Woolf introduces a beta platform – one month since their launch on March 7, 2018. They aim to reduce administrative costs of University educations and provide apprentice-style learning through autonomous smart contracts on a blockchain.

Woolf Building a University

They do not aim to be in direct competition with the existing system, but rather to provide more versatility to the existing structure of University education for both professors and students. The big ideas behind this project are noble and will likely develop very effective niche use cases soon.

“Uber for students, Airbnb for academics”

Blockchain technology can bring some major benefits to major institutions like university by designing them as decentralized, autonomous organizations (DAOs). The ideal would be reduced administrative costs, more organic educational structures, and more fair compensation for professors as well as costs to students.

Woolf is only in its very early stages, and has only released this demo of a beta platform for the service. The team is composed of Oxford University faculty, but chose to locate in Gibraltar.

University or Business or Neither?

Gibraltar’s government has continuously displayed acceptance to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The project is supported by the legal advice of Joey Garcia, a leader designing government regulation for blockchains, and by the council of Isolas LLP, which is the oldest law firm in Gibraltar.

“University” is not just a word in the UK. As of 2006 under the Companies Act, this label maintains strict requirements. Woolf does not claim to be a “University,” only that their goal is to build one. Coming from the academic environment at Oxford University, the team has a leg up to develop the relationships needed to bring their platform life, but no concrete news has yet been released.

Projects like this (and others like product verification protocol) are doing a wonderful job of spreading the idea that blockchain technology has boundless application potential. The major problem continues to be implementation and adoption.