An On-Chain
Education Protocol

Digital credentials are fragmented, easily forged, and locked inside siloed platforms. A certificate from one provider means nothing on another. Employers must trust self-reported achievements, and learners have no portable, tamper-proof record of their education.

Centralised edtech platforms capture most of the economic value, leaving course creators with thin margins and learners with data locked inside walled gardens. When a platform shuts down, certificates disappear with it.

SkillChain resolves these problems at the protocol layer by anchoring every purchase, certificate, and credential to a public blockchain. The record is permanent, portable, and verifiable by anyone with internet access — no centralised registry required.

SkillChain is a suite of four smart contracts deployed on Base Mainnet. Base was chosen for its Ethereum equivalence, sub-cent transaction fees, and growing consumer adoption — making micro-transactions viable at scale.

Smart contract modules

• SkillToken.sol — ERC-20 with a fixed supply cap, no mint function post-deploy, and a burnFrom() hook consumed by CourseStore.
• CourseStore.sol — Course registry and purchase surface. Stores price, creator address, and IPFS content hash per course. Atomically routes payment on purchase.
• CourseCertificate.sol — ERC-1155 soulbound NFT. One token ID per course; safeTransferFrom is overridden to revert, making certificates permanently bound to the earner's wallet.
• RewardDistributor.sol — Treasury-funded distributor for competition and bounty payouts, governed by on-chain proposals in Stage 4.

Content layer

Course content (videos, text, quizzes) is stored off-chain via IPFS for censorship resistance. Content hashes are anchored in the on-chain course registry, so any modification to the original content is immediately detectable by comparing the hash.

The initial 1,000,000,000 $SKILL supply is distributed across four tranches with vesting schedules designed to align long-term incentives and prevent early dumping.

The community-and-rewards tranche is the largest allocation by design. It ensures that learners and educators — the people who generate value on the protocol — receive the majority of the token supply.

Every course purchase triggers CourseStore.sol, which splits the payment atomically in a single transaction. There is no intermediary step that can be front-run or reversed.

function purchaseCourse(uint256 courseId) external {
    Course memory course = courses[courseId];
    uint256 price = course.price;

    uint256 creatorAmount  = (price * 85) / 100;
    uint256 treasuryAmount = (price * 10) / 100;
    uint256 burnAmount     = price - creatorAmount - treasuryAmount;

    skillToken.transferFrom(msg.sender, course.creator, creatorAmount);
    skillToken.transferFrom(msg.sender, treasury, treasuryAmount);
    skillToken.burnFrom(msg.sender, burnAmount); // removes from total supply

    certificate.mint(msg.sender, courseId); // soulbound NFT issued
    emit CoursePurchased(msg.sender, courseId, price, burnAmount);
}

Completion certificates are minted as ERC-1155 tokens at the moment of course completion. They are non-transferable by design — they represent a learner's verified history, not a tradable asset.

• One token ID per course, minted directly to the learner's wallet on completion.
• Soulbound: transfer functions are overridden to revert unconditionally, permanently binding the credential to its earner.
• Publicly queryable — any employer or institution can verify a wallet's certificates via Basescan or the public REST API without contacting SkillChain.
• Certificates persist independently of the SkillChain frontend — they exist as long as the Base blockchain exists.

The course store is the primary purchase surface. Each course is registered on-chain with a price denominated in $SKILL, a creator address, and an IPFS content hash that anchors the canonical version of the material.

import { useSkillChain } from '@skillchain/sdk';

const { purchaseCourse, balance } = useSkillChain();

async function buy(courseId: number) {
  const tx = await purchaseCourse(courseId);
  await tx.wait();
  // certificate NFT is minted automatically on success
}

SkillChain supports any Base-compatible wallet via standard EIP-1193 providers. The SDK wraps wagmi and viem for React applications and exposes raw contract methods for non-React environments.

$SKILL rewards for competitions and bounty projects are distributed via RewardDistributor.sol, funded from the community allocation treasury. Competitions are designed to reward practical skill demonstration, not just course completion.

The SkillChain REST API exposes read endpoints for courses, certificates, and burn statistics. Base URL: api.skillchain.ink/v1

Governance launches in Stage 4. $SKILL holders will be able to propose and vote on new course categories, fee parameters, and treasury grants via a Governor Bravo-style module. Voting weight is proportional to $SKILL held at the time of snapshot.

The progressive decentralisation path is deliberate: early protocol decisions require speed, but sustainable long-term growth requires community ownership. The team retains upgrade keys only until governance is live and proven.

All core contracts will undergo independent third-party security audits prior to mainnet deployment. Audit reports will be linked in this document and on the public GitHub repository once complete.

Risk factors

• Smart contract risk — bugs in unaudited code may result in loss of funds. Wait for the audit report before interacting with contracts.
• Liquidity risk — $SKILL is a new token with nascent liquidity. Large trades may move price significantly.
• Regulatory risk — token regulations vary by jurisdiction. Users are responsible for compliance in their own region.
• IPFS availability — while content hashes are anchored on-chain, course content relies on IPFS pinning infrastructure remaining available.