Blockchain-based framework and platform for validation, authentication & equivalency of academic certification and institution’s accreditation: UAE case study and system performance (2022)

Abstract

Academic credentials play an immensely significant role in the career of a person and in the progress of society. The system in place currently used for the issuance, storage & sharing of academic credentials is quite inefficient in its operations, due to being paper based in large. There is also widespread fraud committed every year in terms of academic credentials, ranging from diploma mills to plain forgery. There presents a need for a total digital transformation in this field, which ensures complete independent authenticity of credentials that could be proven in a fool-proof manner. Blockchain technology promises to alleviate the above identified problems by ensuring complete transparency & verifiable proofs of ownership using decentralized storage of credentials & Public Key Cryptography (PKC) in the form of Digital Signatures. This project implements the proposed solution by using the ECDSA algorithm to (i) sign the accreditation of institute by governing body, such as The Ministry of Education (MOE) (ii) sign the academic credentials by the issuing party (iii) sign the issued credentials by the learner to claim iv) sign the credentials by some governing body like the MOE. The learner can share the signed credential with any third party, such as a potential employer. The ECDSA algorithm can then authenticate the credential by programmatically verifying the signature proof by any party using the corresponding Public Key without going through tedious channels.

1 Introduction

Blockchain is an arising technology, with practically day to day declarations on its pertinence to everyday lives. It is seen to give critical opportunities to innovate conventional products and services because of the conveyed, decentralized nature of blockchains, and elements, for example, the immutable quality of the Blockchain records, and the capacity to run smart contracts. These elements make Blockchain technology-based services or products essentially not the same as past internet-based business advancements and specifically compelling to the academic sector—despite the fact that instruction, for certain minor exemptions, isn't right now seen to be high on the plan of most nations with national Blockchain initiatives. Also, as of now stakeholders inside academia are to a great extent uninformed about the social benefits and capability of Blockchain technology (Grech & Camilleri, 2017).

By and large, the origin of Blockchain was cryptocurrency, which is a digital cash based upon cryptography and P2P networks. One of the features weaved into Blockchain is mining, which is the method involved with adding transactions to the public ledger on the Blockchain. The mining system requires a miner on the network to produce the new block filled with transactions by gathering those transactions into a block, running a mathematical function to validate the block, and adding it to the chain of past blocks. The other miners' nodes in the network can approve the recently created blocks through a consensus algorithm. The second era of Blockchain has arisen as Ethereum (Billon Group LTD, 2020), which enables creation of distributed applications called “DApps” and executing those applications on the Blockchain itself. The Ethereum Blockchain permits smart contracts to be based on top of it, and this has opened the entryway for researchers to incorporate Blockchain into different fields. Blockchain has from the beginning been isolated into two primary sorts: public and private Blockchain (Billon Group LTD, 2020). Public Blockchain (like Ethereum) permits anybody to join and partake in the network. Conversely, in a private / permissioned Blockchain (like Ripple), just clients with consents can join and take part in the network (Awaji et al., 2020). Bitcoin is one of the main cryptocurrencies on the planet. The first application using Blockchain technology. Since the coin was first presented, Bitcoin's worth has risen a huge number of times, and this is the fundamental motivation behind why the Blockchain is normal today. On account of many present social issues because of an absence of confidence among different gatherings, notwithstanding digital forms of money, the Blockchain has likewise been laid out as a helpful method. Appropriately, academic capabilities are exceptionally viewed as a sign of their possessor’s intellectual capital.

A variety of ideas were proposed in scientific literature before the implementation of the Blockchain to address issues of obsolete document handling in the maritime environment. Some were examined as discrete, short-term projects, while others established a broad theoretical concept. In the end, most of them, such as CORE or Cassandra, seek the same priorities and set similar values as a priority. Blockchain is defined as a basic technology that can change the paradigm of social and economic transactions dramatically. A summary of important features of Blockchain technology can help to illustrate why it can be invaluable in resolving some of the above-mentioned problems of mistrust.

Blockchain technology is built on a system of 'trust free' that allows transactions to be made between people who are not yet related to the medium of transaction and can verify the objectivity and principles. This makes it possible to make contracts transparent, to immune data, and to hold foreigners to account for their transactions. Public Blockchain networks allow people to reveal data in full privacy while retaining total control. You also can keep an audit record on every transaction, make it accessible while appropriate, and verify sources that avoid information, enable asset monitoring as part of the network infrastructure and provide a global connectivity without barriers to information flow.

Global pandemic has affected many aspects of our community and destabilized many sectors including the educational sector. The educational sector in many countries miserably failed in managing and continuing the educational process, many of the institutions closed the learning process for over a year but many of them continued with distance learning management (Chen et al., 2018). Due to poor internet connection many students are facing problems in accessing the modules or online classes. Apart from these institutions are facing management and accessing problems and many of the institutions have utilized the Blockchain technology to tackle this issue and they tackled it successfully. Through blockchain institutions can generate the academic transcripts and manage the results received from the online platforms (Sharples & Domingue, 2016). Institutions like MIT are using blockchain technology to assess the student results and provide testimonials to the passing candidates. The block system of the blockchain technology stores the certificates and generates new blocks for every new certificate/data; the immutable technology allows the management and students to trust the system. The digital ledger technology counts the numbers which are assigned by management and issues the certificate because the identification which is provided by the university to a student is the factor which blockchain technology counts and makes a block for that specific ID. There have been very miserable cases of fraud in recent years where some organizations and institutions issued bogus degrees and by the utilization of blockchain technology that has also been countered. Apart from degree awarding and assessing the students there are many other uses of blockchain technology in the field of academia (Skiba, 2017). Online contracts can be established to assist the students and employer and those contracts can be executed using blockchain technology and safety which is provided by this technology is quite impressive. Online transactions can be made to deposit the university by the students which will ease students in paying the fee using blockchain technology (Bitcoin). The online contracts will be terminated if one of them breaches the contract and code will be executed to terminate the contract.

