Open Campus is a community-led platform that uses blockchain technology to tackle challenges in the education sector, such as a lack of equity, credentialing, and educator compensation.
By pioneering a “Learn-Own-Earn” model of education, Open Campus aims to enhance the value and credibility of learning.
Open Campus launched EDU Chain in January 2025. The Layer-3 blockchain is built on the Arbitrum Orbit framework and is designed to enable a decentralized education system that supports both learners and educators.
Open Campus IDs (OC-IDs) are decentralized identifiers that record learners' credentials and achievements earned across educational platforms within the Open Campus ecosystem.
Learners on EDU Chain can access onchain student loans designed to support their education. This solution aims to enhance both accessibility and repayment outcomes by featuring transparent terms, decentralized underwriting, and token incentives.
Introduction
The global education sector faces challenges related to accessibility, educator compensation, and credentialing reliability. Lack of access to quality education remains a major barrier for many students, while many educators report feeling underpaid for their contributions. Additionally, the rise of a multi-billion-dollar fake credential industry has raised concerns about the integrity of academic qualifications and the effectiveness of existing verification systems.
Higher education in the U.S. has become increasingly expensive, contributing to over $1.7 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. alone. The average cost of attending a public four-year university has increased by over 140% over the past 20 years, even after adjusting for inflation.
Meanwhile, students in many developing countries face a different set of barriers. Government-backed loan programs are often limited or nonexistent, and an underdeveloped credit infrastructure makes it difficult for private financial institutions to assess risk and extend educational loans. As a result, many students are either excluded from financing opportunities altogether or must rely on informal or private lenders offering loans with prohibitively high interest rates and non-transparent repayment terms. These conditions severely restrict access to higher education and upward mobility.
Open Campus seeks to address these systemic challenges through a blockchain-based approach to education, offering tools for content ownership, credential verification, and decentralized funding. By tokenizing educational content on the platform, educators can earn income directly and receive ongoing royalties. An ecosystem of education-focused dApps connects learners with these educators and aims to provide practical learning experiences, where students can earn rewards for their achievements.
Onchain credentialing ensures the authenticity of academic qualifications and enables secure, verifiable sharing with third parties. For students who lack the financial resources or viable local options for higher education, decentralized lending protocols offer globally funded student loans with transparent terms recorded onchain. In parallel, Open Campus aims to improve students' ability to repay these loans by offering educational pathways that build marketable skills and enhance long-term earning potential.
Background
Project Evolution
Open Campus was publicly announced in 2023 as a community-driven education platform leveraging Web3 technology to improve global online learning. The project was developed through collaboration between Animoca Brands, TinyTap, NewCampus, and other partners.
The platform introduced Publisher NFTs (pNFTs) as its first major innovation, allowing educators to tokenize and monetize their content. TinyTap became the first to implement pNFTs, launching educational courses and forging partnerships with Code Green and Cloudco Entertainment’s Care Bears.
As Open Campus evolved, it expanded beyond content monetization to focus on learner identity and issuing verifiable credentials. This led to the development of Open Campus ID (OC-ID), a protocol that issues decentralized identifiers for tracking learners’ academic achievements. Each OC-ID acts as a digital passport across Web2 and Web3 platforms, allowing learners to build immutable, tamper-proof records of their credentials and to share with institutions and future employers.
In January 2025, Open Campus launched EDU Chain. The Layer 3 blockchain is built on the Arbitrum Orbit framework and is designed to support education-focused dApps and onchain education finance (EduFi). Learners within the ecosystem can engage with educational content via dApps, own their achievements as verifiable credentials, and earn rewards.
Governance and Ecosystem Support
Open Campus is governed by the Open Campus DAO, where holders of EDU, the platform’s governance and utility token, vote on key protocol decisions. Governance is overseen by a five-member council that is elected annually by token holders.
Key partners, including Animoca Brands and TinyTap, contribute strategic expertise and support Open Campus' development to drive adoption. Additionally, NewCampus operates the Open Campus Accelerator, a program dedicated to onboarding startups and institutions into the ecosystem.
