Table of Content
Preface
Uniformity of Information
Academia’s Products
Integral Information
Proof of Education
The Lirt
Preface:
Physics has the atom.
Biology has the cell.
Technology has the bit.
Education now has the Lirt.
This writing is to encapsulate the segway of a new technology that will be a solvent to the philosophical question of what it means to be educated. Many domains across the epistemic field of knowledge, specifically in STEM fields have anatomical units that create their infrastructure. Atoms are the building blocks of physics. Cells assemble to create all the living organisms on this planet, hence biology. Every single computer in the world is powered by the bit. What all the fields have in common is that their units are the building blocks that progress their sectors forward. By understanding the atom we can foster nuclear energy. By knowing how cells work we can combat deadly diseases. From creating bits we can power quantum computers. Perhaps what makes this piece most exciting is that this is an introduction to the unit that will engineer the field that allows for all human innovation, the field of education. Education is the operating system of society however it does not have a universally agreed-upon base unit. As mentioned, physics has the atom, biology has the cell, and technology has the bit, so with that being said the purpose of this article is to introduce the Lirt and give context on how it be an alternative solution for what it means to be educated. The premise of the Lirt using blockchain technology is that education can now be engineered. Each domain will have its configuration of Lirts to engineer its parameters. The Lirt will allow education to step away from systematically gatekept prestige and a step towards meritocracy, which could help collectively move the world forward.
This writing was intended for a general audience that is curious to see the linear progression of information evolving into the new products of education. The domains covered in this piece range from high-level information systems to blockchain. I wrote this in a first-principle linear manner to showcase how this opportunity got to this point. If you wish to skip the content and dive right into the Lirt, check the table of content to see its designated section.
Uniformity of Information
Before we introduce the Lirt in exact detail, let’s begin at the genesis point of everything, information.
In simple terms, information is when we process stimuli and deduct reason. However, information by itself can not take a memetic life form of its own. Information needs to be structured into uniform systems amongst other humans to further transfer information. One of the most important examples is the alphabet being a canonical invention that allowed humanity to build a system of language. Language allowed humans to communicate through both phonetics and written characters. In essence, language wrestles the complexity of sound and symbols into uniform information for communication methodologies. It’s information layering information.
Language is one of the most fundamental information systems in human history. It may be near impossible to not associate linguistic meaning with anything. The reason is due to all of our ideas and reasoning are processed through language. (Emotions are a different phenomenon from their mere association.) Ideas are the bundle of neurolinguistic activity of distilling information. Furthermore, language allows us to build information systems in the linear depth of meaning and assemble further specifications of meaning. In other words, our current understandings allow us to reach new level of understanding. This exact process is what leads to new epitomes. Domains start small and evolve in depth through time as further specification arises. A good example would be physics. Its origin derives from prior humans believing that the metaphysical ruled the universe. Fables, legends, and myths were made to give explanations of how nature and energy worked. African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and Native Americans all believed that there was a god of fire but later as we started to understand the underlying mechanics of fire is just a chemical process of combustion that releases heat and light. We went from believing in fables to now having the capabilities of doing quantum simulation, creating mini blackholes, and launching satellites into space to collide into asteroids. Fortunately, information systems now have super highways of delivery to allow people to learn faster.
Information systems travel through innovations, such as the codex, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and the internet. Each medium was an advancement in uniformity that allowed information to spread furthermore. For example, the codex made the structure of books and literature for teaching and storytelling capabilities. Next came the telegraph which sent information through an electronic device and was decoded by a receiver to communicate. Telephone technology allowed for audio to instantly be transferred regardless of physical location. Radios allowed people to broadcast real-time information to the masses. With television, information was broadcasted in a more advanced manner through video and audio. But perhaps the internet has been the innovation that has compounded the spread of information, unlike another predecessor. Information moves at unprecedented speed, producing quintillions amount of information units every day. The nonobvious objective of all these innovations is to create uniformity of systems to further spread information.