2 Literature review

Human resources allude to education's talents, skills, aptitude and intellect. In job conditions, academic capabilities are particularly significant as they ensure holders' experience, aptitude, and abilities, yet additionally the capacities, dependability, and responsibility they bring to the table. The positive connection between academic levels and further developed possibilities of employment and financial security was seen from the perspective of the holders of good academic record (Olives & Pagano, 2013). It has been brought up that the academic credentials of a college supported to give such endorsements are viewed as genuine. According to conducted research all the users must authenticate the Blockchain. The consumers are teachers, colleges, institutes, employers etc. (Saleh, 2021). In this case, for the keys to the certificate stored on each user in a Blockchain ledger the username and password for user’s authentication, or some systems may also provide several authentication systems like biometrics, etc. For instance, a certificate checker must first enter Blockchain, and the recipient will give the employer permission to check and check the certificate (Groenfeldt, 2017). Provides users' permission to carry out Blockchain transactions. The student, for instance, is entitled to share their credentials with an employer. Following issuance of the certificate, the issuer shall enable the student to take full possession. All these measures and functions should be permitted in the framework. Confidentiality provisions include private information for the student, which the academic institution and the student can protect. In this case, the student is in-charge-of disclosing information for verification by third parties (employers).

A recent study by Ahsan et al. looked at the introduction of micro-credentials in the conventional education system and analyzed the cumulative results of this as, the integration of technology plays a crucial role in enabling multimedia classrooms (MCs) in higher education (HE), as it supports personalized learning experiences (Brown et al., 2021; Alamri et al., 2021). Without the assistance of learning technology, implementing MCs in HE would be impractical. Consequently, investigating the impact of learning technology on MC implementation in HE presents a valuable research opportunity. However, there has been a limited number of studies exploring the diffusion and adoption challenges associated with MCs (Stefaniak & Carey, 2019). Early adopters of MCs can contribute valuable insights into the implementation process and help address associated challenges. Therefore, future research can focus on investigating the challenges of introducing MCs in Higher Education using the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, which considers technological, organizational, and environmental perspectives (Tornatzky et al., 1990). In the context of MCs, blockchain technology has the potential to enhance authenticity through the provision of certified digital documents, such as digital badges (DBs) (Selvaratnam & Sankey, 2021). However, there has been limited research on the diffusion and adoption of blockchain technologies in MC offerings. Additional research can explore how blockchain technologies can facilitate MCs in curriculum design and improve the authenticity of credentials in the job market. By investigating the application of blockchain technology in MCs, researchers can contribute to the advancement of MCs in HE and explore the potential benefits it may bring to the field (Ahsan et al., 2023).

A rather new open standard called Blockcerts was also used in another initiative to create apps to check academic credentials, technical certificates etc. By offering components for the development, processing, view and testing of certification within a Blockchain, Blockcerts builds on the autonomous identity of all the participants. The certificates that are stored in the Blockchain are manipulation proof, but Blockcerts has no separate validity check service. Therefore, a certificate may be spoofed. Furthermore, privacy and safety issues continue to be of concern since the device is not registered and any issuer can grant certificates to recipients who can provide a bitcoin address in exchange.

Certificate ownership can only be proven without public addresses owned by the issuer and receiver. Blockcerts do not certify that people or organization’s map public keys (Blockcerts). Records Holder is yet another Blockchain-based approach for academic credential verification. Records Keeper allows educational institutes to issue certificates and include a consumer receipt to demonstrate that the certificate is valid and could be shared with a third party. The student's receipt is used to check the validity of the certificate in the Record. Keeper ledger by the third party (Saleh, 2021). There are several problems, but those who wish to display the certificate in the Blockchain of the Record Keeper must have rights of possession. This means that the third party would be transferred possession, which will lead to disturbances. This can function well on a private Blockchain to maintain the certificate's safety (Binh Minh Nguyen, 2021).

The blockchain technology is a new and controversial technology but in recent years many of the companies and other sectors have solved their problems and triumphed over their challenges using blockchain technology. The blockchain technology has vast applications in different sectors. When it comes to supply chain, blockchain technology has revolutionized the process of accruing data. Before using the technology companies faced immense pressure of getting the manufacturer-consumers data, after applying the blockchain technology companies get that data quite easily (Ayan et al., 2022). Blockchain technology provides a safe and secure system because it is a decentralized system which operates in blocks and provides open access to everyone with a transparent database. Its applications in agriculture and food are quite satisfying because it provides digital ledgers. The well-known use of the aforementioned technology is in the shape of Bitcoin, the digital currency which is empowering everyone to earn money. This technology will be a game changer in the future (Mishra, 2022).

Diploma verification

This class included investigations of blockchain technology that can help with verifying student degrees and can give more prominent control over how students acquire their degrees.

Learner examination & grading

Articles in this class depicted automated systems for the creation of examination and test plans for college students.

Credit transfer

This classification involved research for blockchain applications for storing student academic data and official transcripts and moving academic credits between colleges.

Information management

This classification consisted of articles on blockchain applications for interfacing student data across institutes as well as smart contracts for overseeing learner information and safe & secure storage of their academic data.

Admissions

This category of articles proposed blockchain use-cases to provide the students, while applying to institutes by securely storing and sharing the admission process and required paperwork to apply to a specific institute.

Blockchain is essentially a distributed timestamp server (Nakamoto, 2008). It is in the form of a linked list, it is duplicated and distributed across a number of participating nodes on a network. The blocks which contain immutable and timestamped data are cryptographically linked together and are added & maintained through a mutual consensus among nodes (Jayalakshmi, 2021).