The Open Campus ecosystem includes EDU Chain and a suite of products designed to support its objectives within the education sector.
EDU Chain
EDU Chain is a Layer-3 chain built using Arbitrum Orbit that is purpose-built for a decentralized education ecosystem. As an L3 solution, EDU Chain processes transactions offchain and batches them before submitting proofs to Arbitrum Orbit for validation. Arbitrum Orbit then aggregates and settles these transactions on Ethereum to leverage Ethereum’s security while maintaining scalability. This structure aims to facilitate specialized features tailored to education, such as decentralized credentialing, content ownership, and monetization, while optimizing cost efficiency and transaction throughput.
As shown above, the EDU Chain ecosystem is split into distinct layers. dApps built on the Application Layer facilitate a "Learn-Own-Earn" model of education:
Learn: Users access education through various methods, including micro-learning modules, gamified learning, and social learning interactions.
Own: Educational achievements are secured as verifiable credentials, while content ownership is facilitated through Publisher NFTs (pNFTs).
Earn: Users can monetize their acquired skills via opportunities like virtual internships and freelancing gigs.
The Platform and Finance Layers provide the infrastructure and financial mechanisms that support users on the Application Layer. This includes EduFi solutions such as smart scholarships and onchain loans designed to help students access and complete higher education.
Principal Nodes
Transaction verification on EDU Chain is managed by Principal Nodes, which are verifier nodes within the network. The operation of Principal Nodes is governed by EDULand NFTs, which function as rental licenses granting each holder the right to operate a node. Node operators are primarily rewarded with EDU for validating transactions, but can also qualify for airdrops from ecosystem partners by engaging with their dApps.
To support ecosystem growth, Open Campus collaborated with College DAO to implement the Open Campus Validator Program. It provides university blockchain clubs with the opportunity to operate Principal Nodes and earn EDU rewards. This initiative aims to support blockchain literacy in traditional education by promoting technical skill development and broader adoption of decentralized technologies.
Node operator rewards are currently distributed from the protocol’s reward pool. In the future, they will also include sequencer fee distributions, which will strengthen operator incentives and transition toward a more sustainable, fee-based rewards model. Once implemented, operators that hold and rent an EDULand NFT will be eligible for a share of 50% of fees generated by protocol-operated sequencers; however, those running verifier clients without an active node lease will not be entitled to a portion of sequencer fees.
EDULand NFTs grant holders the right to operate EDU Chain nodes for an initial period of up to 60 days, after which they must either renew their NFT or return it to the market. Users can rent EDULand NFTs through a dedicated dashboard by paying an initial fee and ongoing maintenance costs in Yuzu Points. To simplify node deployment and operation, Open Campus has partnered with easeflow, a Node-as-a-Service provider. This service allows users to deploy nodes with minimal knowledge or technical expertise.
Unlike traditional Node Sale models that reward passive holders long after their initial investment, the EDU Chain ecosystem distributes EDU rewards based on ongoing contribution. To retain their EDULand NFTs and continue earning rewards, users must accumulate Yuzu Points by engaging with dApps, staking EDU, bridging tokens to EDU Chain, and referring other active users. This ensures that rewards go only to those adding consistent value, and creates a dynamic system where inactive users are phased out, allowing new active participants to step in. Yuzu Points serve as a proxy for onchain activity and participation.
Yuzu Points
Yuzu Points are onchain rewards in the EDU Chain ecosystem, designed to incentivize user participation and contributions. These points are non-transferable and function as an internal reward system, granting benefits like renting EDULand NFTs and accessing EDU rewards.
Users can also earn Yuzu Points through the following activities:
Staking EDU tokens: EDU holders can earn 0.05 Yuzu Points per day for each EDU token staked through the Yuzu Dashboard.
Bridging to EDU Chain: Users can earn Yuzu Points by bridging EDU, ETH, WETH, or USDT to EDU chain using Arbitrum, Gelato, and EDU Chain bridges.
Engage with dApps on EDU Chain: Yuzu Points are distributed seasonally to featured dApps on EDU Chain based on their performance and usage metrics, with recipients expected to allocate most of their points to users.
