a relevant strategy for the future of today’s students.
On the other hand, Fernando Osnaya, CEO of Link Education, points out that this type of resources also allows expanding the knowledge record of a person in a labor sector, in addition to being traceable, because with the blockchain it is possible to know in which institution he acquired them, as well as the skills he developed.
“Digital credentials store much more information than a traditional title in PDF”, Laya exemplifies, “since they contain more fields and associated information, such as the learning experience, the skills that the person developed, the context in which they used them or even the evidence, which would be impossible to reflect otherwise ”.
It should be mentioned that this type of digital aggregates are especially useful in recruitment systems that make use of Artificial Intelligence through bots, as they are elements that provide more contextualization details to the machines so that they identify better candidates.
Although this technology represents relevant benefits, experts agree that one of the challenges for Latin America is its adaptation, since it is necessary to evangelize the market of the value of blockchain and for this to be normal, wills that go from the government, passing by educational institutions to the students themselves.
In Mexico, the Tecnológico de Monterrey has been a pioneer in the issuance of titles on blockchain, since since 2019 they have given their graduates this type of assets under the premise that their students are “global citizens” and require tools that allow them to “serve the needs for academic and professional mobility ”.
Other institutions that issue diplomas in this technology are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California, Irvine in the United States; the Technical University of Munich and the University of Potsdam, Germany; the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands; and the University of Toronto, in Canada.