Academia’s Products
Through the advancement of information systems spreading in uniformity, new areas of knowledge get summoned. As mentioned, our ability to uniformly spread information and build open information systems allows for new epitomes of domain understandings to be reached. Throughout centuries academia takes ownership of all existing information systems and operates as the prolific system that arranges curricula and defines what it means to be educated. What once started as specialized teaching for the elite, evolved into systems of esoteric prestige and pedigree. If you were to ask a stranger if they would prefer to have a degree from an unknown community or an ivy league, we can almost be certain the latter would be selected. Information has become commoditized as information through the web, however, what has not been replaced is the signal of an ivy league school. In essence, the curriculum of education is not the product of the universities but rather the signal the school provides to the student. There is nothing inherently wrong with this since humans are status-based animals but where there is an issue is that the status signal is outdated. Academia has been at the helm of education for centuries.
To its merit, academia is the king of signal for education because its product has worked thus far. The rigorous curriculum and activity needed to do to become eligible to enter a prestige school is a strong vetting system. However, the solution academia delivered can be done in alternative manners. To understand what the alternative solution is (the Lirt), we have to understand academia’s main products.
The way we know someone to be educated can be broken down into four main degrees; associate, bachelor, master degrees, and Doctor of Philosophy(PhD). Each degree has its own signal but the essence of the degrees is to showcase one’s educational level and allow people to seamlessly be integrated into the societal workforce. Currently, professional etiquette is to obtain your bachelor's degree before jumping into the white-collar workforce. Any degree after a bachelor's signals high-quality knowledge and skill for white-collar jobs. The PhD is the strongest signal one can obtain to resemble they are educated. To obtain a PhD students have to go through extensive curricula and vigorous vetting to produce and defend original research for their domain of knowledge. In simple terms, you have to know a lot to create new knowledge and PhDs do that. Normally, people with PhDs focus more on research-based work rather than venture-based work but if a PhD applies for at a profit company, it is more than likely they are immediately a standout candidate if others do not have a PhD.
The question now is, can the quantifying metrics of what equates to a PhD be encapsulated in a new manner? Is there an alternative method to reach the education level of a PhD without having to go through academia? The goal is not to emulate the process of getting a PhD. but rather define an alternative pathway of equivalent knowledge. If we can engineer from an epistemological manner the quantifiable metrics that equate to a PhD, we can create systems of achievement to validify alternative education. (If we quantify a Ph.D. we quantify all other degrees.)
Integral Information
The subjective experience to believe an external source is providing integral information is trust.
With the internet commoditizing information and allowing autodidactism to flourish, the grip of education systems is deteriorating. Information was once esoteric and reserved for the elite but now anyone with access to the world wide web can access the endless abundance of information. The issue is that you can not earn prestige and verification by being self-taught. Currently, you still have to attend the academic pipeline to get the official stamp of prestige to showcase you are “educated”. I believe we can now create a more open and decentralized education system that accurately represents one’s level of education. The system will have to be built on blockchain and here is why.
One of the most important components of education is trust. Let’s think of when you visit your doctor. When you select your doctor, you trust that they went through a process that properly vets their knowledge to be a doctor. You wouldn’t put your health in the hands of someone you don’t trust. You trust that your doctor got the proper education and that the health care system properly vetted them to be qualified. With trust being the core unit that fabricates coordination between people, the question for education is how do we create a new system that yields trust. Fortunately, blockchain has been creating new systems to facilitate trust in different areas. Perhaps one of the biggest areas that blockchain is providing new forms of trust with money.
In simple terms, a blockchain is a ledger tracking inputs and outputs of activity that can not be changed. These inputs are publicly available to cross-check legitimacy. There are various consensus mechanisms, which are the methodologies validators of a blockchain use to verify the information changing inside the blockchain is true. The information being sent into the blockchain is first sent to a pool of unconfirmed tractions called the mempool. Specialized agents inspect the mempool and bundle legitimate transactions into blocks. In order for the new block to be properly made, data from prior blocks is needed, hence this creates a chain of blocks and the term blockchain. The novelty of the operations that the blockchain does is that people coordinate in a trustless manner to create a product of trust. None of the stakeholders know each other but the system forces strangers to work together to provide legitimate information. If a bad player is trying to add incorrect information they will lose because most of the stakeholders are playing the fair game. In blockchain game theory, in order to get the reward which is usually the native coin, you have to be passing correct information. Hence most stakeholders are providing the correct information into the blockchain.