Blockchain technology consists of a number of layers of protocols that make up its infrastructure. The first layer is of course the internet layer, the other more prominent layer is the actual decentralized network layer which is essentially the Blockchain. This layer is governed by a universal Blockchain protocol that dictates the way nodes on the network operate such as storing information in blocks and mining procedures. The next layer is the application layer of the Blockchain which comprises autonomous programs that reside & execute on the Blockchain itself and these programs are the backbone of decentralized applications (DApps) that allow the users to interact with the Blockchain. Constant improvements to smart contracts are made by researchers and developers around the world as it realizes the obvious benefits that can be achieved from this technology.

The product of the above discussed blockchain technology is the novel development of an electronic currency known as Bitcoin (Negara et al., 2021). An entirely P2P electronic cash would enable online payments to be transmitted from one person to another & vice-versa without relying on a third-party financial institution. Digital signatures ensure that there presents no need for a trusted third party to prevent double-spending (Nakamoto, 2008). The main characteristics of Blockchain technology are decentralization, in-corruptibility, anonymity, and complete auditability due to being a totally transparent ledger (Dmitry & Roschin, 2018).

In a study published by Jayalakshmi, S. et al. collected many peer-reviewed publications, as well as articles from different available channels to analyze the latest approaches, adopted techniques and patterns which are used in blockchain development in document verification & validation from various fields like banking, clinical records and academic system and so forth. The paper likewise proposed a digital credential validation blockchain based framework utilizing an owner authorization scheme & data of the students are put away as blocks utilizing blockchain technology. A dispersed public record is carefully designed and immutable that safeguards the state of the report, which makes security in the digital asset. This study plainly expressed that this technology is expected to keep digital academic records secure, and anyone can access without loss of information and keep up with it with least expense (Jayalakshmi, 2021).

The following steps were followed by Jayalakshmi, S. et al.:

• 1. Create a private key for the academic credential owner along with their public key.

• 2. The institute issues the certificate by means of the public key of the learner.

• 3. The Hash of the data is generated for each certificate.

• 4. Now the academic credential will be received by the third-party who validates the institute’s digital signature and if the institute is validated to be genuine, then it will digitally sign the credential as a proof of attestation & push this certificate to the blockchain.

• 5. Verify the authenticity of the digital certificate based on the data hash, if the hash of the data is found to be valid then it is considered authentic.

In 2019 Tariq Et al. worked on a research project named Cerberus. The project involved the institute, students, accreditation body and observer bodies in the network to award, collect and verify the academic credentials. QR codes were embedded within the document to provide a digital means to track the said document on the Blockchain (Tariq et al., 2019).

The algorithm, depicted as pseudocode in Fig. 1, was developed by Tariq Et al. for revoking a credential based on some inputs that are tested based on predefined rules and the revocation is carried out by the smart contract. The algorithm boasts two methods, “Revoking Authority-List” which performs a check of the entity E in the set of revoking authorities A_n{} & “Rules” defines a set of rules based on which the revocation is to be carried out and global revocation count the smart contract.

Fig. 1

Credential revocation pseudocode (Tariq et al., 2019)

Figure 2 describes the algorithm of the smart contract developed by the research team for Cerberus in the form of pseudocode. The “Revoke Document” method takes in an input DH which is the credential hash through which it is to be verified, the method checks for the rules of revocation, marks the credential as revoked & produces an output PH which is the revocation confirmation as a process hash. The “Revoke-List” method takes the credential hash as the input & outputs the process hash & revocation list.

Fig. 2

Invocation pseudocode of above revocation rules (Tariq et al., 2019) (see Fig. 1)

Khoula Et al. noted in their paper the visible usage of the Blockchain technology in higher education based on different research papers (Awaji et al., 2020). The following points highlight some of the fields in which Blockchain technology was used:

• 1. Transactions pertaining to certificates, critical data, and monetary transactions.

• 2. Recording student academic achievements and profiles.

• 3. Digital Badges.

• 4. In HR involving staff personnel, students & stakeholders.

• 5. Online library access and copyright management.

• 6. Research publications pertaining to institution research.

In 2018, Jiin-Chiou et al. worked on a research paper regarding the subject. The design consisted of three actors, an Institute, student and a Blockchain service provider.

• 1. Institute enters the student’s profile & academic data into the system. The system records the data against a unique serial number of the student in the blockchain.

• 2. The software system validates the student data.

• 3. Institute provides digital certificates which contain a QR, to the graduates of which the data has been validated. Each student who graduates also gets a unique serial number and digital copy of the certificate.

• 4. The graduate can share the serial number of their digital certificate with any third-party like a potential employer & the certificate can be digitally verified.

• 5. Employers can then send the unique serial number to the system for verification. QR code tracks if the certificate has been tampered with.

A case study presented by the Billon Group LTD. in May 2020, proposed a potential of development to use the Blockchain to store graduation and post-graduate certificates, PHD diplomas, certificates of completion of studies, semester credits as well as employment certificates. The plan consisted of storing the issued certificates, verifying them by the authorities and employers verifying the authenticity of the documents when considering a candidate for employment (Billon Group LTD, 2020).

A study by Min et al. examines the utilization of blockchain technology in course design and evaluation within Chinese universities, with a particular emphasis on the perspectives and experiences of teachers. Previous research has demonstrated the positive impact of blockchain on enhancing online teaching management and evaluation quality. While existing studies primarily concentrate on the management aspects of online teaching using blockchain, this qualitative case study delves into the design and evaluation of online courses based on blockchain, involving five teachers from diverse specialties. The study employed semi-structured interviews and collected course materials from the five participating teachers, which were subsequently analyzed using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The findings highlight that the incorporation of blockchain in the redesign of online courses can enhance the alignment between blockchain and course content, improve teaching quality, and foster trust among various stakeholders in online education. This presents evidence as a precursor to the utilization of Blockchain technology not only for academic instruction, but to other facets of academia as well (Min & Bin, 2022).

