Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the way industries handle their transactions and other aspects of administration, and at the forefront of blockchain education and certification is the Blockchain Council.
This review explores how the council empowers individuals and organizations to harness blockchain’s potential.
With a global network of experts, Blockchain Council offers comprehensive programs and certifications for beginners and professionals.
Join me as I uncover everything about the Blockchain Council, from the quality of the learning experience to the pros and cons of the programs.
Here’s the outline of everything this review covers:
- What is the Blockchain Council?
- What Does the Blockchain Council Contain?
- Who is Blockchain Council for?
- Blockchain Council Pros
- Blockchain Council Cons
- Pricing and Refund Policy
- Verdict—Blockchain Council, Is It Worth It?
Let’s kick off with an overview of the Blockchain Council.
What Is Blockchain Council?
Blockchain Council is a private corporation bent on spreading awareness of blockchain technology by sensitizing individuals and companies to the potential blockchain has as an effective replacement for the traditional, centralized working systems currently in place.
To that end, Blockchain Council has created an online space where blockchain experts, enthusiasts, aspiring professionals, developers, and enterprises come together to learn, pitch their ideas, innovate, discuss the advancements in blockchain, and leverage the opportunities that open up as a result of emerging possibilities.
The community, or “council” as it is called, includes experts and students in various blockchain-related disciplines such as machine learning, cybersecurity, Web 3, the metaverse, etc. The council currently has over 1,500 members and has established its presence in over 90 countries worldwide.
Blockchain Council offers several robust packages that help all its members in one way or another. These packages allow the platform to serve as a training hub, a job interview prep of sorts, and a channel for visibility.
For instance, Blockchain Council has a wide array of courses targeted at newbies to blockchain who want to build their careers in the rapidly developing industry.
These courses are mostly via pre-recorded videos by a Blockchain Council instructor, although live training does come up regularly. You can access the latter from anywhere through a mobile device.
For more of what Blockchain Council has to offer, continue reading.
Blockchain Council—What Is Inside?
Blockchain Council caters to the interest of individuals and enterprises with a range of training solutions that can help them find their feet in the blockchain world or switch careers.
The platform also provides some handy solutions for networking. Let’s explore the training offers for individuals first.
Individuals who enroll for premium access to Blockchain Council’s content get all the courses with their subscription for life. These courses come with their respective certifications. Below is a list of some of those certificated courses:
- Understanding Blockchains
- Developing Blockchains
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning
- Web 3 & Metaverse
- Cryptocurrency & Digital Assets
- Blockchain for Business
Learning paths are also available to save you stress if you can’t decide which course or certification to go for. A learning path combines all the courses you need to become an expert in a particular domain, such as AI or NFT development.
However, I find this method imperfect as it doesn’t provide a way of helping you to determine what you are really interested in if you have no idea of that. Nevertheless, you can contact support to provide that assistance.
Just for curiosity’s sake, here are the learning paths that Blockchain Council provides:
- Master Web 3 Fundamentals
- Master the art of AI
- Master Blockchain Development
- Develop Private Blockchain for Enterprise
- Master Web 3 Businesses
- And more
You can register for instructor-led training if you are uncomfortable with committing yourself to your own schedule. Also, live training sessions do come up periodically, so you watch out for them.
The courses themselves are, in my opinion, comprehensive and well-explained. You won’t have difficulty catching up as the training is meant to pick you up from ground zero. It also helps that the certificates are accredited and can easily be verified by an employer.
In addition, Blockchain Council frequently holds webinars and workshops featuring blockchain experts bringing the latest updates in the blockchain world and showing practical demonstrations of emerging blockchain use cases.
It’s a handy way to keep abreast of the developments in blockchain and update your knowledge so that you can always contribute meaningfully when your input is needed. You also get lots of e-books and podcasts with your premium subscription.
Who Is Blockchain Council For?
No doubt, by now, you are eager to learn who Blockchain Council’s target audience is. That is what this section is all about.
Professionals
Blockchain has a lot of potential and use cases in law, healthcare, security, digital marketing, et cetera. There is high demand for professionals in this endeavor, and course platforms like Blockchain Council can go a long way in training people to fill vacancies.
Any professional in the above-mentioned fields and others can undertake a study of blockchain with the help of the Blockchain Council in order to transition to a seamless mode of operation with the opportunities and possibilities blockchain opens up.
Developers
There will always be a need for developers to use their coding skills to develop the decentralized blockchain-based applications and smart contracts that companies and enterprises will base their operating systems on.
Blockchain Council has courses, resources, and training programs to equip developers with the technical know-how behind blockchain platforms, programming languages, and frameworks.
Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders
The technological advances blockchain brings are glaring, and no entrepreneur or business leader wants to be left behind when the world moves beyond the traditional systems and protocols we are all too familiar with. That could mean that their brands become irrelevant.
However, learning how to harness the power of blockchain and ride the waves of the revolution isn’t something that happens overnight. Blockchain Council helps to solve that problem by guiding CEOs who want to understand where blockchain can help their businesses.
Students and Researchers
Students and researchers who want to pursue a career in blockchain may cringe at the huge fees universities and other academic institutions charge to teach blockchain. With Blockchain Council, they have a very affordable platform that’s no farther than their mobile devices.
With Blockchain Council, they are not missing anything that a physical institution provides. The platform is replete with all the courses and resources they need and even provides a certificate that is recognized everywhere.
