Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin. The usage of these cryptocurrencies nowadays spans many fields and use cases, from online shopping to investing. 

A growing number of online retailers are now accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment and the rise in popularity of crypto debit cards allow users to spend their cryptocurrency just like they would with regular debit cards. From the other hand crypto investments are not subject to government regulation or inflation, many investors who are looking for highrisk, high-reward investments are more attracted nowadays to invest in that field. 

However Blockchains are also known for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. This makes money transfers secure so that records of transactions cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed. 

The benefits of blockchain-based transfers at personal level include a reduction of costs for payments and and improvement of safety and traceability of transactions 

1. Improved KYC 

2. Direct Payments and Lendings 

3. Global Trade Finance 

4. Clearance and Settlements 

5. Fundraising 

6. Eliminated insufficient funds: Blockchain-based payments give merchants the confidence of knowing that the transaction is good within a few seconds or minutes and therefore bad cheques or credit/debit card transactions are eliminated. 

If you decide buying cryptocurrency, you will need to answer the following questions: 

• Which cryptocurrency will you buy? 

• Where will you buy it? 

• How will you pay for it? 

• Where will you store it? 

As a practical exercise you could demonstrate how to buy a cryptocurrency 

Healthcare is one of the sectors in which the peculiar characteristics of Blockchain could be crucial. 

A Blockchain-based network could be useful in the healthcare system to preserve and exchange patient data through hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacy firms, and physicians. 

Blockchain applications can also avoid mistakes in the medical field 

As a patient blockchain can ensure many advantages. Blockchain technology already allow to imagine different practical use for blockchain in the development of digital health and important benefits: 

• Supply chain transparency 

• Patient-centric electronic health records 

• Smart contracts for authentication 

• Medical staff curriculum verification 

• IoT security to ensure remote monitoring 

Thinking about blockchain, the real question is what could blockchain do for Healthcare sector. 

The advantages for companies and organisations in healthcare can involve an improvement of the security of sensitive data, the availability of up to date data in real time, reduction of costs for software, archiving, hardware and training, furthermore it can reduce theneed of thirs parties as intermediaries for data sharing. 

Blockchain has a wide range of applications and uses in healthcare. 

Distributed ledger technology facilitates the secure transfer of patient medical records, manages the medicine supply chain and helps healthcare researchers unlock genetic code. 

At the moment, examples of the use of Blockchain in healthcare sector can include Apps for healthcare supply chains or services to make patients in control of their medical data. 

When it comes to blockchain and the media, it’s most prominently used in trademarking and rights management, but the applications are numerous. 

Take NFTs (non-fungible tokens) - tokens that we can use to represent ownership of single items because, as the name suggests, they are not interchangeable. They allow artists to symbolize things like art, collectables, and even real estate. Property ownership is secured by the Ethereum blockchain - no one can modify the ownership record or copy/paste a new NFT.

Recorded distribution of music and movies allows artists to be paid fairly and maintain accurate data on streams and purchases. And the fake news scourge can benefit from blockchain's ability to establish the origin of stories and facts. That is, all nodes unanimously agree on a single source of truth. Additionally, blockchain-produced movies – no Porto needed – open up new revenue streams through cryptocurrency payments. 

A heterogeneous set of actors has established itself in the media value chain: artists as the primary content creator, aggregator and platform provider plus (depending on country and media type) a collection agency that handles royalty payments. These collection agencies are what media companies can be looking at when it comes to evolving into blockchainbased companies. 

Currently, the most popular blockchain media companies are as follows: 

• Audius, a music streaming platform (https://audius.co/) 

• Binded, a company dealing with copyrights (https://binded.com/) 

• dTube, a blockhain platform, equivalent to YouTube (https://d.tube/) 

• Mirror, a publishing platform for writers (https://mirror.xyz/) 

• Rally, artists’ created branded cryptocurrency (https://rally.io/) 

• Sapien, collective action that supports creators (https://www.sapien.network/) 

• Verasity, a digital rights company (https://verasity.io/)  

How to create an NFT 

Step 1: Decide what your NFT looks like. Make sure it is something unique. 

Step 2: Choose a platform to sell it. Good options are OpeanSea (https://opensea.io/) and Rarible (https://rarible.com/). 

Step 3: Set up a wallet. If you are unsure how to do that, follow the explanation given on CoinBase: https://www.coinbase.com/learn/cryptobasics/what-is-a-crypto-wallet 

Step 4: Connect your wallet to the platform you have chosen in Step 2. 

Step 5: List your NFT on the platform. Listing your work varies on different platforms. 

Step 6: Patiently wait. After your NFT has been listed, give it time to sell. 

• Better support by having randomised juries; 

• With decentralised social media, meaning no accounts on other social media, a person can interact with accounts there (ex. Mastodon, Minds, D.tube); 

• Moving from one social media to another (if you don’t like the rules there) without losing your data 

• Artists can raise funds for new project through NFTs. 

