Providing Authentication and Privacy for University Certificates using Smart Contracts in Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Traditional ways of distributing and verifying academic certificates are not efficient. Certificates are distributed as hard copy. Verifying the integrity of the certificate is a time and resource consuming process. As a result, forged certificates have become common. It is very difficult to differentiate between a real and a forged certificate. Through our system, we intend to make the certificate generation, distribution, and verification process seamless. Any student can enter his or her personal details, academic coursework details, and the university code, and thus submit a certificate request to the university. University admins can verify the certificate requests, and approve or reject the requests as per their policy. Any student or third party could verify the integrity of the certificate by entering the details of the certificate under scrutiny into the system. Data required to verify the integrity of the certificate will be stored on a blockchain. All verification data will be stored on the blockchain, so it will be tamper proof. This eliminates or limits the case of forged certificates to a large extend.