Government and Regulatory Bodies
It takes more than an online educational body to blaze the trails of relatively new technology. The task becomes much easier when power elements like governments and regulatory bodies jump into the matter.
That way, more people can feel safe about jumping on the bandwagon since they have the assurance of agencies and institutions they look up to.
Blockchain Council liaises with these agencies to promote the adoption of blockchain technologies and develop policies and frameworks to prevent misuse of the technology. These discussions usually involve mapping out the benefits, challenges, and potential applications of blockchain in various sectors.
Blockchain Council Pros
Good Customer Support
The support team is swift to respond, and they employ various channels of communication, such as live chat and email. At the time of writing this review, they also communicate with users through WhatsApp.
The support team can also help with technical matters. To their credit, they have a dedicated team of Subject Matter Experts who are always on call to answer any query.
Certification
One remarkable feature of the certificates is that they last for a lifetime. You don’t have to retake exams every once in a while to renew them. Nevertheless, since you also get lifetime access to the courses, it is a good idea to review them once in a while after completing them so the knowledge stays fresh.
I also like the certification process. My investigation revealed that you are allowed three attempts for the exams, so you have multiple chances of passing the exams if you don’t scale them in one go. Not every other certification program affords you this luxury, so seeing it here is a thumbs-up.
Networking Opportunities
Blockchain Council is essentially a body of blockchain experts and professionals in blockchain-related domains. Since it is one large community, you get tons of opportunities to form meaningful connections.
You can connect with others taking the same studies as you or reach out to others at a higher level than you. At the same time, you can get featured on the Blockchain Council member network, which will help you form more connections.
Blockchain Council is full of workshops and conferences that enable participants to exchange ideas, share resources, and learn from each other’s experiences to enhance their understanding of blockchain and its applications.
These workshops and other group activities also feature industry experts, developers, entrepreneurs, and researchers. They will surely help you to gain insights into the latest trends, best practices, and cutting-edge research for a well-rounded learning experience.
The networking opportunities on Blockchain Council can also expose you to job openings, internships, and freelance gigs by way of recommendations and referrals from the influential people you connect to.
Wide Coverage
Blockchain Council provides access to training on blockchain topics that other sources hardly cover due to the fact that those domains are rapidly evolving.
Subjects like ChatGPT, the metaverse, NFts, et cetera, get a lot of attention which is great to see. There is also much depth to the courses. For instance, the NFT course starts from the basics and covers sub-topics like Ethereum tokens, tech foundations of NFT, use cases, history, future challenges, et cetera.
Blockchain Council Cons
Learning Experience Is Not Consistent
The courses contain fewer visual aids than necessary, and you will find that the voice used is more machine than human.
Some of the self-paced courses miss out on the practical aspect of the subjects treated. Real-life demonstrations are missing, and the examples used for explanation are often not relatable either because they are too specific to the conditions existing in a particular country or they are downright high-level.
Blockchain for business courses in less techy segments like law and healthcare are victims of this con.
Another issue you might run into is that some courses are outdated in their content. If you are unlucky, you might be stuck with a course that hasn’t been updated for up to two years without even realizing it.
Added to that is the fact that a lot of Blockchain Council self-paced courses are notorious for their poor-quality slides with plenty of typos and errors.
Some Courses Are Not Beginner-Friendly Even Though They Claim to Be
Depending on the course you pick, you might find the course material a bit clumsy, and the course content might be full of technical terms you will have to spend extra time researching. This problem is more common with self-paced courses than interactive live classes.
Some of the courses also give off this vibe of the instructor trying to impress with his knowledge rather than meeting the student at his level of understanding. At the same time, some of the concepts are taught in a way that requires the learner to have understood certain concepts beforehand.
The Certified Blockchain Expert is an example of what I’m talking about. It covers many aspects of the blockchain ecosystem, but you must be somewhat familiar with blockchain technologies, such as consensus mechanisms, to proceed.
In summary, Blockchain Council claims to be for everyone regardless of their starting point, but it’s either they do not have introductory courses in the real sense of it or their version of “introductory” is not simple enough for a beginner to grasp.
Pricing
Blockchain Council is available in three pricing formats: the functional plan, the developers plan, and the unlimited learning plan. All the plans attract yearly billing.
The functional learning subscription is billed at $349 yearly and unlocks the entire course content targeted at complete beginners.
The developer learning subscription is a set of courses curated for developers and comes at the same price as the functional learning plan: $349
The unlimited learning plan grants you access to all of Blockchain Council’s courses without exception. This plan allows you to pick any self-paced course at will. It currently costs $699.
Refund Policy
In case the refund policy seems ambiguous, that’s because it is. It simply means that you only have seven days to submit a refund request, and even if you fulfill that criteria, your refund is not guaranteed.
Are Blockchain Council Courses Worth It?
From what I have seen about Blockchain Council courses, the answer is not so definite.
On the one hand, many of the platform’s courses are highly rated, and rightly so. They are comprehensive, covering the subject in virtually every aspect. They are also very detailed and will equip you with enough information to be confident and sound knowledgeable when conversing about blockchain topics.
On the other hand, there are more than a few blockchain courses that are either outdated or were just not thoroughly prepared. They make it a bit harder for absolute beginners to connect the dots, and the overall presentation is just, well, boring.
I recommend going with the interactive live sessions as the content is far more polished than what you get in the self-paced courses. If not, the self-paced courses can be hit-or-miss, especially in the blockchain for business aspects.
Related
Leave a Reply