This article helps provide funding data for part 7 of my annual review of the year in ed-tech

There have not been any education technology startups raising money in 2016 that have explicitly described their product as “blockchain for education.” Thank god.

There has been general interest from venture capitalists and major corporations in blockchain startups and blockchain technologies.

Some of the articles penned this year by CB Insights, an investment analyst firm:

• Banking Is Only The Start: 20 Big Industries Where Blockchain Could Be Used
• The March Of Financial Services Giants Into Bitcoin And Blockchain Startups In One Chart
• Blockchain Startup Investment Bounces Back
• Who’s Using Blockchain?
• Annual Deals To Blockchain And Bitcoin Startups On Pace To Drop For First Time

“Blockchain,” along with that other ed-tech buzzword “competency-based learning” was invoked in PR from the University of Texas System for TEx, the learning platform it built with the help of Salesforce.

Blockchain-related credentials are also under development at the MIT Media Lab.

Sony has said it’s working on blockchain technology for testing.

The ACT Foundation and the Institute for the Future launched a game at SXSWedu in which the blockchain was imagined as part of a future where “learning is earning.”

There’s also the Blockchain Education Network, founded as the College Cryptocurrency Network (CCN) in 2014.

For more information: here is my guide to the blockchain in education.