Ethiopia to develop blockchain-based identities for 5 million students with new partnership
Ethiopia to develop blockchain-based identities for 5 million students with new partnership
Africa has been dubbed the best environment for blockchain to thrive due to a dearth of existing systems. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated that Africa will define the future of Bitcoin, a blockchain-based currency. Numerous sectors and industries lack the necessary development to promote sustainable economic growth and improve Africans' lives.
Ethiopia's Ministry of Education announced last week a collaboration with Input Output (IOHK), responsible for developing the Cardano blockchain network — to develop a national student-teacher identification system. This collaboration is widely regarded as a significant blockchain transaction on the continent.
Ethiopia's Education Minister, Getahun Mekuria, stated in an interview with John O'Connor, IOHK Director of African Operations, that the project would provide five million students with blockchain-based digital IDs.
Apart from facilitating identification, the blockchain-based ID will enable the education ministry to track each student's academic performance.
According to inside bitcoin, Mekuria claims that the blockchain solution will revitalize the country's education system and expand access to higher education and employment opportunities.
IOHK's CEO, Charles Hoskinson, founded the company to provide economic identities to those who lack them. Since 2017, IOHK has been present on the continent, and its blockchain solution may be the first of many.
The Differences
Hoskinson highlights the disparity between developed and developing countries by highlighting the ease with which loans can be obtained, ownership can be established, and payments can be processed in developed countries.
To bolster his argument, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, continues to face several infrastructure bottlenecks when it comes to developing sustainable digital and economic identities for its citizens. We revealed a year ago that the country has been pursuing this goal for 13 years, investing billions of dollars in various identity projects.
Hoskinson continues by stating that developed countries benefit from structurally superior systems that developing countries may find difficult to replicate.
While Ethiopia's blockchain solution is the largest to date, other African countries have announced their plans to use the technology to generate revenue. Nigeria announced plans last year to generate $10 billion through blockchain technology.
Following PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) prediction that blockchain technology will contribute $1.7 billion to global GDP by- 2020, Nigeria intends to position itself to benefit from the technology's benefits. However, the only significant regulatory development in Nigeria's blockchain space since then has been the prohibition of cryptocurrencies.
While blockchain adoption in Africa is likely to be slow, the scale of Ethiopia's blockchain project may encourage the development of additional blockchain projects in the continent. Africa may just beat the rest of the world to mainstream blockchain adoption, with blockchain companies like IOHK committed to improving economic identity.
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