Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

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

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advances in Cyber Security (ACeS 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1487))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Nakamoto, S.: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System—Satoshi Nakamoto Institute (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Raval, S.: Decentralized Applications: Harnessing Bitcoin’s Blockchain Technology. O’Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Swan, M.: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy. O’Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Casino, F., Dasaklis, T.K., Patsakis, C.: A systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: current status, classification and open issues. Telematics Inform. 36, 55–81 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.11.006

  5. Gramoli, V.: From blockchain consensus back to Byzantine consensus. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 107, 760–769 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.09.023

  6. Zhang, S., Lee, J.-H.: Analysis of the main consensus protocols of blockchain. ICT Express 6, 93–97 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icte.2019.08.001

  7. Sankar, L.S., Sindhu, M., Sethumadhavan, M.: Survey of consensus protocols on blockchain applications. In: 2017 4th International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS), pp. 1–5 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kus Khalilov, M.C., Levi, A.: A survey on anonymity and privacy in bitcoin-like digital cash systems. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 20, 2543–2585 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2018.2818623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Conti, M., Sandeep Kumar, E., Lal, C., Ruj, S.: A survey on security and privacy issues of bitcoin. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 20, 3416–3452 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hao, Y., Li, Y., Dong, X., Fang, L., Chen, P.: Performance analysis of consensus algorithm in private blockchain. In: 2018 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), pp. 280–285 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dib, O., Brousmiche, K.-L., Durand, A., Thea, E., Hamida, E.: Consortium Blockchains: overview, applications and challenges. Int. J. Adv. Telecommun. 11, 51–64 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yaga, D., Mell, P., Roby, N., Scarfone, K.: Blockchain technology overview. Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. 1–68 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Pongnumkul, S., Khonnasee, C., Lertpattanasak, S., Polprasert, C.: Proof-of-Concept (PoC) of land mortgaging process in blockchain-based land registration system of Thailand. In: Proceedings of the 2020 The 2nd International Conference on Blockchain Technology, pp. 100–104. ACM, New York (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Yapa, I., Heanthenna, S., Bandara, N., Prasad, I., Mallawarachchi, Y.: Decentralized ledger for land and property transactions in Sri Lanka Acresense. In: 2018 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC), pp. 1–6 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Nandi, M., Bhattacharjee, R.K., Jha, A., Barbhuiya, F.A.: A secured land registration framework on Blockchain. In: 2020 Third ISEA Conference on Security and Privacy (ISEA-ISAP), pp. 130–138 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Azaria, A., Ekblaw, A., Vieira, T., Lippman, A.: MedRec: using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In: 2016 2nd International Conference on Open and Big Data (OBD), pp. 25–30 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Xia, Q., Sifah, E.B., Asamoah, K.O., Gao, J., Du, X., Guizani, M.: MeDShare: trust-less medical data sharing among cloud service providers via blockchain. IEEE Access 5, 14757–14767 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Liu, C.H., Lin, Q., Wen, S.: Blockchain-enabled data collection and sharing for industrial IoT with deep reinforcement learning. IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform. 15, 3516–3526 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2018.2890203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Singh, M., Singh, A., Kim, S.: Blockchain: a game changer for securing IoT data. In: 2018 IEEE 4th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), pp. 51–55 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Liang, X., Zhao, J., Shetty, S., Li, D.: Towards data assurance and resilience in IoT using blockchain. In: MILCOM 2017 - 2017 IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 261–266 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Li, R., Song, T., Mei, B., Li, H., Cheng, X., Sun, L.: Blockchain for large-scale internet of things data storage and protection. IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput. 12, 762–771 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kirkman, S.: A data movement policy framework for improving trust in the cloud using smart contracts and blockchains. In: 2018 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E), pp. 270–273 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Liang, X., Shetty, S., Tosh, D., Kamhoua, C., Kwiat, K., Njilla, L.: ProvChain: a blockchain-based data provenance architecture in cloud environment with enhanced privacy and availability. In: 2017 17th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGRID), pp. 468–477 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Kanimozhi, E.A., Suguna, M., Mercy Shalini, S.: Immediate detection of data corruption by integrating blockchain in cloud computing. In: 2019 International Conference on Vision Towards Emerging Trends in Communication and Networking (ViTECoN), pp. 1–4 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Huynh, T.T., Tru Huynh, T., Pham, D.K., Khoa Ngo, A.: Issuing and Verifying Digital Certificates with Blockchain. In: International Conference on Advanced Technologies for Communications, 2018-October, pp. 332–336 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/ATC.2018.8587428