In conjunction with the above-mentioned study, a paper by C.A. et al. introduces a novel online teaching and assessment scheme called NOTA, which leverages Blockchain technology to uphold the desired teaching standards and ensure fairness in assessments, all while adhering to the schedules of courses and examinations. Additionally, NOTA incorporates incentive strategies provided by Blockchain to foster motivation among both learners and teachers, even when they are participating remotely from their homes. The initial findings obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic period revealed a remarkably high satisfaction rate, surpassing 90%. These results have instilled a sense of optimism within the authors regarding the potential of deploying their proposal on a larger scale (Cheriguene et al., 2022).

Blockcerts is an initiative launched by The MIT Media Lab, it allows for Open Badges compliant certificates to be issued on the Bitcoin blockchain (Tariq et al., 2019; Baldi et al., 2019). Blockcerts inserts credential information in OP_RETURN statement of a standard Bitcoin Blockchain transaction and the Ethereum “extraData” field (Tariq et al., 2019; Santos, 2017). Blockcerts also supports the batch issuing transaction in the form of Merkle trees. Blockcerts had a couple of fundamental flaws, first one was that the students had to maintain custody of their own cryptographic keys that were used for digitally signing the certificates, second one was that it stored credential revocation information on a centralized database which is a vulnerable source as it can be hacked. To overcome these vulnerabilities, another project named Hypercerts was launched (Tariq et al., 2019).

Hypercerts was a project which focused on a set of updates to the protocol used by Blockcerts for the revocation lists problem by allowing the revocation of the certificates by only the pre-agreed parties. Also, it ensured that the hyperlink of the certificate remains unchanged (certificate permanence) for any update such as revocation (Santos, 2017).

OpenCerts is a platform which was built for storing academic credentials on the Blockchain & to allow the authorities such as Ministries & other third-parties such as potential employers to verify & validate the digital credentials from a single source of truth i.e., Blockchain. It used the Ethereum Blockchain. This project was an effort undertaken by the Govt. of Singapore and a collaborative effort by four other organizations including, Government Technology Agency, Skills Future Singapore (a movement to provide Singaporeans with facilities to cultivate their skills), the Ministry of Education and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (OpenCerts, 2019).

Certy is another project that aims to solve this problem as well. It enables the institutions to onboard the system and make a profile. Institutes can then issue certificates and badges to the students that have their own profiles. Students can showcase their academic achievements to potential employers that can swiftly verify their credentials by a “Unique Certificate ID” on the Blockchain (certy.io).

A study conducted by Themistocleous et al. worked on defining challenges that occurred in education as a critical analysis. One of the prominent factors was training for jobs to be invented once the Blockchain technology is widely adopted. People will need to be prepared for the key roles regarding the implementation of Blockchain as smart contracts and networks both public & private (Themistocleous et al., 2020).

A project named “EduCTX” by Blockchain Lab: UM worked on using Ethereum Blockchain to store & verify education credentials (Turkanović et al., 2018). EduCTX was based on a unified global higher education credit and grading system based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) (Tariq et al., 2019). EduCTX targeted exchange students, joint degree programs, institutions, job seekers and employers. They also used cryptography to facilitate ownership of credentials by the students, by signing the certificates using a combination of their private & public keys (Turkanović et al. 2018).

EchoLink, an acronym of "Echo = Education + Career Skills + Human Capital + Opportunity; Link = Worldwide Network", is a project that stores & verifies education credentials, skills, and career information on Blockchain. It uses its own Blockchain named “EKO”. EKO is a Blockchain Platform based on public blockchain service utilizing the Proof of Professional Stake consensus protocol (PoPS). PoPS is specifically developed for enterprise level blockchain use-cases. The EKO Blockchain platform is completely compliant with Solidity smart contracts, meaning that it can run the smart contracts that are designed to be executed on the Ethereum Blockchain (Guustaaf et al., 2021).

In September 2017, Malta with collaboration of Learning Machine Group (LM), emerged as the first nation to practically make use of blockchain technology in education, issuing digital certificates, training certificates and equivalency statements, using the Blockcerts protocol set in place earlier by the MIT Media Lab (Baldi et al., 2019). Many other universities in the world offer digital credentials, one of them are: Central New Mexico Community College, British University in Dubai, also three Greek universities use the Cardano platform. (Holotescu, 2018).

Open Badges is another standard consisting of specifications and open technical standards developed by the Mozilla Foundation with the collaboration of the MacArthur Foundation (Baldi et al., 2019). The Mozilla Foundation declared its plan in 2011 to create the technical standard named “OpenBadges” to document and represent skills and other achievements online through badges. The Open Badges project lays out open specifications and API’s that enable any organization to make use of the essential building blocks needed to award digital badges in a standard and interoperable manner. Open Badges allows one to maintain the whole profile of a person’s identity, their academic progress, skills & hobbies, thereby presenting a sort of digital passport boasting about the person’s competences. Open Badge is essentially an image file in which the person’s academic metadata is embedded in JSON format (Baldi et al., 2019). The image contains the issuer profile, student’s profile & information regarding the badge such as title, requirements for the badge, expiry date, verifying information etc. (Baldi et al., 2019).

In 2020, Smart World & Grape Technology launched a platform as a joint venture named Shahada (Smolenski, 2021). It’s also a SaaS based solution that aims to use Blockchain to store & verify academic credentials. It works by providing institutions the ability to register themselves and issue academic credentials to students enrolled with them. It is built on top of the MIT open-source standard for digital academic credentials (Baldi et al., 2019). The Ministry of Education can also verify the said credentials in a swift manner and perform attestation, thereby allowing a robust mechanism for employers to verify the academic achievements of employment candidates.

Ankabut, an initiative of Khalifa University and funded by ICT Fund, is the United Arab Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network (NREN) (Ankabut Whitepaper). Ankabut in collaboration with EduChain, the UAE leader in education blockchain applications, launched a platform named “Musadaqa” for the issuance, attestation, and exchange of digital records for all levels of education (Educhain, Musadaqa). The platform uses the Hyperledger Ledger Fabric, a permissioned Blockchain developed by IBM to publish the academic credentials by the issuer, perform attestation by the authorities and verification by any third party such as an employer looking to get academic verification for an employment candidate (Ankabut Whitepaper).

