If you’ve turned on the television, picked up a newspaper, or even stepped outside your place of residence recently, you’ve probably heard about bitcoin. It’s the buzziest word around town. But the truth is, bitcoin is only a small part of blockchain’s potential, with its impact and reach extending far beyond cryptocurrencies.

 

It’s been said that blockchain is to bitcoin what internet is to google.

 

Blockchain is the buzzword de jour right now. Everyone’s talking about it, even if half of those people are hazy on the details. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said Blockchain will be the biggest technological revolution in decades, “Anything that you can conceive of as a supply chain, Blockchain can vastly improve its efficiency. It doesn’t matter if it’s people, numbers, data or money.”
 

So Blockchain’s important – big whoop. What is it exactly? And if you want to get involved, what’s the next step?

Earlier this year, we were excited to announce our partnership with Accenture when we delivered the first Australian university course dedicated to blockchain.  Accenture is one of the world’s largest technology agencies, providing blockchain solutions for most of the Future Global 500.

Today, the concept of blockchain technology is all but synonymous with cryptocurrency – it’s through pioneers like Bitcoin that everyday consumers have come to recognise this revolutionary and instantaneous mechanism for executing and recording financial transactions.

I recently wrote about why business leaders should embrace blockchain technology (here). As CEO of RMIT Online, I would be remiss if I didn’t heed my own advice and look at how this new technology could benefit higher education’s existing services here in our classrooms and beyond.

Machinery has been replacing manual labour since the Industrial Revolution and through to the 1990s and early 2000s when the shift from manufacturing into a service economy unfolded.