The below picture is from a major Catholic Cathedral in New Delhi, India. It’s August 2023 and education donors are still putting money into boxes not knowing who gets the money, what the education consists of, and what the students achieve. I want Fr. Luca to succeed in his mission, but in the age of digitized education this old box is empty.

Lack of trust is happening also with digital donations, scholarships, and even university education all over the world, but especially in situations like the United States where EDUCATION IS A CORRUPTED BUSINESS costing $2 trillion in student debt. Lower-income economies have even more to lose. In India there is currently a scandal where 830 fake institutions were taking millions of dollars from the government to support “minorities” over a five year scam.

What if we could know? What if we could trust? What if our belief in any education program could be backed up with verifiable truth? What if we could donate knowing that the money is safe with a cryptographic lock that never rusts and nobody can break into and steal?

And what if the transfer from me (donor) to the education provider (sponsor) and then to the student (earner) was transparent, immediate, and without fees?

And what if there was an achievement certificate connected to the funds that described exactly what, when, and from whom the student learned, and the student could use this photo to show others their achievements even on their mobile phone? And what if nobody could ever take it, change it, or remove the data from the cryptographic lockbox?

And what if those badge earners could instantly trade their tokens for real money in any currency, save their tokens for later use, or give their tokens to other projects that support the education or communities they believe in?

And what if those tokens increased in value with every verified achievement, potentially creating 100–1000x the original value and acting as an education savings account that particularly benefited the poor?

Then we have a circular economy of education based on merit and validated achievement. And we don’t need third parties to determine what our children’s future will be based on their “IQ” or parent’s income.

Who decides what a “good” education is anyway?

With GetSmart badges you decide. The sponsor creates, the earners apply, the sponsor decides, and the earners claim. This platform can also be used for member passes, fan gifts, employee bonuses, freelance and informal certificates, but mainly to gamify and fund achievements of any kind.

With GetSmart Token, we can not only determine the award title, photo, video/text description, award criteria, number of awards, number of tokens for each award, start and end date to apply, final date to issue and claim — but also easily manage all the applications with user controlled privacy — then distribute and transfer the awards in tradeable currency with verifiable certificates and almost zero transfer fees — in seconds.

But how do people make money with the token?

“Token” means a unique line of computer code (bit) on a blockchain that can be traded for other things, like a coin, hence the name ‘bitcoin’ for the original and most popular token system. But Bitcoin (BTC) can be used for anything including fraud, hurts the planet, and only serves its own community’s interests.

Getsmart is the first Verifiable Achievement Token (VAT), a 100% carbon neutral public good. The purpose of the GetSmart Token is to validate the badge and give it some value. The more tokens are used for a badge, the more value it contains, so students will naturally go after it, giving sponsors and funders power to decide what a “good” education is. Keeping in mind students themselves can use tokens to add to other projects, which finally gives students a real voice in education.

Donors give US dollars (or 28 other currencies) to the nonprofit organization and this “backs up” the GETS token in US dollars, kind of like gold was used to back up the US dollar until 1971. GETS donors then can hold their tokens or choose any Sponsor to donate their tokens. By donating tokens instead of dollars, users get all the benefits of the blockchain mentioned above.

Give the power of education back to the people

As people use the GETS token, keep the tokens in their digital wallet, or give the tokens to other projects, the value increases because the cryptocurrency traders will trust its value like other tokens, for example Bitcoin and Ethereum that hold their value over time.

GETS is like Bitcoin because nobody can change the code, there are a limited amount of tokens, and it’s decentralized: never shutting down and offering complete privacy of the user data. But unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, the GETS token has a real world utility, is managed under US law by a US nonprofit with diverse and trustworthy global leadership who share a single vision: to create education opportunities. Also unlike other crypto protocols, none of the managers or advisors benefit financially.

Within the platform there is a ‘staking pool’ where people can put their GETS tokens for one year, and we use the tokens like a bank does to invest and get a return except one major difference — you keep the tokens but any surplus (profit) made from our investments goes to buy, then collectively erase the student debt of our token holders, or to pay tuition and other costs for our non-US token holders.

So by staking it’s like a savings account that could return up to 380% because we use collective bargaining of existing debt (collective action) rather than individual return on investment (securities) principles. This is why GETS is not an investment, but a “smart social contract” of the people, by the people, and for the people.

In the cryptomarkets, traders of the tokens might make money, but they may be subject to tax if they exchange GETS for normal currency like US dollars. But if you create badge projects, keep tokens, or donate tokens, it’s completely tax free and incentivizes earners to pay it forward to those who need the tokens the most, for example a VERIFIED PROJECT created by a vetted non-profit for the most vulnerable in society like “Watoto Coding” in Kenya that teaches street children IT and coding skills.

Because of the power of blockchain, anyone can create a new GetSmart badge project or support a project for as little as $0.10 and change education to directly support those trying to achieve the things you believe in. And blessed are the poor, as they will benefit the most in this system, which is the exact opposite of the current system that keeps the poor in academic boxes created and controlled by elite institutions. Do not believe that they who created education inequality will create “equity and inclusion” without a systemic change. It must be done by the people directly without interference.

In the box in the first picture you could donate one rupee or US $0.08 per day and fund the education of your neighbor. Now with GetSmart Token you can “Love your neighbor as yourself” by making education possible for the next generation with that same rupee – but just make sure the money goes into the right box.

Create your own badge project (need Metamask and Polygon $MATIC to trade for $GETS tokens) here: https://app.get-smart.net

Contact Dr. Josh Lange, Director: [email protected]