Onboarding new users: Users can share their referral link to onboard new users and earn 10% of Yuzu Points they earn through staking EDU, engaging with dApps, and bridging assets.
Converting Legacy OC Points: Users can convert OC Points earned through initiatives like the Questing and Testnet campaigns to Yuzu Points.
Open Campus ID (OC-ID)
OC-IDs are decentralized identifiers within the Open Campus ecosystem, used to store and manage learners' educational credentials. Implemented as Soulbound Tokens, OC-IDs securely record certifications, diplomas, and other achievements on EDU Chain. Each OC-ID provides a unique “.edu” domain linked to an online profile, allowing users to store and control their educational data.
Terminal 3 ensures security by providing decentralized data storage and encryption using zero-knowledge proofs. Additionally, OC-ID integrates with Humanity Protocol, ensuring privacy-preserving, Sybil-resistant identity verification.
In the future, OC-IDs will grant access to exclusive content on Open Campus University and from OC Alliance educational providers. Learners will also have the option to share their data with OC Alliance partners for personalized educational experiences.
OC Achievements
As part of the OC-ID system, OC Achievements are verifiable credentials of learners' accomplishments, allowing them to showcase their skills and achievements. These credentials are issued through the OC-ID dashboard and linked directly to each learner’s profile. OC Achievements facilitate seamless credential portability across institutions and employers. Additionally, they streamline verification processes, making it easier for academic institutions and professional organizations to authenticate qualifications efficiently.
Publisher NFTs (pNFTs)
Publisher NFTs (pNFTs) are tokenized courses created by educators, enabling them to distribute their content to a wider audience and earn EDU rewards whenever the course is sold on an associated platform. This model enhances educators' ability to monetize their skills and share in the value their content generates.
Learners can purchase pNFTs to gain fractional ownership of tokenized educational content, becoming co-publishers in the process. As co-publishers, they become responsible for promoting the material to a broader audience and receive a portion of the rewards generated from future sales.
TinyTap has released two seasons of pNFTs, each representing unique educational courses:
Season One: Included 12 unique courses, minted on Ethereum.
Season Two: Featured 720 TinyTap courses, initially minted on BNB Smart Chain before being bridged to Polygon.
Staking Season Two pNFTs
Season Two pNFT holders can stake their NFTs on Polygon to earn yield in EDU tokens. pNFTs are categorized into different tiers based on the expected sales revenue generated from the underlying content.
Genesis NFTs (gNFTs)
Genesis NFTs (gNFTs) function as staking reward multipliers within the Open Campus ecosystem and were distributed to early adopters to enhance participation. They include “Golden Backpacks” and “Silver Notebooks,” which can be staked on BNB Smart Chain alongside pNFTs on Polygon to increase staking yields by up to 49 times. A Golden Backpack provides staking rewards equivalent to four Silver Notebooks, creating a tiered incentive structure for participants.
Beyond their role in staking, gNFTs offer additional benefits to holders. These have included priority access to Season Two pNFT sales, credits redeemable for pNFTs, and EDU token airdrops.
Capy Friends
Capy Friends is Open Campus’s flagship NFT collection. The signature capybara mascot highlights and promotes ecosystem initiatives. Capy Friends NFTs will provide holders future utility, potentially including airdrops from projects on EDU Chain, boosted staking rewards, and access to exclusive events sponsored by Open Campus. The Open Campus DAO oversees the strategic direction of Capy Friends, managing utility development, partnerships, and marketing initiatives.
Community Programs
Open Campus Accelerator
The Open Campus Accelerator (OC-X) aims to onboard education-focused startups and institutions in adopting decentralized technologies within the Open Campus ecosystem. The program was created in collaboration with NewCampus and aims to help participants build and scale dApps on EDU Chain by equipping them with the knowledge and tools to integrate EDU, pNFTs, and OC-IDs into their business models. In addition to specialized training, OC-X provides membership to the OC Alliance to connect participants with Open Campus’s network of mentors and supportive companies.
OC-X graduates have access to two equity-free funding options:
EDU Grants: Awarded upon reaching defined performance milestones.
