Ripple’s $25 million donation to the Crypto Education Fund rekindled conversations about how blockchain projects are building influence through academia, but in the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu says money isn’t enough.
Instead, real-world use cases like Defi-backed student loans could be the most persuasive value proposition of cryptography to date.
Defi student loans
On April 30th, Pencil Finance, a project supported by the Animoca brand and its educational division open campus, announced a $10 million student loan financing initiative aimed at providing cheaper blockchain-assisted loans. SIU believes that this type of infrastructure investment will go further than iconic funding.
“What our industry needs more is these kinds of positive use cases that everyone else understands,” SIU said in an interview. “What happens if students can receive better, cheaper, and more effective opportunities and interest rates through crypto student loans? They’ll be more crypto.”
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Unlike one-off donations, the pencil finance model integrates crypto directly into the fundraising mechanism. Leverage blockchain rails to make lending more transparent, efficient and accessible.
“Money has an impact, but it doesn’t change the system for better in itself. Technology actually gives people a way for us to get involved in it.”
Classroom code
SIU said the crypto industry remains struggling with the issue of recognition, especially among people new to financial tools and blockchain native culture. So educational use cases should move beyond Highbrow NFT art or meme coins and provide something universally relevant.
“What do we say when you’re sitting at the table and someone says, ‘What is the code really good?’ ” he asked. “Memocoin? Or student loans? That’s something everyone understands.”
SIU also highlighted early the long-term impact of onboarding students to build the foundation for cryptographic literacy growth and adoption. “You want them to be mounted on a faster level and make them understand what’s going on,” he said. “That’s what Apple did with education discounts. It wasn’t about profits at first. It was about future impact.”
Ripple’s contributions may be a step forward for awareness and much-needed financial support in the education sector, but Animoca’s approach aims to make cryptography visible, rather than essential, in education systems around the world.
“We have to show what (crypto) is suitable for. We have to start with the grassroots.”
For a complete interview with Cointelegraph’s podcast page, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, listen to the full episode of Byte Size Insights. And don’t forget to check out the full lineup of other shows on Cointelegraph!
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