Various types of innovation have brought about tremendous economic development in various countries and have contributed to the progress of human society. Looking at the world’s leading companies, it is because of their active promotion of innovation that they will never fail and even come to the forefront of the world’s enterprises. It can be said that technological innovation is the source of human wealth and the fundamental driving force for economic growth. Technological innovation can increase the benefit of products and reduce the cost of resources, which is the core strength of improving the competitiveness of enterprises [
1]. Lassar believes that technology can achieve the effect of multiplication of value through sharing, and cooperation innovation of enterprise technology is one of the most effective ways to achieve technology sharing and is a reliable guarantee for enterprises to establish a sustainable competitive advantage. It will become a kind of technology innovation of many enterprises [
2]. Collaborative innovation has usually based on the common interests of partners, and it has based on the premise of sharing resources or complementing each other. It has clear objectives for cooperation, cooperation deadlines, and cooperation rules. All parties involved in joint ventures invest in the whole process or some aspects of technological innovation: participate in, share results, and share risks. Collaborative innovation is generally concentrated in emerging technologies and high-tech industries, and R&D is the main form of cooperation [
3]. Currently facing the challenges of knowledge economy and technological progress, many countries are committed to the construction of a “national innovation system.” British scholar Freeman first proposed the concept of a “national innovation system,” which consists of companies, universities, research institutes, and intermediaries. In addition, enterprises are the main body of innovation. Universities and scientific research institutions are the source of innovation. At the same time, they provide and train innovative talents. Intermediary agencies are an important way to communicate and promote knowledge flow and technology diffusion. Governments create policies and laws that encourage and guide innovation [
4]. Cooperation innovation between industry, universities, and research institutes has considered as an important means to promote science and technology, education, and economic progress. At present, with the integration of science, technology, and economy, the cooperation between industry, universities, and research institutes around the world is showing a trend of continuous innovation, scale expansion, continuous improvement of the level, more flexible mechanisms, and more dynamic environment [
5]. Under the new and complicated market environment, the cooperation between production, education, and research is inefficient or even unsuccessful. It is the result of the combined effects of multiple factors, but the most fundamental reason lies in the mistakes made by the parties in the selection of models.
Blockchain technology is regarded as another subversive technology following cloud computing, Internet of things, and big data. It is highly concerned by governments, financial institutions, and technology companies. In 2016, developed countries such as the USA, the UK, and Japan have successively raised the blockchain technology to the national strategic level and established a blockchain development alliance. In the same year, the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Normalization” issued by the State Council for the first time included blockchains in Chinese national normalization plan and made it one of the strategic frontier technologies [
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8]. At present, all occupations have begun to pay attention to blockchain technology and actively explore the use of this technology to crack down on industry problems and promote innovation and development of the industry. In the financial sector, the global bank giants formed the R3 alliance, including more than 40 large international financial institutions such as HSBC, UBS, and the US Banking to develop blockchain technology. The US Nasdaq took the lead in introducing Linq, a security trading platform based on blockchain technology, which became an important milestone in the decentralization trend of financial and security markets. Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, pointed out at the digital currency seminar held in Beijing that it is necessary to pay close attention to the impact of blockchains and other technologies on the financial sector and demand the exploration of the issuance of digital currencies.
With the gradual improvement of blockchain technology and the continuous expansion of application fields, some international educational institutions and scholars have begun to pay attention to and explore the application of blockchain technology in the field of education. Prof. Qing Li from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications pointed out that blockchain technology has great application potential in the field of education, which helps to create a more open and more credible education system. As a whole, the current application of blockchain technology in the field of education has just begun. It lacks mature application cases and clear application ideas. It urgently needs to strengthen the collaborative research and practice of production, learning, and research. Based on this, this article will introduce the concept and core technology of blockchain technology, analyze the experience and enlightenment from blockchain application in the financial field, and discuss the educational application ideas and values of blockchain technology in combination with the existing typical education cases [
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10]. We analyze possible challenges to promote the application of blockchain technology in education.