EDU Loans: Revenue-based loans allowing startups to secure capital proportional to their monthly recurring revenue. The principal is repaid in monthly installments, while interest is paid by purchasing EDU from the open market, increasing demand and benefitting the whole Open Campus ecosystem.
Open Campus Alliance
The Open Campus Alliance is a network of over 80 companies committed to adopting OC-ID and integrating EDU as a payment method. The alliance includes TinyTap, Mocaverse, GEMS Education, and BitDegree, among other key partners. By encouraging collaboration across education and Web3 sectors, the Open Campus Alliance aims to expand the utility of EDU and enhance accessibility to decentralized learning resources.
Global Educators Fund
The Global Educators Fund is a $10 million grant initiative designed to support educators in creating educational courses that address subjects often underrepresented in traditional curricula, such as life skills, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence.
Educators selected for funding receive grants of up to $100,000 in EDU tokens to develop interactive courses, which are then tokenized as pNFTs and published on platforms like TinyTap. This approach enables educators to retain ownership of their content while earning revenue through Open Campus’s ecosystem.
Open Campus Labs
Open Campus Labs (OC Labs) is a platform that enables Web2 and Web3 projects to develop and launch educational content tailored to learners within the Open Campus ecosystem. The initiative debuted in August 2023 with Semester One, which featured courses on financial literacy, digital property rights, and foundational knowledge in emerging technologies. Early participants had the opportunity to mint and collect Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) NFTs upon completing courses.
Community Grants Program
The Community Grants Program is an initiative by Open Campus to incentivize and recognize active participation within its educational ecosystem. This program encourages users to engage in various activities that contribute to the growth and vibrancy of the community.
Codex Hackathon Series
The Open Campus Codex Hackathon Series is a program that facilitates dApp development on EDU Chain. The series consists of three hackathons with a total $1 million prize pool, with top projects being invited to the Open Campus Incubator (OC-I).
The first hackathon concluded in September 2024 and awarded $200,000 in EDU tokens to 40 projects. The second hackathon was held in November 2024 and distributed $225,000 in prizes across 33 selected projects. The third hackathon is ongoing, and winners have not yet been announced.
Open Campus Incubator
The Open Campus Incubator (OC-I) is a 12-week remote program that supports developers whose projects won the Hackathon Series in building dApps on EDU Chain. Participants engage in a structured curriculum that covers product development, marketing, and community-building, equipping them with the skills needed to scale their projects effectively.
In addition to mentorship and access to a collaborative network, the program also provides funding opportunities, offering dApps up to $100,000 in equity-free grants to support their development.
Tokenomics
Central to the Open Campus ecosystem is EDU, an ERC-20 token that serves as both a governance token within the Open Campus DAO and a utility token within the ecosystem. EDU initially launched on BNB Smart Chain and was later bridged to Ethereum, Arbitrum, and EDU Chain.
EDU became publicly available on April 28, 2023, through Binance Launchpad. More than 120,000 participants committed a total of 9 million BNB, making the launch oversubscribed by 1,189 times.
The total supply of EDU is fixed at one billion tokens, which was distributed among nine allocation groups at launch.
25.0% to the Ecosystem Fund (250 million EDU)
15.5% to Advisors (155 million EDU)
13.0% to a Strategic Sale (130 million EDU)
10.0% to Liquidity Pools: (100 million EDU)
10.0% to the Team (100 million EDU)
10.0% to DAO Treasury (100 million EDU)
7.5% to Early Contributors (75 million EDU)
5.0% to the Binance Launchpad Event (50 million EDU)
4.0% to Operational Expenses (40 million EDU)
Vesting Schedule
A portion of the EDU token supply was unlocked at launch, with various allocations following structured vesting schedules. A total of 50 million EDU allocated to the Binance Launchpad was fully vested at the Token Generation Event, while other allocations are subject to linear and non-linear vesting over varying periods.
Ecosystem Fund: 5% unlocked at TGE with the remaining 95% vesting linearly over 4 years.
Advisors: a 1.5-year cliff followed by linear monthly vesting over 2.5 years.