“Accredible” is a platform of digital credentials that allows learners to share their academic achievements and provide electronic proof of their credibility, it enables institutes to empower their graduates to get employment, and for companies to recruit the right person that is best for the job (Gibson et al., 2015). This platform is partially based on Blockchain & also uses centralized data storage mechanisms. Accredible provides a flexible badging solution that is compliant with Mozilla OpenBadges (Gibson et al., 2015). Accredible can be integrated into popular platforms like Wordpress (Gibson et al., 2015).

A novel effort in 2015, in this matter was carried out by the University of Nicosia, when it earned the title of the first academic institute to offer academic credentials for its Digital Currencies course on the Bitcoin blockchain (UNIC, 2021). UNIC has provided all the university degrees on the blockchain since 2017. A digitally signed PDF document of the credential is issued to the learner and the cryptographic hash of the document is embedded in the OP_RETURN of the Bitcoin script.

UZHBC is a blockchain powered validation system, especially designed for degrees issued by the University of Zurich (Tariq et al., 2019; Gresch et al., 2018). It utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and runs using a smart contract defined for both issuance, validation & authentication purposes, it also takes the PDF of a credential in input to perform verification (Tariq et al., 2019; Gresch et al., 2018).

Blockchain for Education is another research project which also elected to use the Ethereum blockchain and executes the smart contracts for authorization and credential management (Gräther et al., 2018). The Interplanetary File System aids the system in being fully decentralized by giving users access to complete profile data of certification providing bodies (Tariq et al., 2019; Gräther et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2017).

The systems described above have loopholes and lackings of their own, such as: UNIC and UZHBC are confined in scope as they are tied to their own institutes and to use EchoLink, registration is mandatory (Guustaaf et al., 2021). Many of the solutions discussed above do not take into account accreditation authorities (except for EduCTX and Blockchain for Education) (Turkanović et al., 2018; Gräther et al., 2018). This serious drawback leaves the solutions open to the problem of university staff forging the academic data and the phenomena of diploma mills (Hallak & Poisson, 2007).

Many of the mentioned systems maintain the privacy of a learner’s academic & personal data, apart from EchoLink which allows view access to on-boarded users. The possible problem of scalability, only tackled by Blockcerts, which enables a batch transaction feature (Tariq et al., 2019; Santos, 2017; Baldi et al., 2019). Apart from.

Blockcerts, the other systems discussed above, solely depend on individual transactions for each student, which result in heavier transaction costs and lead to blockchain-bloat whenever a public Blockchain is used (Tariq et al., 2019; Baldi et al., 2019).

Certificate revocation functionality is only developed in “Hypercerts”, it makes good use of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) network, also the project “Blockchain for Education” states the use of smart contracts for revocation (Gräther et al. 2018; Chen et al., 2017).

The table above (Tables 1, 2) lists out the individual features of the earlier described research projects and solutions in a checklist manner. Some features are fully available (✓), some partially implemented, and others not implemented (-).

Table 1 Comparison of various projects relating to the subject

Table 2 Comparative analysis of key management approaches

Key management refers to the feature of storing & managing user keys that are used for digital signatures, on the platform. This is not provided by most of the platforms that have been researched in this paper. Following is a comparative analysis of providing/not-providing this functionality in our platform. If a platform is storing keys on their side on a database, it presents significant liability on their part in terms of security & privacy of these keys. If the platform faces a situation where the digital signature keys are deemed compromised i.e., stolen or erased, the sole responsibility might expose the platform stakeholders to lawsuits & unavoidable downfall of the solution. Keeping this in mind, it is the best approach to allow the user to have custody of their private keys & input them whenever a signing operation is to be performed.

3 Research methodology

This section presents a comprehensive methodology of the pioneering research approach and implementation method employed by the esteemed research team. The project entails a collection of self-contained microservices and components that collaborate in a loosely coupled manner to facilitate the seamless execution of various operations, including storing, signing, verifying, attesting, and establishing equivalence of credentials on a Blockchain platform.

The research team has devised a novel framework that harnesses the power of Blockchain technology to enhance the security, integrity, and trustworthiness of credential management systems. By leveraging the decentralized nature of Blockchain, the proposed solution aims to overcome the limitations inherent in traditional centralized systems, such as susceptibility to fraud, unauthorized modifications, and single points of failure. The framework enables the establishment of equivalency between different credentials, facilitating seamless interoperability and information exchange between disparate systems. By leveraging the capabilities of Blockchain, the research team has devised a mechanism to compare and match credentials based on predetermined equivalence criteria. This enables stakeholders to seamlessly navigate and utilize diverse sets of credentials, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the credential management process.

The architecture of the project embraces a modular design philosophy, where each microservice and component performs a specific task within the overarching credential management process. These discrete units operate independently but maintain loose coordination to ensure the seamless flow of information and the successful execution of the entire operation.

Figure 3 depicts the steps followed to conduct research for this research project. The process started with the draft of the initial idea for storing, signing & verifying academic credentials on the Blockchain. An extensive review of the existing literature with regards to the project idea and theme was carried out to perform an in-depth analysis on the problem & identify any potential weaknesses in the previous research on the topic. After the literature review, the lack in the systems was identified & the process to design a viable solution was commenced. After the development of the desired framework for alleviating the shortcomings in the previous approaches & building the solution based on the framework, a thorough experimentation was conducted & performance of the developed solution was analyzed in terms of transaction throughput on the BSV Blockchain & cost incurred for the said transactions to store the academic credential data.

Fig. 3

Research method steps

3.1 Data classification

The data is classified into two groups “Off-Chain” & “On-Chain” data. The application makes use of a database along with Blockchain to most efficiently store data & not bulk up the Blockchain transaction sizes.

