Input Output Global Launches the Atala Decentralized Ecosystems Curriculum

• Curriculum seeks to educate and grow development of innovative and high-value projects in self-sovereign identity (SSI) and verifiable data
• Since 2021 Beta program launch, $3 million worth of ADA have been funded towards select program graduates’ projects
• Designed for non-technical professionals, UX designers, and software engineers, these foundational courses cover the concepts, principles, and tools required to realize next-generation decentralized ecosystems
• 500 spaces are available, with the first session starting in August 2022

As part of its efforts to grow development in decentralized identity management, Input Output Global (IOG) announces the public launch of the Atala PRISM Pioneer Program, and its new Decentralized Ecosystems Curriculum.  

The new curriculum focuses on supporting innovators and teams to take ideas from concept to successful launch and commercialization. It will be made up of three modules, each six weeks long, where participants will learn the foundations of decentralized identity for technical and non-technical audiences, foundations of human-centered design for decentralized applications, and building software applications with Atala PRISM. 

The Building with Atala PRISM course is focused on building applications with Atala PRISM on the leading Cardano blockchain platform. Atala PRISM is at the forefront of the self-sovereign identity movement to give citizens agency with their personal data. It is already being deployed with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia offering verifiable credentials for high-school diplomas to 5 million students in Ethiopia, and opening up new pathways for higher education and career development.

As part of the Human-centric Design for Decentralized Identity course, participants will learn UX design foundations for decentralized ecosystems and partake in design thinking and ecosystem workshops focused on customer centric problem discovery. The program will focus on how designers can build best-in-class apps focused on digital identity, delivering an uncompromised user experience. Outcomes will include creating new design patterns and ecosystem incentivization protocols leveraging the convergence of decentralized identity, governance frameworks, and layer-1 blockchain technology. 

As part of the program, participants get access to Input Output Global’s engineering and commercial experts to support commercialization within the vendor ecosystem. In addition, participants have multiple ways to engage and interact with Cardano community members, including speed-dating/networking events to meet your next co-founder or team member, office hours to connect with experts, and science fairs for showing off your project.

Allison Fromm, Atala Prism Pioneer Alumni, said: “As a non-technical participant, I was new to decentralized identity and found the course easy to follow and highly beneficial. I’ve been inspired to continue to learn, and I encourage anyone with an interest to get involved in shaping the new world the Atala team is helping to bring to life.”

The program is an on-ramp to Project Catalyst - Cardano’s turbo-charged innovation engine and one of the largest decentralized innovation funds in the world. The beta program participants have secured $3 million USD worth of ADA funding towards self-sovereign identity based projects including Roots Wallet and Snapbrillia. 

Tony Rose, Head of Product, Atala at Input Output Global, said: “Emerging technologies including decentralized identity, crypto-assets, and protocol driven governance open up new possibilities for individual agency and collaboration in our global society. As an industry, we are at the very beginning of understanding how to create the applications, user interfaces, and rules of engagement that unlock the potential Web3 offers. 

Building off the feedback of 500+ participants in our closed Beta Pioneer Program, we are thrilled to officially launch our Decentralized Ecosystems Curriculum to the entire community. We can’t wait to welcome a whole new cohort of professionals, UX designers, and software engineers into our community to learn and discover with us, and to build a new and better future together.”

Registration for the Atala PRISM Decentralized Ecosystem Curriculum is now open with 500 spaces available for the first program intake that starts in August 2022.

About Atala PRISM Pioneer Program: 

The Atala PRISM Pioneer Program is a program to train professionals, UX designers, and software developers to design decentralized identity solutions and ecosystems, and build them using the Atala PRISM Software Development Kit (SDK). With the official launch of our Decentralized Identity Curriculum, we offer 3 courses:

• Foundations of Decentralized Identity
• Building with Atala PRISM
• Human-centric Design for Decentralized Identity

Upon joining, you will become part of a select group with early access to a set of courses that will teach you the core principles of decentralized ecosystems and Atala PRISM, including self-sovereign identity, decentralized identifiers (DIDs), verifiable credentials (VCs), Trust and Governance Frameworks and more.

The course materials are highly interactive, with weekly videos, exercises, and Q&A sessions, along with exclusive access to the course creators and office-hours with key experts. You will also be able to join a dedicated community channel, created to help Pioneers connect and build teams with each other.

For more information about Atala PRISM Pioneer Program and to register, please visit https://atalaprism.io/pioneers/

About Input Output Global:

Input Output Global is a research and development, and product engineering company, committed to using peer-to-peer innovations to provide 21st century services to the 3 billion who don’t have them. We build blockchain based products for governments, corporations and academic institutions and upskill people across the world, empowering them to solve the most pressing problems faced by people in their countries. We have core beliefs in decentralization, privacy, economic identity, and financial empowerment for everyone, and stand opposed to centralized control and bureaucracy.