Blockchain Blawg

As we know, 2020 has been the year of endless headlines. Every week, there are multiple wild stories that are leading the headlines that no one could have ever imagined. The tweets likening 2020 to a game of Jumanji feel spot-on. One of this week's Jumanji headlines involves my favorite social media platform (Twitter), my favorite topic (fraud/social engineering), and my favorite digital asset (bitcoin). If you haven't heard about this story yet, you're welcome! I'd like to preface this by saying that a few of our political, technological, financial and entertainment faves (including some who were targeted in this hack) have denounced bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as fraudulent. For some reason, that adds to my amusement surrounding this story. It all started on July 15. A number of accounts owned by very public supporters of bitcoin tweeted variations of the same message that essentially instructed followers to 1) visit a particular website, 2) send a certain amou...

Whenever I engage in conversations about blockchain in the context of education, I can't help but think back to that young man in Florida that pretended to be a medical doctor. I think of how much education is required to become medical doctor, and how I tend to check educational background when choosing healthcare providers. And I think of how the odds of success (well, as long as it lasted anyways) for this kid's scam may been decreased if we had a sort of public or permissioned private blockchain for educational and occupational credentials. For some occupations, like medicine, the process to become credentialed is a successive one that requires individuals to meet specific benchmarks along the way. And once one becomes credentialed, there are routine reporting requirements to maintain those credentials. As you can guess, for many occupations that require credentials or licensure, there is a pretty significant paper trail generated. From high school diploma or GED, to an ...