DIGITAL CERTIFICATES ON BLOCKCHAIN

“Universities deal with fake certificates on a regular basis when they are sent for verification. In India, 1–3% of requests the universities get every day are bogus” — Times of India

“When applying for international schools, we are often faced with the herculean task of proving the authenticity of our University certificates and transcripts. The application is not complete until they see our original transcripts sent directly by our previous Universities. Many times, even they don’t trust our original transcripts either and we need to take exams to prove our credibility!” — International Students Organizations

If you are a University faculty or a provider of certified courses, this is probably something you deal with all the time. If you are a student, you are well aware of the pain in proving the authenticity of your certificates. It’s not just the money that is spent for authentication, it is the precious time you lose and the anxiety you need to deal with!

“But why is this process of proving the Certificates so complicated?”

In a perfect world, there would be no forgeries, no fake certificates, and no scammers setting up shops to sells University degrees. There would have been an inbuilt trust in the system. But that, as we all know, is an imaginary world!!

So proving one’s credentials is not straightforward. Every degree or certificate needs to be verified with the Issuer. Many times the Verifying University cannot directly communicate with Issuing University. So the students need to get involved in the process and facilitate the same. Many times the students need to get some government bodies involved and also take up tests in specific courses when they can’t prove the authenticity of their credentials. This is a huge drain on the students and the universities involved.

“Is there a way to make it simpler for the universities and the students?”

Yes! The Issuing University can Digitize the whole Certificate/transcript management process. The University issues Digital certificates to the students which they can store securely in their mobile wallet (app), share it with anyone with consent, and allow anyone to authenticate it instantaneously.

Vlinder Labs is partnering with many schools and universities to simplify the Digital Certificate Management process. Here is a short glimpse of the process:

1. The university’s existing system accesses Vlinder’s platform via APIs or Web Apps. A separate account for their university will be created on Vlinder’s platform.
2. The Univerity will provide its template, logo, seal, etc., for the certificates and upload all the details for the credentials.
3. The University issues digitally signed credentials with a click of a button. Yes!! It’s as simple as that.
4. Each certificate will be digitally signed with the University’s Blockchain-ID. Vlinder’s platform will record the transactions on the Blockchain, making it immutable (forgery-proof). It will have a QR code and a link for verification on the Blockchain.
5. The University can also issue “Digital student IDs” to each student (similar to how the certificate is issued). The student ID will be a digital version of their physical ID… but it can be authenticated easily online!
6. The University can push the credentials and the IDs to the student’s mobile wallet or the students can download the same. The credentials and the IDs will be encrypted and stored securely.
7. The students will be able to share each of their certificates/transcript/IDs with anyone with a click of a button.
8. The student can control who can see the shared credentials and how long it is shared.
9. Anyone can authenticate it by using the QR code or the link on the certificate!!!

Well, this is the future of Credential management and Vlinder is leading the way with helping partners adopt the solutions. Contact us for a demo at any time. We will be glad to simplify your Credential management process!