A Blockchain Framework to Increase the Security and Verifiability of Educational Certificates

Education not only means acquiring knowledge or skills, but it also includes acquiring morals, beliefs and values. Nowadays, most people think that gaining an educational certificate means that they are qualified, and because of that, some people make fake certificates to get the job. There is no easy way to validate these certificates, mainly when people belong to different countries. With the spread of coronavirus worldwide, travel restrictions were imposed between nations and within the nation itself. As a result, numerous educational activities, such as conferences, seminars etc., have been postponed. However, the organisers opted to hold these events over the Internet due to the pandemic's numerous limitations. Many of these activities offer certificates of participation, but it is not easy to verify the authenticity of these certificates and the coordinating institutes and attendees. Similarly, there are problems with attending several events at the same time. Many such challenges are explored thoroughly. Then a framework is proposed along with the algorithms that will explain in detail how these challenges can be solved using blockchain technology. As a result, a comparison of the proposed framework is made with the frameworks discussed in the literature and found that the proposed framework is much better in solving the discussed challenges. The article concludes with the future directions for implementing such a framework in the real world.