All the information related to educational progressions and achievements must be stored in a way that should not be forget and should be easily accessed when necessary. 

Precisely, the features of Blockchain technologies can facilitate the safe storage and management of such information that can be accessed publicly or by authorized entities in a permissioned environment. 

Blockchain technologies can now be used to fulfil various education needs such as, for example: 

To manage student records. Such as birth certificates, social security cards, diplomas, exams, student loans) and other information, ensuring an easy and secure access to these data. 

To develop innovative educational curricula based on Blockchain online platforms able to record activities which can be reviewed not only by humans but also by Artificial Intelligent (AI) agents, facilitating in this way the integration of strategies such as adaptive learning 

The main advantages at personal level will be: 

• Ownership of diplomas 

• Monitoring of performance 

The main benefits of blockchain in the education sector for companies are: 

• To securely and safely store student’s records and credentials. 

• To make the hiring process easier for employers and employees. 

• To reduce risks and costs for educational institutions. 

• To organize more effective and personalised lessons and courses 

• To manage exams online with smart contracts. 

• To use blockchain as a payment method to sell single courses. 

• To monitor and facilitate the accreditation of schools, colleges, and universities, protect intellectual property rights, and avoid fake diplomas. 

Most of the services actually available are addressed citizens, educators, and organizations. There are several Blockchain Educational Companies providing more engaged and incentivizing educational environments, systems for creating blockchain-backed certificates and verifying academic credentials of prospective students and professors. 

Although as of today there are various companies and platforms that provide diplomas, badges, and similar digital achievements, there are no public testing platforms that can be easily used for both teachers and students to provide digital achievements. 

Nevertheless, the Blockcerts open standard provide the necessary tools for a computer-savvy educator to create digital achievements for their students and store them for free in a public “testnet” blockchain such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum “testnet”. 

• For an educator, all the information about creating digital achievements in Blockcerts can be accessed at: https://www.blockcerts.org/guide/quick-start.html. 

• For students, it is possible to verify their own digital achievements using either a web interface or a mobile application for iOS or Android (check https://www.blockcerts.org/). 

In addition, it is also interesting to note that, beyond the use of Blockchain technology to issue digital achievements, students can use cryptocurrency for tuition payments in certain universities such as Bentley University in the U.S.A. (check https://www.bentley.edu/news/bentley-nowaccepting-cryptocurrency-tuition-payments). 

The evolution of blockchain is of primary importance to support the European Union towards a more sustainable future. 

Blockchain applications for energy systems are numerous. On the contrary Blockchain applications linked to energy systems impacting on power dispatching are less developed but could offer the possibility to securely integrate innovative energy grids generated from smaller-scale and less centralized sources. 

Developing these technologies, Blockchain will ensure provenance tracking and innovative solutions for renewable energy distribution. Traditional energy sectors, will solve numerous process inefficiencies lowering costs and reducing harmful environmental impacts. 

Moreover will solve privacy and trade secrets. Blockchain networks will offer a secure, economic and reliable solutions to ensure the necessary privacy features businesses demand. 

The main advantages are: 

• to enable P2P energy interchanges between distributed energy producers. 

• to enable micro-charging applications for electric vehicles. 

• increased transparency and privacy for consumers 

• to directly buy and sell energy. 

The main benefits of blockchain in the energy sector for companies are: 

• Costs reduction by removing middlemen and optimising exchange processes. 

• Environmental sustainability of energy commodity trading systems. 

Several companies are already providing services in the Energy sector by exploiting blockchain potential. Some projects are related to guarantee that the energy supplied and consumed is 100 % renewable, others are focused on creating new business opportunities and new ecosystems such as a new application that allows users to sell their surplus solar power directly to neighbours and to allocate unused network resources autonomously amongst themselves 

The practical exercise could be based on accessing a tool for programming decarbonization into business and household operations alike. Energy Web Foundation is an organization focused on decarbonizing energy grids with decentralized technologies. They offer an open-source blockchain for the energy sector, which is being used by several operators and companies, like Zero Labs, to accelerate the zero-carbon economy. 

Public administrations are centralized in responsibility and services delivery yet decentralized and often disconnected in terms of the way data is shared within and outside their boundaries. Blockchains could be used as a mechanism to increase the efficiency of administrations and facilitate, even automate some public decisions. 

Moreover, blockchain increase transparency in the way decisions are made thereby reducing corruption and increasing citizens’ trust in their governments. 

These are some of its use cases where blockchain could have a bigger impact: 

1. Identity: Establishing and maintaining identity for citizens and residents. (birth certificates, marriage licenses, visas, death records) 

2. Personal records: Interoperable health records, insurance records. 

3. Land title registry: Records of real estate and property transactions. 

4. Supply chain management, inventorying: tracking an asset from its creation, transportation, purchase and inventory. 

5. Benefits, entitlements and aid: Social security, medical benefits, and domestic and international aid payments could be automated through smart contracts. 

