Background
Advancement of AI
With the advancement of AI technology, acquiring knowledge has become easier, but verifying whether that knowledge has been truly internalized remains difficult. In November 2022, Sam Altman, as the CEO of OpenAI, first introduced ChatGPT. Since then, the rapid development of virtual assistants like ChatGPT has enabled anyone to access necessary information more easily and to produce outputs, such as writing and summarizing, at a level comparable to human work almost instantly.
Formation of Onchain Personas
According to the paper Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul by Vitalik Buterin and others, the future will see the formation of onchain personas and trust-building on the blockchain, shifting from trustless transactions to those based on trust. If individuals can prove their knowledge onchain, it will contribute to the formation of these onchain personas.
Technological Innovations in L2
A significant challenge in the evolution of Ethereum has been high fees and slow transactions. With a single transaction taking 15 seconds to be included in a block and requiring a few to tens of dollars in ETH as gas fees, it was difficult for Dapps other than financial applications like DeFi to be widely used.
However, in 2021, the release of Optimism and Arbitrum as Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, and the issuance of tokens for various L2s in 2023, have made the practical use phase of Layer 2 a reality. Furthermore, with the Dencun update in March 2024, the gas fees on L2 have been reduced by 1/100, bringing transaction fees on L2 to below $0.01.
In an environment with slow transaction processing and high gas fees, it was common to manage data and logic externally while minimizing calculations and storage on smart contracts. However, with the development of L2, it has become cost-effective to manage more complex logic and use blockchain as storage, making it easier to create applications beyond financial DeFi.
We believe this trend will accelerate, further reducing costs and enabling the blockchain to be used as storage. This is supported by the emergence of the Data Availability Layer and discussions about incorporating Plasma concepts into rollups (Neoplasma).
Challenges of Traditional Online Exams
A major issue with online exams is proving the identity of the user. For example, it is possible to give the required ID and password for an online test to a friend who is good at tests, allowing them to take the test on your behalf and forge the results. To prevent such proxy testing, traditional online exams often require strict identity verification (KYC) or taking the exam with the camera on, imposing a significant burden on both the exam administrators and users.
Additionally, the validity of certificates issued online depends on the issuing body. Online learning platforms like Coursera and Udemy offer their own certificates upon course completion. In the future, these platforms may link individual accounts with addresses and issue certificates as Soulbound Tokens (SBT).
However, the problem with this system is that it relies on specific entities to link test passers with digital certificates. Third parties cannot verify whether the certificate holders actually passed the test.
For example, if there is a test where scoring 80 out of 100 points is required to pass, but the evaluation logic is not publicly disclosed (even if stated on the website, it cannot be verified), third parties cannot confirm whether the digital certificate was truly issued based on the test results.