A Consortium Blockchain-Based Secure and Trusted Electronic Portfolio Management Scheme

Abstract

In recent times, electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) are being increasingly used by students and lifelong learners as digital online multimedia résumés that showcase their skill sets and achievements. E-portfolios require secure, reliable, and privacy-preserving credential issuance and verification mechanisms to prove learning achievements. However, existing systems provide private institution-wide centralized solutions that primarily rely on trusted third parties to issue and verify credentials. Furthermore, they do not enable learners to own, control, and share their e-portfolio information across organizations, which increases the risk of forged and fraudulent credentials. Therefore, we propose a consortium blockchain-based e-portfolio management scheme that is decentralized, secure, and trustworthy. Smart contracts are leveraged to enable learners to completely own, publish, and manage their e-portfolios, and also enable potential employers to verify e-portfolio credentials and artifacts without relying on trusted third parties. Blockchain is used as an immutable distributed ledger that records all transactions and logs for tamper-proof trusted data provenance, accountability, and traceability. This system guarantees the authenticity and integrity of user credentials and e-portfolio data. Decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials are used for user profile identification, authentication, and authorization, whereas verifiable claims are used for e-portfolio credential proof authentication and verification. We have designed and implemented a prototype of the proposed scheme using a Quorum consortium blockchain network. Based on the evaluations, our solution is feasible, secure, and privacy-preserving. It offers excellent performance.

DataMesh+: A Blockchain-Powered Peer-to-Peer Data Exchange Model for Self-Sovereign Data Marketplaces

“…In addition, IPFS network nodes exhibit low computation overhead and bandwidth consumption. Network scalability : The system’s scalability depends on the underlying blockchain and IPFS networks, both grappling with scalability challenges [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 55 , 56 ]. Balancing scalability, decentralization, and security is essential.…”

“…Therefore, ensuring data confidentiality requires file encryption before the ciphertext is stored in the IPFS nodes instead of plain text. Decentralized access control and consent management empower users with data ownership and access control [ 20 , 55 , 56 ]. With the role-based access control (RBAC) scheme [ 57 , 58 ], user access rights and privileges can be assigned and managed based on their role in the system, such as a seller or buyer.…”

“…Furthermore, the blockchain-based decentralized P2P storage network enhances transparency, prevents fraud, fosters trust among participants, and promotes ethical behavior within the data marketplace ecosystem. High availability and reliability : The integration of blockchain and IPFS networks with our proposed system guarantees censorship resistance and robustness, ensuring globally consistent availability and high reliability [ 29 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. However, the gas fee required to perform transactions introduces a risk of insufficient gas [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ], which may affect users’ ability to operate within the system.…”

“…High availability and reliability : The integration of blockchain and IPFS networks with our proposed system guarantees censorship resistance and robustness, ensuring globally consistent availability and high reliability [ 29 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. However, the gas fee required to perform transactions introduces a risk of insufficient gas [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ], which may affect users’ ability to operate within the system.…”

Trusted Third Party Application in Durable Medium e-Service

“…Therefore, existing systems provide private institution-wide centralized solutions that primarily rely on TTP. Paper [31] proposes a consortium blockchain-based e-portfolio management scheme that is decentralized, secure, and trustworthy. Thanks to the use of immutable ledgers and smart contracts, the proposed system guarantees the authenticity and integrity of user credentials and e-portfolio data.…”