  26. Cheng, J., Lee, N., Chi, C., Chen, Y.: Blockchain and smart contract for digital certificate. In: 2018 IEEE International Conference on Applied System Invention (ICASI), pp. 1046–1051 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Chowdhury, M.J.M., Colman, A., Kabir, M.A., Han, J., Sarda, P.: Blockchain as a notarization service for data sharing with personal data store. In: 2018 17th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications/12th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), pp. 1330–1335 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Chen, G., Xu, B., Lu, M., Chen, N.-S.: Exploring blockchain technology and its potential applications for education. Smart Learn. Environ. 5(1), 1–10 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-017-0050-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Williams, P.: Does competency-based education with blockchain signal a new mission for universities? J. High. Educ. Policy Manag. 41, 104–117 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2018.1520491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ocheja, P., Flanagan, B., Ueda, H., Ogata, H.: Managing lifelong learning records through blockchain. Res. Pract. Technol. Enhanc. Learn. 14(1), 1–19 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-019-0097-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Malibari, N.A.: A survey on blockchain-based applications in education. In: 2020 7th International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom), pp. 266–270. IEEE (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Li, C., Guo, J., Zhang, G., Wang, Y., Sun, Y., Bie, R.: A blockchain system for E-learning assessment and certification. In: Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Smart Internet Things, SmartIoT 2019, pp. 212–219 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/SmartIoT.2019.00040

  33. Lam, T.Y., Dongol, B.: A blockchain-enabled e-learning platform. Interact. Learn. Environ. 0, 1–23 (2020).https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1716022

  34. Zhao, G., Di, B., He, H.: Design and implementation of the digital education transaction subject two-factor identity authentication system based on blockchain. International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology ICACT 2020, pp. 176–180 (2020). https://doi.org/10.23919/ICACT48636.2020.9061393

  35. Han, M., Li, Z., He, J.S., Wu, D., Xie, Y., Baba, A.: A novel blockchain-based education records verification solution. In: Proceedings of the 19th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education, pp. 178–183. ACM, New York (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Shen, H., Xiao, Y.: Research on online quiz scheme based on double-layer consortium blockchain. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Information Technology in Medicine and Education ITME 2018, pp. 956–960 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/ITME.2018.00213

  37. Lizcano, D., Lara, J.A., White, B., Aljawarneh, S.: Blockchain-based approach to create a model of trust in open and ubiquitous higher education. J. Comput. High. Educ. 32(1), 109–134 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09209-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Sharples, M., Domingue, J.: The blockchain and kudos: a distributed system for educational record, reputation and reward. In: Verbert, K., Sharples, M., Klobučar, T. (eds.) EC-TEL 2016. LNCS, vol. 9891, pp. 490–496. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45153-4_48

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  39. Androulaki, E., et al.: Hyperledger fabric: a distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference, p. 15. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2018)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, 202002, India

    Faraz Masood & Arman Rasool Faridi

Authors
  1. Faraz Masood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Arman Rasool Faridi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Faraz Masood .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hodeidah University, Hodeidah, Yemen

    Nibras Abdullah

  2. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Selvakumar Manickam

  3. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Mohammed Anbar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Masood, F., Faridi, A.R. (2021). A Blockchain Framework to Increase the Security and Verifiability of Educational Certificates. In: Abdullah, N., Manickam, S., Anbar, M. (eds) Advances in Cyber Security. ACeS 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1487. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8059-5_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8059-5_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-8058-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-8059-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics