Blockchain Unexplained
Blockchain technology holds much promise for our future. It is not easy to understand, but should we even try?
The C-Lab is an initiative designed to build a unified and decentralized ecosystem for innovation, pilot research, and collaboration for the future of education and work. The Colorado Department of High education sponsors it.”
Early on during the C-Lab kickoff in Denver, one of the speakers held a blockchain workshop icebreaking exercise using writing utensils and sticky notes that represented data that was first owned by a centralized system and then held by a decentralized system. This simple exercise explained blockchain on a high level that even a 5th grader could understand. While I watched and admired the tabletop exercise, I thought that maybe this is all we needed to know unless we were a bitcoin miner, blockchain engineer or computer science major with a healthy dose of programing language. I thought I was the only one to feel this way until the gentleman conducting the exercise stated about blockchain technology;
“It’s infrastructure; it does not need to be explained.”
Yes! That is precisely the way I think. We spend so much time trying to explain blockchain technology that we do not stop to think that explaining blockchain technology is like trying to explain all of the activity that takes place on the internet. You do not need to know about the OSI layers, IP routing protocols, sub-netting, and binary conversion to understand and appreciate the benefits of information technology. A high-level explanation of the internet is all that is needed for most people. The same is true for blockchain unless you work in the industry as a technology professional or if you are part of a regulatory policy group.
Explaining infrastructure is not valid unless you are engineering that infrastructure. So what is the big deal? The big deal is that this C-Lab kickoff event was titled “C-Lab: Innovation in Education” That is the problem. I did not see the bridge between entities such as state initiatives, council work and history, and good old fashioned education.
I did not hear about any practical applications of blockchain technology that is directly linked to effective educational pedagogy practices or practical use in educational systems. There was no direct link to education, and the impression I received was that we have a great solution to a problem that we have yet to find. Even, one of the panelists stated that when it comes to blockchain technology, sometimes the tail wags the dog.
There were important topics of discussion, such as trust networks, registrars, employment, credential description registry, and assertion networks. When questions were asked how blockchain is helping educators, the answers given by the panelist were very general and vague. Topics such as healthcare, employment co-ops, and fluid employment networks were used as a proxy for some possible uses in education. And again, there were no direct connections. Education was a vassal to deliver a conversation about the potential of blockchain.
Imagine attending a seminar on driverless school buses and how it can help our safety and efficiency in our education system. Now imagine listening and hearing techno talk about how the sensors work with the GPS system and how artificial intelligence enables efficiency. And imagine then delving into the efforts state agencies are undertaking to regulate the technology. These are great things to know on a high level. But it would be more helpful to most people to know the specific application of blockchain technology's practical use in a real-world environment. How and what will this technology improve? What problem is it solving?
Blockchain is a technology that the general public is still grasping to understand. To get the general public involved more deeply, they do not have to be technology scholars. Education administrators, teachers, professors, parents, business owners, and students do not need to have the entire infrastructure explained to them to learn how their lives can benefit from the new technology. When we can see and understand the practical uses of blockchain technology, it will become just as ubiquitous as the technology you are using to read this piece.