The first blockchain to provide trust in a decentralized manner was Bitcoin and it did so by using a consensus mechanism known as Proof of Work (PoW). In this consensus mechanism, people (miners) from around the world share a ledger with all of Bitcoin’s transactions and they are in a race to add the next block in the chain. The way it works is that the miners are documenting all the new transactions in the mempool while racing to guess a special number called a nonce. A nonce is a byproduct of hashing information together in a specific manner. It is energy intensive to find the nonce, which is why miners are known to have expensive optimized hardware for these operations. This is a mechanism to get skin in the game (cost of energy) to find a solution (the nonce) while making sure to pass in the correct information into the blockchain (vetted by other miners to check validity). The end result is trust being fabricated by a process of strangers working together and inputting correct data into a blockchain to create new coins.
Bitcoin was the genesis blockchain to generate trust in a new currency. People can trust that the number of bitcoins they have were real and that the activity in the blockchain was correct. The integrity of the information is what prevails people having trust in the new currency, which was not possible prior. In other words, blockchain made a new form of money by having a mechanism that fabricates trust. As we’re until this day, the next hurdle for Bitcoin and this new form of money is user adoption. Will the trust in Bitcoin as a currency or store of value become stronger over time? Regardless, a core question we can ask from here is, if we can create mechanisms of trust for money, what other forms of trust can we create?
Proof of Education
The next evolution to blockchain sparked with the introduction of smart contracts. Ethereum became the first blockchain to allow blockchains to have Turing Complete computation added into the blockchain. In layman's terms, Turing Complete is when you can logically program any instruction into a computer. In contrast with Bitcoin, which only allowed for financial transaction inputs, with Ethereum you can technically program any logic and input data onchain. The data gets added to the blockchain by something called a smart contract. By definition, a smart contract is a piece of code that automatically executes outcomes. An example of how a smart contract works would be a vending machine. When you pay and select your desired product, the vending machine automatically gives you your item. The whole process is automated and you do not need a mediator to transact with the vending machine. Smart contracts follow the same concept but it is purely software that adds information onto the blockchain. With this innovation, we can automate processes in the fields of finance, commerce, logistics, real estate, identity, and education.
It is worth mentioning how identities are formed in the blockchain ecosystem. At the moment of writing the closest thing we have to having an identity on the web is by tying data to something called a wallet. You can view a wallet as a combination of a social account and a bank account. Your wallet is what is used to send data to the blockchain and it stores your cryptocurrencies for you, Wallets are one of the most important vehicles in the blockchain space.
We are now entering the conversation on how smart contracts can allow for systems of rules to verify proof of education. Let’s begin by defining the axioms of education to logically engineer its parameters. I define as education being made up of three pillars: knowledge, skill, and sentiment. Knowledge can be defined as the conceptual understanding of a domain. Skill is when you can exercise that knowledge to get results. Lastly, sentiment is the external perception of the knowledge and skill that you have. Most people do not consider sentiment in education because it is a metacognitive framework of knowledge and skill. Let’s compare two people, one went to an ivy league and the other went to an unknown university. Both can have equal knowledge and skill but the sentiment about it will be different.
Now that we have defined our axioms in education, we can create systems of rules that can encapsulate data to represent the axioms on a blockchain. For knowledge, we can initiate educational activities that test conceptual understanding of domains through assessments. If an individual passes an assessment data verifying that they passed can be added onchain. For skill, a mechanism to test their capability to deliver results can be graded and documented onchain as well. Since blockchains are coordinating trust that the data being added is legitimate then how the data gets added is equivalently important.
Let me break down proof of knowledge and skill further. Since we define knowledge as conceptually understanding a domain, we can create processes to test to do so. A simple version is to do a multiple choice for a themed assessment. This is a binary outcome due to the user getting answers being correct or incorrect. If the person gets enough of the questions correct, it can be a form of verifying the person conceptually understood the questions of the assessment. A more advanced assessment is to have people articulate their answers in a timed manner and have a subject matter expert vet if the answers have enough affinity for understanding. If someone passes the educational assessment they receive a verification for proof of knowledge.
