Adoption of Blockchain Technology in Academic Certificate-Verification Systems

Abstract

Receiving an academic certificate is a testimony that the individual receiving the certificate has achieved a number of specified learning outcomes. Still, due to the improvement in technology and the proliferation of the Internet, questionable businesses started offering fraudulent certificates and certain organizations started creating their own accreditation organizations that make it difficult to distinguish between fake and real academic certificates. In response to these problems, certificate verification policies and -processes are changing as electronic verification of certificates gradually gain popularity and are deployed in some institutions. Blockchain technology has emerged as a means of offering tamper proof digital certificates. This study examines the prevalent system of certificate verification and presents a framework for the implementation of blockchain technology in the context of Nigeria.