• 1) Off-Chain Data: The data that resides in the database is called the off-chain data. This data is classified to be off-chain with respect to its sensitivity. This is non-transactional data such as metadata about courses, credentials, or students. There presents no threat to integrity of the credential in-case of a breach/compromise of off-chain data.

• 2) On-Chain Data: The data that goes on the Blockchain in the shape of a signed transaction is called on-chain data. This is the critical data regarding the credential being issued or signed by the stakeholder parties and thus is highly sensitive. This is classified to be as lean as possible to save on transaction costs & payload size.

3.2 Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA)

The issuance of a credential by the issuing party necessitates its digital signing to establish its authenticity beyond doubt. In this regard, the research project employs the renowned cryptographic algorithm known as the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) to accomplish the task of digital signing and subsequent verification of digital signatures. The ECDSA, a variant of the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), relies on cryptographic keys derived from Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) (Johnson et al., 2001). This algorithm operates by utilizing a "private key" to sign the cryptographic hash of the data, while the verification process combines the use of the corresponding "public key" with the hash of the data that was signed (Johnson et al., 2001). The utilization and significance of the ECDSA algorithm are illustrated in Fig. 3.1, which depicts its constituent components and provides a detailed description of each element.

Furthermore, the ECDSA algorithm offers notable advantages in terms of efficiency and security. The adoption of elliptic curve-based cryptography enables the ECDSA algorithm to provide the same level of security as traditional cryptographic systems but with significantly smaller key sizes (Johnson et al., 2001). This advantage is particularly crucial in resource-constrained environments where computational power and storage capacity may be limited. By employing ECDSA, the research project ensures that the digital signatures applied to the credentials are secure, compact, and computationally efficient. It is worth noting that the ECDSA algorithm has been widely recognized and adopted as a reliable digital signature scheme, finding applications in various domains where data integrity and authentication are paramount. Its robustness and effectiveness stem from the complexity of elliptic curve mathematics, which provides a high degree of resistance against computational attacks, including brute-force and factorization-based attacks (Johnson et al., 2001). Consequently, the utilization of ECDSA in the proposed credential management system enhances the overall security posture and strengthens the trustworthiness of the issued credentials. Figure 3.1 serves as a visual aid to comprehend the constituents of the ECDSA algorithm and their respective roles in the digital signing and verification process. This diagram elucidates the individual elements that comprise the ECDSA algorithm, such as the private key, public key, cryptographic hash function, and the process of signing and verifying the data. By providing a comprehensive understanding of these components, Fig. 3.1 contributes to the clarity and comprehension of the ECDSA algorithm's operation within the context of the research project.

In summary, the research project employs the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) to digitally sign credentials, thereby establishing their authenticity. The algorithm's utilization, based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), offers advantages in terms of efficiency and security, making it a suitable choice for resource-constrained environments. The ECDSA algorithm has gained widespread acceptance due to its robustness against computational attacks and its ability to provide secure and compact digital signatures. Tables 3, 4 provides a visual representation of the ECDSA algorithm's constituents, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of its operation within the context of the research project.

Table 3 ECDSA signature parameters (Wikipedia, 2020)

Table 4 Performance comparison of public blockchains

3.3 Private key & public key

A secret string of characters that is known by the one who generates it. A private key is a pseudo-randomly generated string (Santra et al., 2016). In Bitcoin, anyone with access to the private key corresponding to the wallet on the ledger can expend the funds. The private key is a single unsigned 256-bit integer (32 bytes) (Santra et al., 2016).

The public key is a string that is calculated from the private key, it does not need to be kept a secret. The public key can be generated from a private key, but not the other way around. A public key, along with the hash of the data is used to determine if a signature is true without needing the private key to be known. In Bitcoin protocol, public keys are compressed or uncompressed. Compressed public keys consist of 33 bytes, with a prefix of 0 × 02 or 0 × 03, and a 256-bit integer ‘x’. The older uncompressed keys consist of 65 bytes, with a constant prefix (0 × 04), followed by two 256-bit integers ‘x’ and ‘y’ (2 * 32 bytes). The prefix of a compressed key enables to derive the ‘y’ value from the ‘x’ value.

3.4 Signature & signature verification

The signature is a set of strings that proves a signing operation. A signature is mathematically derived from the hash of data to be signed & the private key (Santra et al., 2016). The resultant of the ECDSA algorithm is two numbers, ‘r’ & ‘s’. To determine whether the digital signature is genuine, the public key & hash are fed to the ECDSA algorithm & it mathematically proves the digital signature without knowledge of the private key.

Figure 4 shows the ‘r’ & ‘s’ values of the digital signature generated after using the ECDSA algorithm along with the signature timestamp in ‘Unix’ format, which can then later be converted to UTC or other formats as per requirement. The method for verification requires that the signature, public key & hash of the data be provided. The method outputs the result as either “true” or “false” after running the ECDSA algorithm.

Fig. 4

Digital signature value

3.5 AES encryption

The AES algorithm Encrypts data blocks of 128 bits in rounds of 10, 12 and 14 with respect to the key size (Johnson et al., 2001). This algorithm was chosen by NIST as a replacement for the previous DES algorithm (Johnson et al., 2001). The on-chain data of the academic credential contains sensitive information that the learner or institute may not want to be disclosed to the public. Since Blockchain is a public ledger that is accessible to everyone in the world, the transaction of the academic credential can be seen by anyone & sabotage the privacy of the learner or issuer. To alleviate the said problem & vulnerability, this project uses AES encryption to mask all the on-chain data into a pseudo-random string which is only to be decrypted by means of private key that was used to encrypt the data (Mahajan & Sachdeva, 2013). This solution is novel in its implementation in this scope as most of the research projects discussed in the literature do not cover this problem & simply put the on-chain data into transactions, thereby rendering the privacy & confidentiality of the stakeholder’s null.

