Minimizing Certificate Verification Time in Blockchain Technology

Abstract

The growing use of digital certificates across various sectors demands a more reliable and efficient method for verifying their authenticity. Current verification processes are hampered by manual verification, delays, human error, and insufficient security, leaving room for fraud, especially in critical areas like education. This paper proposes a novel blockchain-based certificate authentication system that offers enhanced security and transparency. The proposed system makes use of a private blockchain to validate the certificates and a public blockchain to store the certificates without losing their integrity. The designed system is equipped with an effective and fast searching mechanism while validating the certificates. The proposed system is tested in a Sepolia Testnet environment run on Ethereum. An analysis has been carried out on the cost incurred for the done transactions on the proposed architecture. The experiments are done for both cases using search optimization methodologies and without using the search optimizations. It can be observed from the results that the search optimization techniques are highly effective for searching the false certificates.