VerifyB - Students’ record management and verification system

Abstract

Blockchain Technology has grabbed a lot of attention in the past few decades as an emerging technology majorly for crypto-exchanges. However, in 2-3 years, blockchain technology has gone through a path of diffusion across domains which are way on the far side, from its initial fintech applications. Media, Telecommunication, life sciences, defense, healthcare, government, etc., are industries where rapid adoption of this technology is seen. The education sector can also benefit from this technology's pertinent features, such as immutability, distributed ledger, and transparency. Record management, course evaluation, assistive learning environment, transcripts protection, and verification are the potential areas where institutional organizations can utilize blockchain. VerifyB is a blockchain-based system that promotes interoperability between institutions/ organizations to manage and assure students' records without any third-party entity intervention. The system is deployed on Ethereum Blockchain. It defines how blockchain technology can be adopted and leveraged to store students' educational records using IPFS (Interplanetary File System). It proposes how students can share their transcripts with institutions and employers using QR codes. Also, institutions can sign those records with access control using web3, and the authenticated employers can verify those transcripts and the signatures on the same platform. This system will help students as well as institutions to maintain security and transparency at the same time. Based on the analysis, VerifyB is a reliable, completely decentralized, secure, and tamper-proof system that implements storage, maintenance, and verification of educational records.