In brief, the research team has implemented a groundbreaking approach that leverages a set of autonomous microservices and components to revolutionize the storage, signing, verification, attestation, and equivalency establishment of credentials on the Blockchain. By adopting this innovative framework, the project aims to address the limitations of traditional centralized systems, enhance security and trustworthiness, and contribute to the advancement of credential management systems in various domains.

4 Proposed framework architecture

The first crucial aspect of the project involves the secure storage of credentials on the Blockchain. This involves the utilization of cryptographic techniques to transform sensitive credential information into a tamper-resistant format. By leveraging the immutability and transparency of the Blockchain, the team ensures that the stored credentials remain tamper-proof and verifiable by relevant stakeholders. In addition to storage, the framework incorporates a robust mechanism for digitally signing credentials. This process employs advanced cryptographic algorithms to generate a unique digital signature for each credential, thereby enabling its authentication and integrity verification. The digital signatures serve as irrefutable evidence of the credential's authenticity and prevent unauthorized modifications during transit or storage.

Moreover, the research team has implemented a comprehensive verification mechanism to ascertain the validity and accuracy of credentials. By employing sophisticated algorithms and leveraging the inherent transparency of the Blockchain, the system can verify the integrity of stored credentials by cross-referencing them with the corresponding digital signatures and other relevant metadata. This ensures that only authentic and unaltered credentials are considered valid within the system. Furthermore, the project incorporates an attestation mechanism, which involves the validation and endorsement of credentials by trusted third-party entities. This process establishes an additional layer of trust and credibility by involving reputable organizations or individuals who can vouch for the authenticity and accuracy of the credentials. The attestation process ensures that the credentials are not only verified but also supported by authoritative entities, further bolstering their trustworthiness.

4.1 Credential lifecycle diagrams

The following Fig. 5 depicts in detail the process flow of the credential as a lifecycle as proposed in the solution framework. There exists several steps that need to be followed by the academic credential in order to be issued & fully authenticated. i. The Institute creates & signs the credential. ii. The notification is sent to the learner. iii. The learner signs the credential. iv. The ministry of Education then signs the credential as an attestation & finally, v. The student shares the credential with a third-party such as an employer. The employer can verify the authenticity of the credential by digital signatures of the signatories.

Fig. 5

Credential lifecycle diagram

Figure 6 presents a sequence flow of the credential issuance & signing procedure in the framework.

Fig. 6

Credential issuance & signing sequence flow

Figure 7 elaborates the sequence of flow for the attestation process in the proposed framework.

Fig. 7

Credential attestation sequence flow

Figure 8 above describes the sequence of activities to share the credential by the learner to any third-party & the subsequent verification of the shared credential using the digital signature by that third-party.

Fig. 8

Credential third-party sharing & verification sequence flow

Figures 9, 10 elaborates the sequence flow of activities to perform the equivalency of the credentials using the framework. The student initiates the process by submitting the application to the desired authority along with the required documents necessary for the equivalency to be granted by the authority. The process is streamlined greatly using the proposed framework. The ministry can sign the credential using ECDSA digital signatures as a grant of equivalency, the digital signatures can serve as the authentic proof of equivalency provided by the authority.

Fig. 9

Credential equivalency by ministry of education sequence flow

Fig. 10

Credential signing using private key pseudocode

4.2 Pseudocodes

The above figure presents the pseudocode of an academic credential being signed using the ECDSA algorithm.

Figure 11 shows the algorithm to verify the digital signature of any party simply by the means of using ECDSA verification algorithm. It requires the original digital signature, the public key of the signatory & the hash of the data that was signed. The algorithm verifies the ‘r’ & ‘s’ values of the signature & prints out the verification result as ‘true’ or ‘false’.

Fig. 11

Digital signature verification pseudocode

4.3 Technology stack

The web-based application was developed employing the robust MERN stack, which encompasses MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js technologies. MongoDB, being a prominent NoSQL document-based database, provides a flexible and scalable solution for data storage and retrieval. Its document-oriented nature allows for easy representation and manipulation of complex data structures. Node.js, serving as the premier JavaScript runtime, fulfilled the critical role of a back-end web server for hosting and executing the application's APIs. Its event-driven architecture and non-blocking I/O operations enable Node.js to handle many concurrent requests efficiently. Additionally, Node.js leverages the V8 JavaScript engine, resulting in high-performance execution of server-side code. To facilitate the development of APIs, the application utilized Express.js, a widely adopted web framework for Node.js. Express.js simplifies the creation of robust and efficient API endpoints by providing a multitude of middleware and routing capabilities. Its seamless integration with Node.js makes it an ideal choice for building scalable and high-performing web services. React.js, a powerful front-end JavaScript framework, was employed to construct a dynamic user interface (UI) that seamlessly interacts with the application's APIs. React.js facilitates the creation of reusable UI components, enabling developers to efficiently manage and update the application's state. With its declarative syntax and efficient virtual DOM diffing algorithm, React.js optimizes the rendering process and enhances the overall user experience.

By harnessing the combined power of MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js, the web-based application achieved a comprehensive and robust technological foundation. The MERN stack, renowned for its flexibility, scalability, and ease of development, empowered the creation of a feature-rich and responsive application, capable of meeting the demands of modern web development.

5 System performance analysis

The solution was developed as per the designed framework for storing, signing & verifying the academic credentials using the modern MERN stack & BSV Blockchain. After completing the development phase of the application, an extensive performance review was carried out. The following are the parameters for performance analysis of the system.

• 1. Transaction Throughput: The number of transactions per second the Blockchain is able to sustain is known as transaction throughput (TPS). The current rate is approximately 50,000 TPS on production network (Mainnet) & approximately 100,000 TPS on testing network (Testnet) (https://bit.ly/3bwr7kA).

