Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär and our CPO, Fabian Mösli, describe how blockchain technology can be used to secure academic credentials.
Professor Dr. Fabian Schär, director of the Center of Innovative Finance at the University of Basel, and Fabian Mösli, Certifaction’s Chief Product Officer, wrote an article in the German academic journal “Beiträge zu Hochschulforschung” (“Contributions to higher education research”). Their article “Blockchain Diplomas: Using Smart Contracts to Secure Academic Credentials” describes their project being done in collaboration between Certifaction and Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär to secure diplomas on the Ethereum blockchain.
The idea stems from Prof. Dr. Schär recognizing the big problem we face with fraud in academia. Diploma fraud in particular is a big issue, as anyone can easily buy forged credentials from any school for a few hundred US Dollars. As Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli state in their article,
“Needless to say, these fake diplomas have the potential to significantly damage the credibility of institutions and higher education as a whole.”
Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli go further into detail about how current security measures are not sufficient enough and are rendered useless when documents are sent electronically. This is often the case as people apply to jobs by uploading a PDF document to the application platform, usually by scanning a paper original. What Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli do not discuss, but is still highly relevant, is how unfair this is to students who go through the full education program by paying the fees and passing their classes through hard work to earn their degree.
Apart from reputational damage universities face, they also have a great administrative burden when it comes to verifying a diploma. Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli found that some universities tackle this problem by using a centralized database and an online form to automate requests. They believe this is a step in the right direction and improves efficiency, but there are still some great flaws; particularly when it comes to providing secure and reliable information.
In the article, Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli go on to describe how in early 2018, the University of Basel’s Center for Innovative Finance partnered up with Certifaction to secure course certificates on a public blockchain. Using a public blockchain, they believe they can counter the drawbacks that traditional methods, like a centralized database, face.
The table below is a summary of how their blockchain solution compares with other options:
| Verification | Revocability | Timestamp | Cost Predict. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Diploma | weak | no | none | fixed |
| Certified PDF | centralized | no | weak | fixed |
| Centralized Database | centralized | yes | weak | fixed |
| Blockchain Diploma | autonomous | yes | secure | variable |
In the next couple of sections, Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli discuss how blockchain is superior than the other options in terms of verification, revocability and timestamping. The blockchain is only inferior to other options in terms of cost. The reason for this is that the costs for transactions on the blockchain can vary over time.
Prof. Dr. Schär and Mösli conclude that they are content with the progress of the project so far and see blockchain diplomas as a valid option for issuers of academic credentials.
Access the article here.