Sony highlights Blockchain use for Education Data

Sony, the Japanese tech conglomerate filed a new patent that highlights how it may be using blockchain as part of an education platform.

In fact, back in August, Sony announced that it was working with IBM to build a suite of educational services, which would use Blockchain to secure student records and form part of a system for sharing that data between agreed-upon parties.

The application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), shows how that might operate in practice.

For example, "nodes" on the education network could be run by teachers, students or other parties that might need access to those records. It refers to how "educational experiences" would be cemented on the chain after being signed by the relevant users.

The application states: "In this example, the [blockchain], which is a trust chain, may be used to store information such as education experiences, certificates and so on of a user. The information contains, for example, studying which courses and possessing which certificates. In addition, based on concepts of a smart contract and a smart property, knowledge may also be exchanged, transacted and transferred via the block chain as a property."

The filing, entitled "Electronic Apparatus, Method for Electronic Apparatus and Information Processing System," indicates other potential uses for the technology including connecting vehicles across a common network.

That "Internet of Vehicle" network would enable cars to report road conditions to one another, according to the application's authors.

"By applying the electronic apparatus of the present disclosure to a vehicle (i.e., a node), trust can be transferred between uncorrelated entities using the [blockchain] technology, and real and valid real-time road conditions information is obtained in real-time according to the consensus," they wrote. "In this way, decentralized real-time road conditions observation and further a navigation system may be realized."