Strategic Sale: a 1.5-year cliff followed by linear monthly vesting over 2.5 years.
Liquidity: 50% unlocked at TGE, with the remaining 50% vested linearly over 1 year.
Team: a 2-year cliff followed by linear monthly vesting over 3 years.
DAO Treasury: 5% unlocked at TGE, followed by a 1-year cliff, with the remaining 95% vesting linearly over 2 years.
Early Contributors: 10% unlocked at TGE, with the remaining 90% vesting linearly over 6 months.
Operational Expenses: 50% unlocked at TGE, followed by linear monthly vesting over 4 years.
EDU Functions
EDU serves several roles within the Open Campus ecosystem:
Native Gas Token: EDU serves as the native gas token for EDU Chain.
Staking for Rewards: EDU holders can stake EDU to secure EDU Chain and earn Yuzu Points.
DAO Governance: EDU holders can participate in governance by voting on protocol upgrades, grant distributions, and ecosystem decisions.
Educational Grants: EDU is distributed as grants to support the development of educational content and dApps.
Ecosystem Funding: EDU is allocated from the EDU Foundation for incentive programs, educational grants, and developer funding to expand the Open Campus ecosystem.
Node Operators: earn EDU for contributing to network stability.
pNFT Staking Yield: Co-publishers can stake pNFTs on Polygon to earn rewards for sales.
Minting OC Achievements: EDU will be used for minting verifiable credentials tied to Open Campus IDs.
Student Loans and Micro-Scholarships: EDU is used for loans and scholarships provided by the OC-X, TinyTap, and dApps within the ecosystem.
As the ecosystem evolves, the role of EDU will expand to include the following use cases:
Accessing Content on Open Campus University: EDU will be used to access premium content on Open Campus University.
Staking to Support Educators: Students will be able to stake EDU to support educators on Open Campus University.
Minting pNFTs: Content creators and educators will mint pNFTs on EDU Chain by spending EDU.
Purchasing pNFTs: Students and Parents will be able to use EDU to purchase Publisher NFTs on the upcoming Publisher NFT Marketplace.
Rewards: Yuzu Points holders will be able to participate in raffle events for the chance to earn EDU rewards.
EDU Chain Ecosystem Overview
Network Usage
EDU Chain has recorded over 82 million transactions since launching in January 2025, with a daily average of about 791,000 transactions. Within the same period, about 440,000 unique addresses have interacted with the chain. This activity can be attributed to the growing ecosystem of educational dApps and incentive-driven programs like Yuzu Points.
Ecosystem Development
Over 20 dApps are live on EDU Chain and span multiple categories to support learners within the ecosystem. Several live dApps include:
GainzSwap: A DEX that enhances liquidity and utility for EDU tokens while supporting the EDU Chain ecosystem with trading and governance dashboards for delegating EDU holdings.
SailFish: A native voting-escrow DEX (veDEX) on EDU Chain that will support EDU delegation and direct voting in the Open Campus DAO.
edBank: A stablecoin protocol that enables users to mint a native stablecoin by locking EDU tokens as collateral through a Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) model.
Pody Network: A platform designed for hosting virtual classrooms that support global learning while enabling participants to earn rewards.
OpenTaskAI: A talent marketplace that connects AI freelancers with businesses seeking AI-related services.
Proof of Learn: An education platform that rewards students with blockchain-verified credentials and tokens for completing interactive quests that support skill development and career opportunities.
Edu.Fun: A community token launchpad that allows students and alumni to “tokenize school spirit,” facilitating decentralized scholarship and funding within their educational communities.
Mogaland: A gamified financial education platform that combines interactive mini-games, trading simulations, and courses with token rewards. Users earn MOGA tokens, NFT badges, and micro-credentials as they progress, while scholarship opportunities aim to ensure financial education remains accessible.
Grasp Academy: An educational content platform that empowers educators and learners with earning opportunities through tokenized rewards, decentralized funding, and an integrated Learning Management System (LMS).
Pencil Finance: A Real-World Asset (RWA) lending protocol that issues onchain student loans to students within the EDU Chain ecosystem. Open Campus supplied $10 million in liquidity as loan collateral to support the platform.
