What are Virtual Digital Assets?
Piloting Virtual Digital Assets Frontier
It is crucial to fathom the significance of how virtual digital assets can revolutionize university fundraising and alumni relations.
In the dynamic technological era, universities have adopted new approaches to increase their contribution levels towards better fundraising and improving relationships with alumni.
One such unique method is the use of Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs).
This feature article will take an in-depth look into the creative use of VDAs by universities, share some underlying true stories running, and discuss everything one needs to know about digital asset transaction growth rates, taking a wide perspective from across a case study on the Indian second largest education industry.
Understanding Virtual Digital Assets
Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) comprise a myriad of digital assets, including NFTs, cryptocurrency donations, and platforms based on blockchain.
Because of their exceptional value in the virtual sphere, these assets present an innovative and quite promising direction for attracting funds and engaging alumni.
1. World Economic Forum (WEF): The WEF frequently releases whitepapers on upcoming technologies, among which are distributed ledgers and digital assets.
Market dynamics through regulatory and technological advancements support the players in the capital markets as they are looking to digitalize and focus on blockchain or distributed ledger technology.
Major trends involve increasing institutional and regulatory ease for adeptness relating to blockchain mechanisms, the opportunity presented by CBDCs in some jurisdictions, and market dynamics such as cost constraints and customer service levels.
2. Deloitte’s Global Blockchain Survey: Deloitte’s surveys and reports on blockchain technology help us understand who has embraced this technology on an international scale.
Physical currency has been defuncting for years and will soon wane completely.
Over three-quarters and 76% of FSI respondents expect the changeover to digital assets replacing national currencies in 5–10 years.
This reaches 94% for FSI Pioneers. Corporate and private investors are buying digital assets.
Banks and asset-based companies benefit from the deposit impact.
Thus, it is important to note that banks and asset-based companies benefit from the deposit impact.
As predicted, 47% of FSI survey respondents classified the custodial facility as everything else equal.
Digital assets with ‘very important’ functions scored highest. 63% for FSI Pioneers.
Interestingly, 57% of FSI respondents and 77% of Pioneers expressed concern about central bank digital currency safety. [2]
MIT’s Cryptocurrency Donation Drive
MIT was at the forefront of technological innovation as it became a pioneer in accepting donations made with cryptocurrency, where alumni could donate funds using digital currency.
This program did not only elaborate on the numbers of donors, but it also made MIT consider itself a university that looked forward to embracing new technologies.
The fact that blockchain technology provides high layers of transparency and efficacy guarantees traceability for every donation made, which in turn makes it reputable.
The Global Perspective: Digital Asset Transactions in Education Regression AnalysisÂ
These are the current international trends in online education transactions.
According to a report, the international education industry has seen an impressive rise in digital asset transactions, growing from USD 4.7 Bn to USD 8.7 Bn on an annual basis for nearly five years.
The growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and other digital assets as alternative fundraising modes within the educational domain has contributed to this impressive rise in digital asset transactions.
Refer to reports from such organizations as the World Bank, UNESCO, or major global consulting agencies in search of trends that characterize digital asset operations within the educational sphere.
The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report of 2023 measures the evolution achieved since 2015 regarding all SDG4 targets, mostly using the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data, through which UIS is the custodian agency of ten out of twelve global indicators.
Since the trend of adopting virtual regularization and a base environment has gained traction in most organizations, especially institutions, since 2010 until this date, they, therefore, influence all international bodies.
Educational institutions in India are also embracing VDAs to raise funds, following the global trend. The digital asset transactions in the Indian education sector have grown by over an interval of two years.
Based on the FICCI-EYs 2022 research, Web3.0 is being recognized as a transformative force for the internet and has the capacity to significantly enhance India’s GDP by approximately $1.1 trillion by 2032.
In addition, it predicts that by 2025, the metaverse will be home to over 50 million avatars and will have experienced a substantial transformation that will result in various disruptions.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other premier institutions have forayed into NFT-led programs, indicating more technologically advanced methods of raising funds.
Impact on the Industry and Employment Opportunities
New Job roles Developing
With the widespread integration of VDAs into university fundraising campaigns, there will be a need for specialists in blockchain technology as well as experts able to navigate cryptocurrency and NFTs. The university fundraising sector, in roles such as Digital Asset Strategist, Blockchain Developer, and NFT campaign manager, is seeing more applicability.
Insights on JobsÂ
- Corporations will streamline operations via blockchain-based solutions.
- According to LinkedIn, blockchain will be one of the top 10 hard skills in 2020.
- To begin with, the most rapidly increasing trend in employment for 2020 is that of blockchain developers because it has increased by as much as 33 times.
- Hires are exceeding BTC prices.
- Global blockchain developer demand is increasing by 300%-500% on an annual basis.
- The best places to find jobs appear in such locations as New York City, San Francisco, and California states of the US; London, UK; and Berlin, Germany, from Europe.
- Hong Kong China continent or Buenos Aires, Brazil countries.
- The United States tops the list of countries based on job creation, followed by the UK and India.
- The United States, for example, pays blockchain developers an average salary of $136,000, while those in Asia earn a median wage of 87500, and Europe pays them as little as 73300.
- The distant blockchain engineers receive about $123,750.
- Singapore, known for its robust business environment and regulatory policies, accounted for about 38% of the token sale projects in 2019.
- Although the salaries of those who work as blockchain engineers are no different from those of artificial intelligence developers, more than 40% of positions in that branch do not require technical skills.
- Engineering (31%), operations (17%), marketing (13%), design (10%), sales (9%), customer support, and others are the most required positions, at least evenly distributed among them, with a share of 7% from the left, which stands for 13% in total.
- The blockchain technology underpinnings are used in all sectors (67% of business operations) at the five industries’ product levels.
- Finance leads with 28%, followed by healthcare at 17%, and energy and agriculture food, each with 13%.
- The leading employers for opportunities in the field of blockchain include companies such as Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, Cisco, and Collins Aerospace.
- About 85% of specialists’ employers are exchange activities and development enterprises, such as mining companies.
- IBM, Visa, and Microsoft are also looking at Coinbase Circle and ConsenSys.
- The maturity of blockchain and the increased demand for current positions will create a new job.
International participants are not the only ones enabling immense digital asset deals, but also India’s education sector, where top institutions such as IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) invest in NFT-based fundraisers.
Additionally, this technology change has created a demand for blockchain experts, including roles such as digital asset strategists, blockchain developers, and NFT campaign managers, among others.
The increase in global demand for blockchain developers is signalling the dawn of new times; this breed will reshape humanity, leading to the creation of jobs across challenges.
In this inconsistent setting, celebrities are not just increasing monetary growth but also selecting a direction for labour inclinations toward age with skills linked to blockchain.
As the world moves into a digital age, merging VDAs into university blues becomes a chess move with immense consequences for both academia and industry.
To sum up, the use of virtual digital assets (VDAs) by universities is revolutionizing the world of fundraising and alumni relationships.
As exemplified by MIT’s innovative crypto-donation campaign and a rising trend in international educational operations, VDAs like NFTs or blockchain-driven platforms are emerging as strong tools to increase foundation involvement while providing transparency.
Read our next blog to discover more about the potential disruptive effect of virtual digital assets in education and careers.
Discover the meeting point of technology and academia and be part of the new world order shaking up education and fundraising.
