The University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, presented a new pilot project where it uses technology Blockchain to combat diplomas fake. Harald Rotter, the CIO of the center of studies, declared to CNN Money Switzerland, that he expected to issue approximately 200 certificates where he was able to verify the authenticity of the documents, for the next year. “The first idea began last year, at the beginning of 2018. I saw that it might be necessary and could be a case of valid application to transfer or facilitate the validation of our diplomas based on a digital process in Blockchain”. Currently, a company can take several days to verify the authenticity of the credentials of any candidate. But, according to Rotter, to include the technology blockchain, this process can be reduced to only a few seconds.
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How will this project Blockchain?
To carry out this project, the University of St. Gallen partnered with the startup switzerland BlockFactory. This alliance will allow them to use the solution of the startup that allows educational institutions to make certificates immutable recorded in the chain of blocks of Ethereum. On this point, Rotter explained: “The students will receive a PDF of the university that reflects the diploma. After the university transferred the PDF to our business partner. Add security parameters to make it more secure, and our business partner is in charge of writing the hash on the string. Our university will contact you with a new PDF, and that PDF can be used for the validation”. According to the IOC, the long-term goal is to implement this system in all the university.
Experience Blockchain in the city of Basel
This is not the first higher education institution in Switzerland that uses technology Blockchain to fight against diplomas fake. The first to do so was The University of Basel, which was associated with the project of chain of blocks Proxeus of BlockFactory in 2018. To September 2018, more than 100 students of the University of Basel had received certificates registered in the Blockchain of Ethereum. “The University of Basel was the master mind, in my perspective. Prof. Dr. Schär of the Finance Center Innovative the University of Basel was the first to make this service, in establishing and developing this service with our business partner. Gave us the idea and we follow his trail”. And, according to the statements of Rotter, there are many other universities that wish to incorporate Blockchain to fight against the counterfeiting of credentials. Enthusiasts of this technology hope that one day all educational institutions incorporate this technology in some form in their functions, since that has proven to be of great utility in various fields. The following two tabs change content below. I am a student of International Studies, interested in new technologies and their impact on the world. A true believer that tenacity is the foundation of success.