Blockchain based solution for academic certificate management system using smart contract

Abstract

Educational certificates serve as proof of qualification for their recipients. These certificates are subject to forgery and manipulation. The traditional way to verify the authenticity and integrity of certificates has not shown much efficiency in preventing fraud. Universities and companies need to collect, keep and update an unmanageable number of documents and papers from the applicants, in order to verify the competencies that the applicant claims and to determine forged documents. Another concern is about cyber criminals trying to hack the university’s centralized databases to alter the data. Moreover, corrupt officials may be bribed to illegally change a student’s academic data without fulfilling the requirements. Blockchain technology has emerged as a new approach to building decentralized reliable systems. It provides an effective and efficient way to protect sensitive data from subsequent change or deletion. Smart contracts decentralize the critical services in the certification process to improve transparency, accuracy, data privacy, and reliability. Unlike the traditional verification methods, the system will be designed in a decentralized way by using blockchain technology. Decentralization enhances the security and robustness features of the system by avoiding single points of failure and removing the need to put trust in any single party.