• 2. Transaction Cost: The current rate per 1 byte of data in a transaction is 0.5769 sat/Byte, whereas “sat” (short for Satoshi) is the smallest unit of BSV. There are 100,000,000 Satoshi in 1 BSV (1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BSV). At this rate, it should cost 0.000005907 BSV (~ 0.000361 USD) for 1 KB of data at the point of this writing (https://wiki.bitcoinsv.io/index.php/Satoshis).

In Table 3, BSV Blockchain clearly shows the highest transaction throughput capacity at 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) & lowest transaction latency at 1–3 s/transaction recorded on a public Blockchain, whereas Ethereum & Bitcoin Blockchains displaying performance metrics at 7 TPS & 30 TPS respectively at a much greater latency than BSV Blockchain. These performance metrics result in the overall superiority of the framework proposed in this research to be considerably high & allows for extreme scalability. Furthermore, the microservices architecture proposed by the research team for the development & deployment of the application framework can be expanded to multiple replicas of one service, orchestrated to balance the load using tools such as Kubernetes, which can orchestrate traffic to multiple replicas of services deployed as containers.

6 Discussion

Academic credentials hold immense significance in both an individual's career trajectory and the advancement of society as a whole. However, the current system used for the issuance, storage, and sharing of academic credentials faces numerous inefficiencies due to its heavy reliance on paper-based processes. This traditional approach not only leads to operational inefficiencies but also leaves room for widespread fraud, ranging from diploma mills to outright forgery. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive digital transformation in the field of academic credentials, ensuring independent authenticity that can be reliably proven. Blockchain technology offers promising solutions to address the aforementioned challenges by introducing transparency and verifiability to the management of academic credentials. By leveraging the decentralized nature of Blockchain and incorporating Public Key Cryptography (PKC) in the form of Digital Signatures, the proposed solution aims to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of academic credentials. Governing bodies like the MOE can also sign the credentials to provide additional endorsements, enhancing their credibility. By employing Blockchain technology and the ECDSA algorithm, this project aims to revolutionize the management of academic credentials. The proposed solution addresses the limitations of the current paper-based system by offering complete transparency, tamper-proof storage, and verifiable proofs of ownership. Through decentralized storage and PKC-based digital signatures, the integrity and authenticity of credentials are strengthened, reducing the risk of fraud and enhancing trust in the academic credentialing process. However, it is important to acknowledge that the adoption of Blockchain technology in the domain of academic credentials comes with its own set of challenges. For instance, scalability issues, privacy concerns, and regulatory frameworks must be carefully considered and addressed to ensure the widespread adoption and acceptance of the proposed solution. Further research and collaboration with relevant stakeholders are necessary to overcome these challenges and maximize the potential benefits of Blockchain-based credential management systems.

Comparing the performance metrics of different blockchains, Table 3 demonstrates that the BSV Blockchain exhibits the highest transaction throughput capacity of 50,000 TPS and the lowest transaction latency, with 1–3 s per transaction, among public blockchains. In contrast, Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains display performance metrics of 7 TPS and 30 TPS, respectively, with significantly higher latency than the BSV Blockchain. These performance metrics affirm the notable superiority of the proposed framework in terms of scalability. The production network (mainnet) of the BSV Blockchain currently achieves an approximate rate of 50,000 TPS, while the testing network (testnet) achieves around 100,000 TPS (source: https://bit.ly/3bwr7kA). The transaction cost, denoted as the rate per 1 byte of data in a transaction, is 0.5769 sat/Byte. Here, "sat" refers to Satoshi, which is the smallest unit of BSV. One BSV is equivalent to 100,000,000 Satoshis (1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BSV). Based on the current rate, the cost for 1 KB of data is estimated to be 0.000005907 BSV (~ 0.000361 USD) at the time of writing (source: https://wiki.bitcoinsv.io/index.php/Satoshis).

In conclusion, the current system for managing academic credentials suffers from inefficiencies and vulnerabilities that necessitate a comprehensive digital transformation. This project proposes the use of Blockchain technology and the ECDSA algorithm to enhance the authenticity, transparency, and verifiability of academic credentials. By leveraging decentralized storage and PKC-based digital signatures, the project aims to address the prevalent issues of fraud and inefficiency in the current system, paving the way for a more secure and trustworthy credentialing ecosystem. Nonetheless, further research and collaborative efforts are required to overcome challenges and ensure the successful implementation and adoption of Blockchain-based solutions in the field of academic credentials.

7 Conclusion & future work

There exists a considerable number of academic credential related frauds in the world. The systems that are currently relied upon for storing the credentials are largely centralized & use databases which can be compromised rather easily & allow for data to be edited or erased. This presents a huge risk to the academia as it leads to fraud such as forgery & diploma mills.

The framework proposed in this research solves the said problem & aims to mitigate the risks greatly and ideally entirely using the Blockchain technology & ECDSA digital signatures. The BSV Blockchain was chosen for the framework because of the sheer number of transactions that can be processed by the network per second & lowest transaction costs incurred per transaction. The ECDSA algorithm is used for digitally signing the academic credentials by the issuing authority, student & verifying authority for attestation & performing equivalency, subsequently the digital signatures can be verified by using the ECDSA verification protocol in the algorithm as well. The data that is put on-chain is encrypted using the military grade AES encryption algorithm, thereby preventing undesired access to information by anyone.

The designed solution enables the learner to keep a Blockchain record of all their academic achievements along with digital signatures of all the authorities, fortifying the integrity & proving the authenticity of the academic credentials. The learner can apply for equivalency of their existing academic credentials against any other-by-other authorities & the process is carried out completely on-chain. The solution allows the learner to share the academic credentials with any third-party like a potential employer, allowing them to verify the credentials by digital signatures.

The future plan for this research is to focus on professional achievements as well, such as experience letters & skill endorsements by employers & peers. This will allow the solution to partner with other platforms that enable a person to keep a professional profile e.g., LinkedIn etc.