Cardano Foundation Opens Practicum With On-Chain Credentials via Andamio

The Cardano Foundation has launched a practicum under its Cardano Academy banner that lets participants earn credentials recorded on the Cardano blockchain, provided a reviewer accepts their submitted work. The Foundation announced the program in a Nov. 12 post on X, partnering with credentialing platform Andamio, whose infrastructure it says is live on Cardano mainnet.

The mechanics are simple. A participant submits either a project build or a pitch, waits for a reviewer's acceptance, then claims an on-chain credential. Registration requires no cryptocurrency wallet and no holdings of ADA, Cardano's native token, according to the launch announcement.

What does the reviewer sit between?

Assessment sits squarely between the participant's work and the blockchain record. Both a build and a pitch qualify as submission formats. The announcement's wallet exemption covers sign-up only — it doesn't say how a credential is held after approval, what transaction costs claiming one involves, or whether those costs are covered for participants.

Andamio's developer documentation lays out a credential process spanning commitments, assessment and claims. The platform ships tools for issuing credentials, checking which credentials a holder owns, and gating application features based on those holdings. Organizations can create courses or projects with an identifier published on-chain and define what the credentials represent. Developers can build verification tools, directories and dashboards around existing credentials without owning the underlying course or project. Andamio's published tooling covers courses, lessons, assignments, project tasks and contributors, plus the transactions that record activity on the network.

Where does the practicum fit in the Academy?

The Academy's education offering serves more than 10,000 learners, according to its website. Its catalog already includes:

• On-demand technical and business courses
• Organizational masterclasses
• Professional certification
• Open access to course materials

The Foundation separates badges earned through certified exams from those awarded for course completion. Certified badges go to learners who pass exams at authorized Pearson VUE test centers. Other badge categories cover Venture Hub participation, masterclasses and academic programs at partner universities. Credentials are shared through Credly and carry metadata that can be checked online.

The refreshed Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate course runs 26 units covering distributed ledgers, cryptography, consensus and Cardano's architecture. The published syllabus includes governance through delegated representatives, staking, transaction models and scaling approaches such as Hydra and Mithril. The 2026 course page describes just under four hours of self-paced online learning. Target learners include software engineers, IT decision-makers, lecturers, researchers, students and candidates preparing for the separate Pearson VUE exam. Topics span public-key encryption, digital signatures, the difference between account-based and UTXO systems, and how distributed nodes validate transactions, with proof-of-work weighed against proof-of-stake — including Cardano's Ouroboros protocol family.

What about the university pipeline?

On Oct. 22, the Foundation said the Academy will teach Cardano fundamentals inside the University of Nicosia's Blockchain and Digital Assets course and sponsor 25 advanced-track places. The university lists Feb. 8, 2027 as the next start date, with an eight-week introductory track and a 12-week advanced track. The teaching covers network fundamentals and the extended UTXO model.

In the US, a September agreement with UCLA Anderson School of Management's Venture Accelerator brings Academy content and coursework to the course Blockchain Cryptocurrency Applications in Business and Finance, taught by Alex Nascimento, starting in 2027. The deal includes five sponsored fellowships for early-stage companies in UCLA Accelerate — funding, mentorship and ecosystem access included — plus sponsorship of the 2027 UCLA Draper Innovation Showcase.

Earlier institutional work included a March 2025 partnership with SERPRO, Brazil's state-owned government technology provider, meant to train 8,000 employees — more than 2,000 of them developers — alongside cooperation on blockchain innovation and public-sector digital infrastructure.

The practicum now gives the Academy its first submission-based, on-chain-verified track; expect the first reviewed credentials to start hitting Cardano mainnet as the opening cohort moves through assessment.