Education founders Oliver Jenks and Kodi Sinclair
(Photo/Supplied)
Key
points
- OnChain Education, founded by UC
students, is an edtech startup transforming how blockchain
is taught, replacing theory-heavy lectures with a safe,
simulation-based learning platform. - Built by
students and validated through real university courses, the
platform enables large-scale, hands-on blockchain training
without crypto risk, complex setup or institutional IT
barriers. - Accelerated through University of
Canterbury’s Summer Startup Programme, the founders are
preparing to scale across New Zealand, Australia, and
fast-growing Asian tech markets in 2026.
A
student startup is turning complex blockchain theory into a
safe, ‘flight simulator’ for real-world skills, backed
by UC’s Summer Startup Programme.
When Te Whare
Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) students
Oliver Jenks and Kodi Sinclair first joined the UC Crypto
Society (a student club), they didn’t expect it to lead to
a global edtech ambition. A combined 16 years of experience
with blockchain (a shared, secure digital record) has
culminated in their startup OnChain Education, which helps
universities teach blockchain in a way that feels less like
a textbook, and more like a flight simulator.
Their
startup idea emerged when the pair were supporting a UC
course with practical blockchain labs, and the founders saw
firsthand that although blockchain appears in many
university courses, it rarely moves beyond
theory.
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Jenks says blockchain isn’t just about
speculation. “There are real applications in governance,
supply chains and finance, but people need practical,
grounded education so they can spot opportunities and avoid
the scams. Students were learning blockchain theory in
lectures, but it wasn’t until they got hands-on that the
lightbulb moments happened.”
This is the literacy
gap that OnChain Education aims to fill, which Jenks
describes as ‘a flight simulator for
blockchain’.
A flight simulator for
blockchain
To use blockchain, learners need a crypto
wallet, browser extensions and real cryptocurrency to pay
transaction fees. For a class of 40–70 students, setting
that up is slow, risky and often impossible on university
lab computers.
OnChain Education’s platform removes
those barriers by providing:
Instant in-browser
wallets – no downloads or extensions
A real
blockchain environment – but with tokens that have no
real-world value
A fully web-based interface, avoiding
security and IT policy issues
“Would you trust a
pilot who had only read the manual?” Jenks says. “We
think of OnChain Education as a flight simulator for
blockchain. Students can experiment, make mistakes and learn
how it really works, but there’s no financial risk, and
they can’t ‘crash the plane’.”
OnChain
Education has already been used in a UC Information Systems
course on decentralised governance, where students made
around 1,000 blockchain transactions in four weeks—all in
a safe environment with zero financial risk.
In a
recent UC course on IT governance and strategy, students
used the platform to explore decentralised governance, cast
votes and track decisions on-chain over several weeks. By
the end of the labs, the cohort had collectively made about
1,000 blockchain transactions. This experience would have
been impossible to replicate safely using live
cryptocurrencies.
Supercharging growth through Summer
Startup
Now, as part of the UC
Centre for Entrepreneurship (UCE) Summer Startup
Programme, the founders are refining their model and
preparing to take their ‘learning lab for blockchain’ to
universities in Aotearoa New Zealand and
beyond.
Although OnChain Education had already built a
Minimum Viable Product and generated revenue before joining
UCE’s Summer Startup Programme, the founders say the
10-week accelerator has been crucial in sharpening their
thinking.
“Summer Startup has forced us to really
nail down the fundamentals: what problem we’re solving,
what our mission is, and how we’re going to scale,” says
Sinclair.
“It’s pushed us to go deeper on customer
discovery and market research,” he says. “We’re
getting input from mentors and speakers across different
industries, then asking, ‘How does this apply to a B2B
edtech company selling into universities?’ It’s helped
us build a much clearer game plan for 2026.”
The
Summer Startup cohort also gives the pair a network of
fellow founders to learn alongside, from refining business
models and pricing, to navigating global markets.
With
their UC pilot complete and further courses planned for
2026, OnChain Education is now looking outward. Their
immediate focus is on tertiary providers in New Zealand and
Australia, followed by tech-forward markets in Asia such as
Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, where blockchain adoption
is already strong.
They also see future potential in
corporate training, helping companies upskill staff in
blockchain, as well as in technical high schools and
polytechnics.
“We want to be the platform that
universities and organisations turn to when they say, ‘We
want a real blockchain experience, not just a lecture’,”
Jenks says. “If, in a few years’ time, we go to a
blockchain conference and people say, ‘You’re from
OnChain Education, your labs helped me get into this
industry’, that’s success.”
For Sinclair, the
dream is simple: “I’d love to get an email from a
graduate saying, ‘I used your platform at uni, and it
helped me land my job.’ That’s the impact we’re aiming
for.”
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