Sony is one company looking to take advantage of the blockchain, technology that underpins cyptocurrency bitcoin, after the Japanese company announced plans to build a centralized platform for educational assessment and testing scores.
The Sony Global Education division of the company has developed technology that uses the blockchain to house educational data that can be securely shared with other services and third parties. Sony said it believes it could “realize an entirely new infrastructure system” with this technology, which it described as having the potential to be a central system for candidates and their test results, much like a universal education ID or a more official version of resume sites like LinkedIn.
The company explained more in a press announcement:
For example, after taking an examination to demonstrate his or her academic proficiency level, an individual could direct the testing organization to share the test results with one or more third-party evaluating organizations. This would be a first if implemented on a system-wide basis.
Sony said it hopes that the potential of its platform will attract educational institutions and other sources of learning to take part and add further value to the concept. For example, securing the participation of universities and high schools — which may or may not be among Sony’s targets right now — would mean candidates school and graduation records are baked into their profile and accessible to third parties, such as when applying for jobs or further education. Sony added, also, that the technology could be applied to medical care, the environment, energy and other areas beyond education.
This is very much a concept at this point, with the company estimating that it won’t begin development of this “new educational infrastructure” until 2017. When it does get started, it plans to initially integrate its own ‘Global Math Challenge’ — a test that has so far been taken by over 150,000 people from over 80 countries worldwide — and other Sony education initiatives. But the broader goal is fascinating, a platform for sharing your qualification and educational history.