For proof of skill, the vetting would be based on empiricism and the execution of knowledge to create something. Proof of skill will be more complicated due to the grading mechanism being unable to be an objective process. Grading someone’s creation deals with dynamic variables that can not be accounted for to issue automation. The dynamics lie in that submissions could get to the same outcome but what is the most ideal process? We believe confining the parameters to be as specific as possible will remove nuance for grading but dictating a methodological process will be complex. For the time being, there is too much complexity to make this a binary experience so our vetting mechanism is going to have to be interpreted by a subject matter expert oracle. The subject matter expert would have to go through a vetting process where the competency of their knowledge is interpreted in a peer-to-peer manner. Similar to the rigorous process of academic integrity but with the information being onchain.
The Lirt
With the predecessor components of information systems, academia, trust, blockchain, and epistemology, we can now focus on introducing the Lirt. A Lirt is a unit of educational data on the blockchain that can not be bought or sold. In the crypto industry, you may hear of terms like Soul Bound Tokens (SBTs) or Non-Transferable Tokens(NTTs) which in simple terms are pieces of data tied to an identity that can not be transferred. To break the technological components of an SBT, they are onchain transactions that document whose involved and which smart contract is facilitating the operations. SBTs are very similar to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) but with preventative capabilities of not being transferred or sold.
The Lirt is a specialized soulbound token for educational activity. Just like in biology how there are specialized types of cells, such as white and blood cells, and each does a specialized job. There will be different types of SBTs, but the logic and context of the smart contract are what give the onchain transactions trust. Under the hood, the Lirt is a piece of educational onchain data that is facilitated by our smart contracts with specialized parameters to identify proof of knowledge and eventually proof of skill.
We’ve discussed information systems being bundled by academia to create a trusted mechanism on what it means to be educated and blockchain technology to introduce new sources of truth, but it is now time to specify how Lirts can create a new solution for what it means to be educated. Let’s begin with how the internet has made information commoditized and accessible for people to educate themselves. What we are missing in the process is a trusted mechanism to verify people are truly knowledgeable and skillful, hence educated. Currently, if two people are asked about their educational background and one says they’re self-taught on the web and the other mentions they have a bachelor's, the latter would be perceived as more educated. We need a mechanism for the self-taught individual to have proof of education and gain equivalent sentiment of legitimacy.
Here is how a new system for education can be created and adopted. The base principles will be accessible meritocracy, trust mechanisms, and decentralized prestige. In essence, the elements of these principles exist in the current education system but fall short. Let me elaborate further by beginning with the concept of meritocracy. By definition, meritocracy is a system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement. In the context of education, if you study hard and develop your knowledge and skill in a certain domain, you earn a level of achievement based on your individual ability. The next step in meritocracy is how achievement is dictated. For example, if only a few people can have a chance to gain that achievement in the first place then there is exclusion. Another example is if the achievement selection is biased through nepotism of other forms, such as selecting a winner of achievement because of their socioeconomic background. Academia is not an accessible meritocratic system in regards that you need to go through a vetting process and pay high tuition to obtain access to the curriculum. We can build this open system of achievement on the internet because the world wide web is an open protocol that allows anyone with an internet service provider to join. If you don’t live in a censored country (other conversation) then you have access to the information and platforms existing on the web.
This leads to the next component being the trust mechanisms. Blockchain created a novel system of rules to validate the authenticity of digital money and state machine changes. If money, which is one of the most complicated products in human existence, can be trusted through protocols, then we can do the same for education. This is the key area, the Lirt can provide utility value by creating trust in proof of education. Since the blockchain is an open ledger of immutable activity we can openly see the added information on the chain. By looking into the transactions that are added into the blockchain, we can get further context. The onchain data tells us who initiated the transaction, the value amount, transaction cost, who the transaction is going to, and most important piece, the payload (the smart contract code). The reason the smart contract is the most important piece of information is that we can take a look at the data within the smart contract itself. Most of the time some of the code will be publicly available and you can see the execution logic. This is vital because you have an open look at what is happening under the hood when information is added to the blockchain. In the context of a Lirt, you see the mechanism of what needs to be done to obtain a Lirt. The Lirt is specifically coded to only be obtainable when a user completes an educational act that proves they have knowledge or skill. Just as a person has to go through a process to obtain a degree, we can create protocols to earn a Lirt. A quick example of this would be someone earning a Lirt after passing a multiple choice test. All logic can be programmed onto the blockchain to make it work. Now, the difference between earning a degree and passing a multiple choice is obvious but since we are focused on making the Lirt the anatomical unit, we can make modularity outcomes. We can build a process to require someone to obtain 20 specific Lirts to open specific parameters.
