> But this makes no sense.

Sorry, may be I am bad a explaining.

> Universities already have accounting software.

This is not an accounting software. Though others can build an accounting software on top of the proposed platform. But that is not my project's scope.

> Money comes in via grants and student payment (in whatever form that is) and pays staff salaries.

That money via "student payment" is what I am trying to change. Students are given loans to pay for education. This is a bad idea. Making students debtors even before they start generating income is wrong on so many fronts. I am trying to change education funding from debt-based to equity-based. Students should not be penalised for taking education. But I do think that everyone who has benefited from education should contribute back to whoever helped them in their education(this will also help better the education standards). The platform I am proposing will facilitate that. In the present system students pay first(using loans) and then hope of a better outcome to coverup the cost. This is reverse to how we pay for any other service/product! In real life we get the service/product and then we pay for it. Why do students have to first pay and then cross their fingers in the hope that they will be able to get the income to pay back the loans. Instead, if we treat funding in education as investment in a student, then the repayment should be treated as dividend and not loan. That way students will not suffer bankruptcy!

> Nothing about what you describe requires federation.

It requires federation because it is not controlled by any single entity, but it still has to have some oversight as the data on the platform is about students. It could have been permissionless/non-federated like bitcoin/ethereum blockchain. That is the ideal situation. But as the data held by the platform is sensitive, it has to be federated/permission-oriented.

> You just simply announce it.

It is not that simple. There are many stakeholders in this: the government, education institutions, students, businesses and policymakers. It is a multi-sided platform. It will make a subtle change to education funding, but will be a major disruption to the way education is funded sustainably. There will be some who will not like this change as it will disturb their profit-making carts!

> Even in your paragraph describing it you just fall back on the description of the "funding with future salary" approach.

Yes, that is the aim. But instead of private investors, it will be government(directly) and/or education institutions(backed by government) that will directly invest in the students. And this platform will be available for everyone to participate in. It is a non-profit, open source and blockchain-based for a reason. If I didn't want to change the status quo of education funding and wanted to make profit out of students then I would have just started a private, closed source, profit making platform based on traditional database as other are doing it.

I am just trying to make equity-based funding of education open, transparent, sustainable and universal without penalising students(and tax-payers) and at the same time increase income of education institutions and its staff. All the present solutions that are available do not provide that.