In addition to dApps, TinyTap is building on EDU Chain to provide two programs to support learners:
EDUcator Rewards Program: Educators earn bonuses in EDU from course sales on TinyTap and for referring students to the platform.
EDU Scholarship Fund: Organizations and individuals can contribute EDU to a fund to provide scholarships for learners. The program allows for up to $1,000 in educational credits to be shared with learners to access learning resources.
DeSci Hub
Open Campus aims to establish EDU Chain as a foundational platform for Decentralized Science (DeSci) projects, leveraging its mission, academic connections, and existing funding bodies. In November 2024, Open Campus invited developers to build DeSci dApps focused on three core pillars:
Open Science Infrastructure: Decentralized systems that enhance the accessibility and transparency of scientific resources. This pillar aims to ensure researchers have equitable access to equipment, data, and computational tools.
Decentralized Research Funding and Impact: Transparent, community-driven platforms for funding research and evaluating its impact.
Scientific Knowledge Creation and Verification: Protocols and platforms that improve the reliability, accessibility, and reproducibility of scientific knowledge. This pillar aims to encourage open collaboration and implement transparent processes for publishing, peer review, and replication.
In January 2025, Open Campus announced that yesnoerror had received a grant to audit scientific research papers.
Roadmap
Open Campus plans to implement several new platforms and solutions to expand its ecosystem:
Open Campus University
A cornerstone of Open Campus’s roadmap is Open Campus University (OCU), a platform where students will engage with educators on social media and access content from Open Campus Alliance partners. The EDU token will be integral to this ecosystem, allowing users to unlock premium content and be staked to support educators.
As part of OCU’s development, Open Campus has partnered with KIP Protocol to integrate AI-powered tutoring, secure OC-IDs, and provide adaptive learning systems. In August 2024, the Open Campus DAO approved a $10 million proposal to further develop OCU, with the aim of onboarding 400 professors, curating 900 courses, and attracting 1 million learners within 18–24 months of launch.
Publisher NFT Marketplace
Open Campus plans to launch the Publisher NFT Marketplace as a platform for distributing future pNFTs. This will allow content creators to mint and sell pNFTs, and learners to buy and access them, directly on EDU Chain.
Education Finance (EduFi)
Open Campus plans to transform how education is financed by bringing the EduFi market onchain through a three-phase process:
Phase 1 (Web 2.0): The EDU Foundation currently uses its $10 million fund to provide EduFi loans through its existing network of over one million student borrowers via ErudiFi and InvestEd.
Phase 2 (Web 2.5): Open Campus will bridge traditional and decentralized models by forking Goldfinch’s private credit system into EDU Chain. The hybrid system introduces tranche-based loan pools, enabling diversified risk management while expanding the funding pool to support more student borrowers.
Phase 3 (Web 3): The EduFi solution will evolve into a fully decentralized underwriting system using a social consensus mechanism. Node operators (i.e., underwriters, universities, educators, and parents) will collaborate to assess borrower creditworthiness on EDU Chain. They will stake EDU tokens as underwriting collateral to back loan approvals, earn rewards, and build underwriting reputations while being held accountable through a slashing mechanism. Liquidity providers will stake EDU to the loan pool and earn interest from borrower repayments. Borrowers gain equitable access to capital and own their verifiable onchain credit history.
Closing Summary
Open Campus represents an ambitious effort to reimagine the global education landscape through the application of blockchain technology. By integrating decentralized identity, verifiable credentials, tokenized educational content, and onchain financing, it offers a multifaceted response to long-standing challenges in the education sector. Through innovations such as Publisher NFTs, OC-ID, and the “Learn-Own-Earn” model powered by EDU Chain, the platform seeks to empower both educators and learners within a more transparent, equitable, and incentive-aligned ecosystem.
Its roadmap emphasizes continued development of an ecosystem of education-focused dApps and platforms built on EDU Chain. As Open Campus grows, its long-term success will depend on its ability to navigate the inherent risks of decentralized finance, ensure user accountability, and address the regulatory complexities unique to the education industry.
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