Singapore graduates to start receiving blockchain-based certificates

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When it comes to where blockchain can make the most difference, the financial sector has been the obvious answer. However, the technology can certainly help tremendously in education too, where certification can provide a new level for transparency. Beginning 2019, graduates from 18 educational institutes in Singapore will receive blockchain-verified certificates, Tech in Asia reports, quoting Education Minister Ong Ye Kung.

The initiative is led by OpenCerts, which markets itself as “an easy way to check and verify your certificates.” It is an open-source government project that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and is still “in the early stages of progressive rollout.”

The group believes it has a blockchain-based solution that can help education in multiple ways, stating that it can check to make sure that a certificate has not been tampered with in any manner, and that the certificates can be adequately verified. A unique digital code is tagged to each Opencerts certificate.

If a certificate is tampered with, it will create a new hash, and the new modified certificate will “fail validation,” according to OpenCert’s website. OpenCerts can be emailed and shared for maximum efficiency.

This can save both employers and educational institutions a significant amount of money. There is no need to use paper or printout certificates, given the fact that they can be verified through the blockchain. The company also hopes to save a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money for employers, who can drag and drop certificates on the OpenCerts website rather than calling up schools and companies to verify claims.

There is already interest from foreign educational institutions in utilizing the technology, and the fact that it is open-source means that there are companies that can build upon the code base in the short-term and long-term future. The move is historic, as this is the first time that blockchain technology has been utilized at a national level.