Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär, director of the CIF from the University of Basel, explains how they use Certifaction in a pilot project.
The Center for Innovative Finance at the University of Basel has started a project to fight diploma fraud and to reduce their administrative effort in verifying student diplomas, by implementing Certifaction.
In an interview with the Swiss radio and television broadcaster, SRF, Professor Dr. Fabian Schär from the University of Basel speaks about how the Center of Innovative Finance has partnered up with Certifaction to issue blockchain secured diplomas to its students. Prof. Dr. Schär co-initiated what has become Certifaction.
In an effort to fight diploma fraud and to reduce the administrative effort, a blockchain solution was determined to be ideal as it can instantly prove with absolute certainty whether a specific document is authentic, when it was certified, and by whom.
At the moment this is being conducted as a pilot for the department which, if it is determined successful, will lead to a full roll-out at the whole University of Basel. Below is a translated version of the interview.
How it works
The issuer of a diploma creates a digital fingerprint of the document and adds it to the blockchain, explains Prof. Dr. Schär. Later, anyone who has this diploma can do the same. To verify the diploma, the so-called hash value can be calculated. This verifies whether the university has written this hash value.
Who benefits from it?
A potential employer where someone is applying would then be able to use the blockchain to check whether the certificate presented is genuine, says Prof. Dr. Schär. But the contents are protected. Only those who have the original document in front of them can see the content. “Data protection is guaranteed,” assures Prof. Dr. Schär.
Frequency of forgeries
Counterfeit documents are not only a problem in the academic world.Prof. Dr. Schär says: “For example, the University of Basel receives several requests per week about the authenticity of documents. This takes up a lot of the registrar’s time because, due to data protection reasons, the consent of the person concerned has to be obtained.” With blockchain technology, this effort could be reduced to a minimum.
Listen to the interview (in German) here.