Blockchain, a new technology in the financing sector, must be included in the college curriculum as this is the future of the industry, a technology expert said yesterday.
“The blockchain technology is very new and so far, we do not have this in our existing curriculum. There may be some educators who are capable to tackle this lightly in their subject, but most of the time, this topic is just left out,” Mary Rose Ofianga, University of Southeastern Philippines-Advancing Great Ideas Lab Technology Based-Incubator coordinator, told reporters during the Wednesdays @ Habi at Kape – Abreeza.
But the challenge, Ofianga said, there are only a few trained educators who are expert on the subject, so there is a need to capacitate the teachers. “Most teachers do not have sound knowledge on how blockchain works adding to the challenge of teaching blockchain to the students,” she said.
She said the technology is just emerging, but “this is our future, so it is very important to build the capacity of students while they are still in the academe because right now, many multinational companies are looking for this pool of talents.
She said some private companies are intensive in advancing the blockchain technology to students compared to the academe. “The partnership of the industry and the academe will be a benefit because currently, only the industry has the expertise on this matter,” she said.
Institutionalizing blockchain in the curriculum will also help eradicate misconceptions on the technology.
“We usually incorporate the idea of cryptocurrency to blockchain. We connote blockchain with the issues of Bitcoin. But this is a misconception. Blockchain is like our Internet and it can build solutions depending on how you use it,” she said, pointing out that Bitcoin is just one aspect of the technology as it is a digital currency.
Ofianga said blockchain is also used for digital contracts especially that its program is hard to alter since it is a digital ledger or record of transactions.
The USEP AGILab TBI, along with Kadena Hub by TraxionTech Inc. will hold the first Blockathon on April 27-28.
The said blockathon is a weekend hackathon for developing ideas into solutions using blockchain technology.
Students and professionals are enjoined to participate in the event through forming a team with 3 – 5 members of a programmer, marketer, business development, sales enthusiast, and designer.
Winners will win P127,500 worth of incubation and co-working space for three months plus the potential to get P100K from Traxion.
