Blockchain Technology: Redefining Trust for Digital Certificates

Guendalina Capece, Nathan Levialdi Ghiron and Francesco Pasquale
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Guendalina Capece: Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Nathan Levialdi Ghiron: Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Francesco Pasquale: Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-12

Abstract: University certificates can have a significant impact on people’s lives: they can help people get the job they want or allow companies to decide whether a candidate for a job has the appropriate skills. Despite their important social role, current systems for certifying academic achievements are slow, complicated, expensive, and vulnerable to forgery. In the education field, the Blockcerts project, an open source project launched by MIT and Learning Machine in 2016, seems to have the potential to become a new standard for issuing certificates using the Blockchain technology as a platform. It enables students to quickly and easily get a verifiable, tamper-proof version of their diploma. Additionally, the infrastructure provides permanence, convenience, and a level of security appropriate to the importance of the record, guaranteeing the legitimacy of the diploma. The University of Rome “Tor Vergata” started a pilot program in 2018 adopting the Blockcerts framework to issue digital diplomas. In this paper, we describe the whole process from a technical perspective and analyze the impact that a broad adoption of the Blockcerts standard might have, as compared to the current way of issuing diplomas at the University of “Tor Vergata”. Our aim is that our work might contribute to building momentum for the application of the Blockchain technology to digital certificates and stimulate further discussion with other institutions to fully exploit the potential of the technology.

Keywords: Blockchain technology; digital certificate; digital innovation; trust; credentials; Blockcerts; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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