Dr. Milly Perry heads up the EBA’s new initiative to establish a DAO for Blockchain Training and Education Institutions, the EDU DAO. We spoke with her about the idea behind it, planned outcomes, and next steps.
Milly, why did you want to organise this initiative as a DAO and not in any other collaboration format?
The Blockchain world is rapidly changing, this is not a cliché. While we are talking, new projects, new business models, breakthrough technologies, new devices and protocols are developed and deployed. I don’t see how we can master new technologies with obsolete methods of knowledge acquisition or process management. I am convinced, we have to step out of our comfort zone and abandon old management methods that stem from the industrial era. We are sitting in a spaceship. We ought to innovate not only in creating new ideas and technology but also in finding new ways to manage knowledge and acquire capabilities. To master the fast-growing body of knowledge in blockchain & DLT and to make it applicable in a hyper-entrepreneurial, unregulated environment will not be possible without out-of-the-box thinking and totally new methods of academic inquiries, research, education, and training. A DAO is a blockchain native governance method allowing us to collaborate not only in a vivid dialog, but in an execution, turning ideas into actions.
What would be the best outcome of this initiative?
My vision is a dynamic, lifelike learning organism. We have a major challenge to tackle, exploring how blockchain is transforming education, especially in higher education, vocational schools, community colleges, universities, and corporate training and development. We need to understand how blockchain can improve the European educational sector —from establishing student identity, protecting their privacy, financing their coursework, measuring their progress, and recording their credentials of achievement through open data exchange protocols. We need to educate the ecosystem on the development of micro credentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses
Who should join the EDU DAO?
Basically everybody, who is involved in Blockchain & DLT education. Being part of this innovative body will provide a much needed head start. We all know, how hard it is to keep up with the developments – and the speed will even increase. The EDU DAO incorporates crowd wisdom, – from a very intelligent and scientific edge crowd, that is – and can be our superpower. It will be a place, where we can share best practices from all around the world, helping us to skip pitfalls and magnificent failures that others experienced. “Sitting on the shoulders of giants” could help us see the bright future in a clearer way.
What are the next steps?
We are eager to reach and onboard as many of the blockchain training and academic organizations and experts as possible. As we all know: the wider the network, the stronger and wiser it is. We will start with sorting the right tools for the DAO, initiate the governance bylaws and consensus mechanisms, embed them into smart contracts. We will raise proposals, discuss and debate, and execute a breathing and dynamic learning organism – for the benefit of the blockchain industry and the society at large.