Blockchain for Applications

Theoretical Blockchain Use Cases:

Blockchain technology creates opportunities for world-changing uses that could revolutionize a multitude of communities and businesses. Real world applications for blockchains are consistently being discovered and improved as our understanding of the technology develops. Each of these uses require careful consideration about how it will ameliorate current systems, which consensus mechanism it will use, and what financial connotations it holds.

Job & College Applications:

Sending resumes and applications to colleges, universities, and employers alike could be made easier through a blockchain adaptation. Since any individual can see each block, posting a resume or application just once would reach countless potential employers and schools. This would significantly cut down on time spent sending documents to individual employers.

This would also help employers (of small businesses specifically) find qualified candidates as well. In fact, surveys show that 54% of small business employers believe that finding employers with the appropriate skills, training, or education to be the biggest difficulty that they face. (Small Business Authority)

Consensus Mechanism

Validators are tasked with verifying the credibility of a transaction that exists on a blockchain. Numerous different ways of choosing and incentivizing these people have been created so far. Among the most popular are:

Proof of work- Used by bitcoin, “miners” solve complicated mathematical problems for the chance to become a validator and earn rewards

Proof of stake- People lock up a quantity of cryptocurrency tokens as a fail-safe so that the validator will lose money if they do not validate transactions appropriately. (Kurahashi-Sofue)

However, not every consensus mechanism will support a use case as efficiently as the next. In this instance, it seems that a slightly tweaked version of Proof of Authority would work well. Proof of Authority requires that a validator be proven to be trustworthy and not have a criminal record, and their identity must be available to be confirmed on public domain so that their identities are common knowledge. This way, they put their resources and reputation on the line as collateral, and the detailed screening weeds out unfit and corrupt validators before they can do harm to the blockchain. Moreover, Proof of Authority allows a fast rate of transactions per second with less computational resource spending. (Antolin)

One minor adjustment that could be made to this mechanism so that it would work better for this use case would be to only approve validators who are knowledgeable about the job market and what certain businesses and schools are looking for in an employee or student. This way, Validating could serve as a preliminary vetting of the applicants, cutting down the workload for proprietors who will sift through the candidates. These validators would in turn be rewarded through tokens for their efforts, possibly depending on the success rate of the applications they chose to proceed being hired/accepted by the colleges and employers viewing them.

Learn more about Proof of Authority in this Video:

Costs

Cost:

This would be an advantageous change from the traditional job and college application process, but it could also prove to be a costly one. The cost of the creation of a blockchain can greatly vary depending on a variety of reasons. Since this proposed blockchain would be very large and have features that would require expert developers, it could cost upwards of $250,000. To account for this, candidates would pay a flat application fee to submit their resumes to the blockchain, a portion of which would be used to improve the blockchain, and an amount would be allotted to the knowledgeable validators. Instead of paying blockchain developers up front for their work, each would instead get a sum of money for every application submitted through the blockchain. This would mean that the technology would be simultaneously used and paid for. Also, this would benefit applicants because they would only pay one application fee instead of many. (USM)

Personal Effects:

Being a senior, I have been overwhelmed with college applications this year; navigating various application portals and paying countless fees have characterized my last few months. Similarly, in my experience, applying to jobs is made more complicated by being a minor. On multiple occasions I have secured an interview for a position only to discover that they do not hire under 18. With these issues in the forefront of my mind, I hope and propose through this project that the popularization of crypto technology will bring efficiency and simplification to an otherwise stressful process.

I have been able to see some of the difficulties of the hiring process from the point of view of an employer as well. My parents are both small business owners. They have relayed to me that the process of finding someone perfect for a position is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I believe that utilizing this new technology can help to preliminarily eliminate poor options for an employer, saving them time and resources.

Works Cited

Antolin, Mike. “What Is Proof-of-Authority?” CoinDesk Latest Headlines

RSS, CoinDesk, 2 June 2022,

https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-proof-of-authority/.

Bouchrika, Imed. “How Much Do College Applications Cost? Tips on How to

Save on Costs.” Research.com, 2 Feb. 2022,

https://research.com/education/how-much-do-college-applications-cost

Bylund, Anders. “What Is Proof of Authority (POA)?” The Motley Fool,

https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/financials

/blockchain-stocks/proof-of-authority/.

Cryptomatics, director. Proof of Authority Explained. YouTube, YouTube, 3

Sept. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjsaa0tJ8Cw. Accessed