6. Voting: Enabling new methods of digital voting, ensuring eligibility, accurate counting and auditing. 

The use of blockchain will dramatically improve transparency and trust in public administration. Citizen will be able to check everything that is recorded, e.g., how public funds are spent, validity of permits (construction, vehicles, animals, restaurants, etc.), complaints, etc. 

A blockchain-based government has the potential to enable several advantages like an improvement of safety and accessibility for the data stored, a simplification of bureaucratic procedures, reduction of costs and corruption and abuse. 

The use of these services will be seamless for the citizens, i.e. they will continue using the services in the same way. Public administration should explain to their citizens how to check that the information is protected by the blockchain. 

Some countries and governments are already exploring the use of blockchain technology to improve public administration services. For example, Estonia has launched the e-Estonia project that connects all the government services like the judiciary, healthcare, security, and commercial code registries to store sensitive data on the Blockchain ledger in a single digital platform. Denmark has enabled electronic (e-)voting systems using the technology. Similarly, the city of Zug in Switzerland uses digital identities based on blockchain and citizens can use this ID for voting, renting bikes, and many other integral public service works 

One application is the registration of some documents with the public administration (see example in cybersecurity chapter). 

Another practical exercise can be based on voting, a basic building block in all democracies, in order to simulate a blockchain based e-voting experience.

Within the area of blockchain technology, the field of cybersecurity can be viewed from two different perspectives: 

• [VIEW A]: Cybersecurity is part of the Distributed Ledger Technology concept itself; and, 

• [VIEW B]: Blockchain can be applied to address specific cybersecurity issues 

As pointed out in, blockchain technology was developed precisely to provide secure transactions in complex ecosystems and applications, whose main functions are based on cryptographic principles, such as digital signatures and hashes. This also means that security aspects are part of the conceptualisation of blockchain technology, as they form the basis of its main functions. 

In turn, this characteristic makes it a relevant and key technology for certain security developments in the field of cybersecurity and resilience. Its guarantees of immutability, auditability and traceability support the creation of effective protection solutions, e.g. for: intrusion and anomaly detection and prevention, context awareness and access control, among others. 

At all these levels, many authors have already demonstrated their usefulness for multiple types of application scenarios; be it for the protection of systems in the control domain, IoT-based ecosystems, energy, healthcare, manufacturing systems and the supply chain. 

Considering the cybersecurityblockchain relationship and its dual perspective, we highlight the following personal benefits: 

• [VIEW A]: gain a better understanding of the field of cybersecurity and its application for blockchain technology. This learning process also entails identifying vulnerabilities and threats in the technology, as well as potential security risks in the application context. 

• [VIEW B]: extend the knowledge mentioned in the previous point, but this time by understanding how blockchain technology can benefit cybersecurity areas: for detection, for prevention, risk management, access control, situational-awareness, accountability, non-repudiation, etc 

Considering the cybersecurity-blockchain relationship and its dual perspective, we highlight the following benefits: 

• [VIEW A]: Greater control of the value chain, regulated under principles of immutability and auditing, favoring traceability and accountability. 

• [VIEW B]: Related to auditing, ensuring better control of anomalous events in the system, favoring the tasks of monitoring and follow-up of the system itself. 

• [VIEW B]: Enable more efficient and reliable security developments to cope with threatening situations. For example, providing: distributed identity managers and authentication mechanisms; non-repudiation measures for specific applications; more detection measures in distributed systems and malware, etc. [VIEW B]: Create trustworthy environments, in which it is possible to share sensitive information within a community in a secure manner or between organizations. For example, for cyberintelligence. 

• [VIEW B]: Predict anomalous behaviors by tracing and observing states and actions taken by devices, processes and people. 

Although most blockchain-based cybersecurity services are oriented to ICT specialists, at present there are some services that can be accessible to citizens, providing complex services such as self-sovereign identity (where the user credentials, i.e. private keys, are managed by the user), and simple security solutions such as protected calendars. 

One of such solutions – and one of the main security use cases – is the notarization of digital documents. With notarization, a citizen can receive a proof of the state of any digital document (e.g. report) at a certain date. 

The blockchain is the perfect platform to keep track of sequential events, that can be included in the standard transactions’ blocks. There are many available digital notarization services based on blockchain. 

Some of the them are freely available to end users, where they just need to drop a document to the web, but some others require a web3 compatible browser or are API based, targeting companies with a high volume of documents 

Here we provide a step-by-step example on how to use a notarization service for the timestamping and verification of a document. In particular, we focus on the use of Opentimestamps App, but the steps for other notarization services are very similar to the ones presented here.