An Integrated Blockchain-Based Certificate Issuance and Verification Platform Using Ethereum Smart Contracts and Automated PDF Delivery

Abstract

ABSTRACT Forgery of academic and professional certificates remains a major concern across institutions. Traditional centralized systems are prone to manipulation and single points of failure. This work presents a blockchain-based certificate issuance and verification platform developed using Spring Boot and the Ethereum Sepolia test network. The system supports multiple organizations where issuers register and are approved by an administrator before generating certificates. Each certificate is assigned a unique identifier, and a SHA-256 hash of its data is stored on the blockchain through smart contracts. The platform also automates PDF certificate creation with embedded QR codes and sends them via email. Additional features include bulk certificate generation, revocation support, and public verification without requiring a blockchain wallet. Experimental observations indicate an average issuance time of around 4 seconds and verification within 1.5 seconds. Keywords: Blockchain, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, SHA-256, Certificate Verification, Spring Boot, Web3j, PDF Automation