The problem
In this day and age, can we really trust any documents presented to us? How do you know if a document is real or fake?
Forgery software is readily available and makes manipulation easy. For example, forged diplomas from any university or college can be bought on the internet with just a few clicks – both paper and digital versions – for a ridiculously low price. This creates uncertainty for employers and casts doubt on an applicants’ credibility. This is so unfair to students that spent time and money to rightfully earn their degree.
The problem is much bigger than one may think. Dr. George Brown, in the context of a UNESCO study, estimated that “worldwide, 30% of senior executives present qualifications they do not hold.” We must beware of fake credentials and insist on document certification and verification.
Searching “fake diplomas” via Google leads to over 24 million search results. With the top results being websites such as “phonydiploma.com”, “realisticdiplomas.com”, and “Same Day Diplomas”.
What needs to be done
Education institutions can take it in their own hands to fight diploma fraud and ensure that only rightful students receive the recognition and honor for their efforts. It may seem a challenging and monumental prospect to take on, but it is not: Certifaction® offers an easy and quick solution to address that problem by securing students’ diplomas on the Ethereum blockchain and makes them immutable and instantly verifiable, as shown below.
Certifaction is very easy to implement and work with for both the issuer and the verifier. In less than a minute, any person can start with the certification of documents. Within seconds, a verifier can drag and drop a document to check its integrity and origin. No prior blockchain knowledge is needed.
For enterprises, we recommend an integration through our Certifaction API, which can be integrated into any systems landscape.
Initiated and implemented by leading universities
The Centre for Innovative Finance of Basel University is one such institution that has decided to take up the fight against diploma fraud and is a co-initiator of Certifaction. By using the stand-alone web app, they were ready to issue blockchain secured diplomas instantly. This not only prevents the forgery of the University of Basel diplomas but sets them apart from others as an innovative and forward-thinking organization.
“Fraud is a significant problem in academia. That’s why we have co-initiated Certifaction to secure our certificates on the Ethereum blockchain – making them tamper-proof while reducing the administrative burden.”
Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär, Co-initiator of the Certifaction solution – Professor for Distributed Ledger Technology & FinTech, Director at the Center of Innovative Finance, University of Basel
“A clean and elegant solution to securely certify our diplomas and relieve us of unnecessary administrative work”
Harald Rotter, CIO, University St.Gallen
“With blockchain-verifiable diplomas we are able to take our diploma-granting and verification process to the next level. We are very excited to offer this cutting-edge technology to our students and integrate it into our daily operations.”
Thierry Kirschstein, Managing Director, UIBS
“Certifaction is extremely easy to use and assures employers that professionals with login-issued, digital job references, diplomas, and certificates, are qualified and trained professionals.”
Sven Cueni, Service Manager, ICT LogIn Berufsbildung AG
“What you have developed is the next generation of eSigning, which is by far better than all the rusty certificate-based signing solutions regarding security, Digital Twin, life-cycle updates, and data privacy.”
Urs Fischer, Head of Business Development & Innovation, HIN AG
The University of St. Gallen also recognized this problem and opportunity, but took it one step further by directly implementing Certifaction’s API into their diploma issuance system. This completely automatized the blockchain certification process. See CNN Money’s coverage of this integration below.
Reinventing the credentials
Certifaction paves the way for machine-readable credentials and can be easily integrated into a university’s ID-management system. This lays the foundations for lifelong credentials portfolios. At a time where skills need to be constantly developed, lifelong learning has become a major topic for everyone. Storing certified and verifiable credentials in one secure place is a very attractive value proposition to any university’s alumni community.
Making diploma verification quick & easy
From 60mins to 0mins
From 1-2 weeks to seconds
From little to no to thousands of impressions
Benefits
Certifaction provides a number of benefits to the entire ecosystem, creating trust in a digital world and increasing efficiency.
The university
The university protects its reputation and fights diploma fraud in an easy and effective manner. They position themselves as an innovative university by implementing highly secure blockchain technology into their diploma issuance process. Additionally, they eliminate any administrative effort in the verification process and have the possibility to monetize it. By enabling students to share their newly earned diploma on social media to thousands of peers, the university benefits from a significant marketing effect to acquire new students for their programs.
The employer
The employer reduces their hiring risk, as only applicants with verified qualifications and credentials are employed. Mishiring costs are €50k+ on average in Europe, varying depending on the level of the employee mishired. They see an efficiency gain in the verification process which allows them to give applicants quicker responses.
The student
The student increases their credibility and can easily share their fully verifiable diploma with future employers and on social media to thousands of peers. During the recruitment process, they will get quicker answers, as the verification process is significantly reduced. Lastly, they will have the possibility to store their digitized credentials in a safe place and leverage them for their lifelong learning endeavors.