Taking this thought experiment further, employment is a great example. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons society gets educated is to enter the workforce. Universities educate their students to have the necessary knowledge and skills to help advance a company in its objective. The Lirt can be an alternative signal for proof of education and it can provide new vetting processes for employers. Let’s say an employer needs someone that has knowledge and skill in the domain of Solidity programming. Traditionally, employers would look for someone’s education level to see if they’re an ideal candidate for the role and then interview them. The Lirt solution can automate the process by allowing the employer to require specific Lirts to be a prerequisite to even apply for the job in the first place. Since the Lirt was earned through a trusted open protocol and could not have been sold nor transferred, the candidate truly has proof of education and will be specifically vetted even before interviewing. With blockchain capabilities, the employer can create a Dapp (decentralized app) and require a user to log in with their wallet to submit their application. Since the Lirt is tied to the user’s wallet this entire process can be automated by pure software. It’s worth mentioning that employment is just one area that will be disrupted by the Lirt and proof of education being on the blockchain. Other areas can range from social dynamics, token-gated access, prestige to teaching, legitimacy in information, and many more.
This leads to the last principle the Lirt is disrupting with decentralized prestige. On the polar spectrum, academia(in specific Ivy League academia) carries all the epitome of prestige of what it means to be educated. In all fairness, these institutions have created a strong system that has earned them their reputation. However, it is not a perfect solution and is exclusive to a minuscule amount of the population. One of the main reasons academia has a helm on prestige is not necessarily because of the meritocracy of education but rather the pedigree of esoteric individuals. Statistically, it is families of wealth and higher socioeconomic status that attend these ivy league institutions that leverage the pedigree of academia and earn the prestige of being the most educated. As we’ve seen with the Mathew Effect, wealth (resources) tend to be owned by a vital few. The Lirt wants to create a paradigm shift obtaining the equivalent signal of being educated from an ivy league level but through an alternative manner. To achieve this, it would take generations due to the reason that these institutions have been embedded at the core of society. Just as Bitcoin is trying to obtain a market cap bigger than the US Dollar, it needs to provide enough value to get there. The USD is a multi-century engineered product, so overcoming it will be a near-impossible feat but there is a possibility. Bitcoin is for the world, not just a government. Regardless, we shouldn’t shy away from attempting the shift because macro changes like this are ripple effects that compound positive change for the world beyond a measurable scale. What Bitcoin did to the money, we want the Lirt to do for education.
The Lirt is a moonshot idea that I believe has the capability of changing the world by progressing education in an unprecedented manner. It’s the reason I am dedicating my life’s work to get this concept up and off the ground. To tackle such ambitious ideas, a mesh of dogged determinism and faith is necessary to fuel. However, we need to take the pragmatic pill and realize that the base technology that we are even building on stills has a long way to go. The industry is relatively still in its infancy stage and as we’ve seen it needs a great amount of maturing to occur for it to be legitimately accepted. Crypto was a moving positive strive forward but at the time of writing, due to incompetence and key players lying, the sentiment has taken massive steps back. If we are to make events like this to be a blimp in the macro picture of the industry we have to provide value to the world like never before.
Education is the reason you and I are here. It is the invisible fabric that progresses society forward and we need to allow for a new system to arise that will be more meritocratic, trustful, and decentralized than what we currently have. The ability that we have to create information systems and create linear forms of understanding should not be underutilized. We are in a current window of time to bring novel solutions to the world and we are going to need as much education to maximize the output of humanity. Let’s lirn endlessly.
Agustin Cortes
CEO, Lirn.io