The Nuance of Blockchain Learning in the Education Space

The crypto world has certainly seen better days. According to the Washington Post, some describe the collapse as a crypto winter which could lead to a potential ice age. As the article suggests, the collapse, while severe, has managed to avoid disrupting the overall financial markets on a large scale.

To the cautious optimists, even those who lost significant gains crypto winter may represent part of the evolutionary cycle of a new technology working through adjustments. According to Nasdaq News and Insights, “The underlying technology of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, can still be useful outside of the cryptocurrency market. The two are often linked, but blockchain can serve its purpose in different industries than the crypto market.”

A greater understanding of blockchain technology is still in its infancy. A recent Gartner survey shows that only 2% of higher education institutions are embracing blockchain learning, while another 18% are considering it. However, parents of college-aged adults with knowledge of blockchain seem more eager to see it incorporated into the curriculum. A poll conducted by Coin Telegraph insists that 64% of blockchain-savvy parents want it taught in school.

For Web3 attorney and CEO of Lunar Digital Assets, a boutique marketing and incubation firm for Web3 startups, Roc Zacharias, more focus should be placed on the interest in blockchain technologies for students and society. “More young people are launching blockchain-based startups than ever before, and many more are enrolling in third-party educational courses about the technology. So the interest and audience is obviously there,” he says.

This reporter connected with Roc Zacharias to examine the current environment affecting blockchain technologies and efforts to increase understanding of blockchain learning in the educational space.

Rod Berger: Can you share a bit about yourself and your background in the blockchain world?

Roc Zacharias: I started with digital currencies before they even existed. As a teenager, I sold assets I collected in games to industry legends like Brock Pierce long before bitcoin was even invented.

During the early days of crypto evolution, I was a pre-med student in college, but I eventually dropped out when I realized how big cryptocurrencies and blockchains would become. I knew immediately that my destiny lay there and not in medicine.

I am currently fulfilling my calling by leading one of the most reputable marketing agencies in the blockchain space. I am also a co-founder of QuickSwap, Polygon’s largest decentralized exchange, and a core team member and advisor for Dogechain.

I spend most of my time researching the latest trends in Web3 or advising blockchain startups and projects.

Berger: Describe Lunar Digital Assets (LDA). What you do as a company, your ideal customers and the impact it has in the space.

Zechariah: The best way to describe LDA is as a boutique marketing and incubation agency. We primarily work with crypto startups that have already formed their development team, started construction of the project and are looking for some guidance and marketing to fulfill their full potential. We offer professional consulting, technical support, marketing materials, social media management and Web3-focused PR, among other services that our clients demand.

Berger: There is a growing number of universities around the world that offer curricula in blockchain, including the University of California Berkeley, the University of Zurich, MIT, Stanford and Oxford, to name a few. Based on your knowledge of the room, is it wise for educational institutions to adopt blockchain based education considering the current instability in the blockchain and crypto space?

Zechariah: The world should be more aware of blockchain and the Web3 revolution than they are now. Education systems are a great way to mainstream understanding. Blockchain as a technology is more than just cryptocurrencies. It is a technology that is here to stay. It may be futuristic and revolutionary, but it is also involved in solving many real problems today.

Berger: There are those who believe that the language of Web3 and blockchain prevents trust from forming between consumers and the industry. BlockchainEdu provides education for multiple audiences to combat the problem. Deloitte also provides training on the nuances of blockchain and digital assets for newcomers to the market. How should consumers look at educating themselves about the nuances of Web3 technologies and associated currencies, and does the influx of education indicate overall adoption?

Zechariah: You are right. It is a very nuanced conversation and should be examined multidimensionally. For example, the approach to blockchain and crypto education should be balanced. Cryptocurrencies are still undergoing an evolution that every new technology goes through.

Curricula should study blockchain as an emerging technology and explore its advantages and disadvantages and current and potential utility. By all means, this conversation should take place in academia.

Berger: You talk a lot about the enthusiasm for blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the market. However, many cases of people have been burned by crypto projects and blockchain startups with fantastic marketing setups, destroying the investments of so many with $2 trillion in losses.

How do you approach marketing and ensure that the startups you advise are different from that and this environment does not play into the skepticism of the educational institutions? Are there benefits to creating low-risk opportunities to learn about crypto and Web3, like CoinMarketCap’s “learn crypto, earn crypto” approach?

Zechariah: Like all new technologies, there is fear, skepticism and of course many failures from various startups. With each error, some knowledge is added to the existing knowledge. This is how the industry develops. We find better ways to deliver our offers and secure our customers’ investments. This is an argument for more education, not less.

Some paint crypto marketing as this evil thing that works against the people, but that is not the case when done carefully. At LDA, we don’t just create viral campaigns designed to pump up tokens’ prices. Instead, we carefully strategize with teams to build out “tokenomics” and products that provide real benefit.

Berger: I’m glad you brought up “tokenomics”. Josh Weiss (Director) and Zoha Salman (Research Associate) of the Office of Innovation and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Education opine in part: “A new community of technologists and educators will need to rise to the challenge of designing a layered and adaptive system of rewards and strategies – a concept referred to by blockchain enthusiasts as “tokenomics.” Do you see this community as responsible for the future of Web3 and for building trust among supporters and pundits alike?

Zechariah: I think blockchain is the future so anything about it is exciting and I agree that we all have a role and responsibility to be good stewards. Part of that responsibility also lies in designing and developing future opportunities.

I’m proud of everything we’ve worked on, but as the co-founder of QuickSwap, I’m biased. QuickSwap is only two years old and we’ve done so much with very little. As a community-driven project with over 96% of the token’s supply distributed to the community, we took no seed funding and built it on our own back. We maintained our dominance at Polygon even when major competitors entered.

When UniSwap launched their V3 on Polygon, they took volume dominance. But now that we’ve acquired an exclusive license to operate Algebra’s concentrated liquidity model and launched our own V3, we expect to take that back as well.

We’ve also launched a Gaming Hub with VersaGames so that all Polygon’s players can come together and discover new games in one place. Looking back at all we have achieved in just two years, I look forward to how far we can take this.

The current icy environment inside crypto does no favors to promote blockchain adoption in the education community. Still, as referenced in EdTech Magazine, higher education environments are finding blockchain technologies useful in record keeping and distributed ledger technology. Even the American Council of Education (ACE) reports on ongoing initiatives in blockchain technology development.

When it comes to learning itself, although only 2% of institutions have adopted some form of blockchain-based education in their curricula, many of that small group are leading institutions and Ivy League schools. Perhaps this interest from leading institutions indicates an openness to blockchain learning that is increasing in acceptance.

Crypto may be constantly searching for its footing, but the underlying blockchain technology seems to be evolving nonetheless. For some, like Roc Zacharias, Web3 represents the future that will go through the ebbs and flows of new technology development and the education of new space issues.

Inevitably, learning institutions will remain cautious about what programs they offer, and technologies linked to speculative markets will require cautious approaches. As Cornell University says, “Its [blockchain] applications go far beyond financial transactions. Companies in all industries are just now beginning to understand how they can use blockchain-based solutions to solve business problems.”

A thoughtful, nuanced approach to learning appears to be necessary for younger generations to advance into the startup world fueled by newer technologies. An education imbued with measured steps can promote an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of a changing landscape that best prepares for the realities of the road ahead.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.