ODEM is a relatively new cryptocurrency that has seen some interesting price action as of late. It kept rising all the way through the month of July, peaking at $0.45/5838 satoshi. This rise continued in August as the currency went up to $0.544/7820 satoshi on the 7th before falling off a cliff around 10th. The massive sell-off ended when the coin reached $0.17/2848 satoshi on the 14th.
The price has since recovered to the pre-pump levels and hovered there for the last couple of weeks.
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ODEM (On-Demand Education Marketplace) aims to break into the massive, $6 billion worth education market. It’s no secret that the system which is currently in place suffers from many issues, the biggest one being the fact that it doesn’t serve the best interests of neither the educator nor the student. Educators are underpaid, students are undereducated and yet the prices are astronomical, with people forced to go into tens, if not hundreds of thousands dollars of debt just to get their degree.
The project created a decentralized blockchain platform that will be the basis for a global education supply chain. Students and educators are matched on-chain thanks to AI and are allowed to exchange value with the help of smart contract technology. The student gets quality education (each educator has his full credentials and teaching history on display) and pays a lot less as the middlemen are removed and the educator gets a chance to teach what he wants, when he wants, and can tailor the curriculum to the needs of the student.
“A student could request a preferred program, date, price, educator location lodging and travel options. The generator finds the closest matches to trigger program creation. It also creates a smart contract for fulfillment, delivery and payment,” explains the project whitepaper.
The entire process is streamlined, peer-to-peer and customized, significantly increasing the quality of education while sharply decreasing its price. Each interaction is secured with an Ethereum smart contract, making sure that it’s completely transparent and immutable. ODEM is definitely a step forward from the current bloated, centralized education environments. Increased efficiency and a potentially global reach of this blockchain-based infrastructure are undisputable.
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Additionally, the system differs from similar projects like Coursera not just by its blockchain roots but by the fact that most student-teacher interactions in ODEM are done onsite, face to face. This is considered positive as it prepares the student for real-life work interactions better than a virtual online learning experience.
Token
ODE token is a key element of this ecosystem. Having held the ICO in February, the ODEM platform intends to use this token to link students, educators and other service providers.
“Using the ODE utility token on the platform will allow for faster, more secure and reliable transactions for students and corporate buyers of educational programs paying for platform services.”
The system will require students to stake their coins, thus registering for a certain academic program. The suggested deposit will be 10% of the final course price and should help deliver quality education across the board.
Partnerships and future
ODEM wants to partner with Excelorators Inc., an industry leader with six years as one of the premier providers of education services. Excelorators partnership gives ODEM key supply-chain resources, including its existing developed client base and business services.
The development team recently held a meet-up in Zug, Switzerland, during which the ODEM.IO platform was discussed and questions about blockchain technology and what the future holds for educators and students on the ODEM platform were answered.
All of this widens ODEM’s customer base and ensures the community of educators and students keeps growing. ODEM expects that most of its early adoption will come from The People’s Republic of China, the largest consumer of US-based elite education in the world.
Still, the platform hasn’t achieved the mainstream popularity it perhaps deserves just yet. With a subreddit that has 117 followers and a somewhat forgotten about website which gives you a 404 error when you try to check out their whitepaper/has a news section whose latest entries date from last February, it’s understandable why.
ODEM definitely on paper looks like a revolutionary platform that has the potential to change the way we study and pay for our education from the ground up. This decentralized, blockchain-based service should provide an improved, less wasteful experience for both the student and the educator. The platform is gearing up to begin its beta testing phase; anyone interested can check out this link and apply. With all that being said, the promise is definitely there; still, it will take a lot more development, marketing and community building to bring ODEM to commercial adoption.
