A Tree-based Construction for Verifiable Diplomas with Issuer Transparency

TL;DR

This paper introduces a tree-based, blockchain-inspired system for creating secure, transparent, and verifiable digital academic credentials that prevent fraud and improve trust in the issuing process.

Contribution

It presents a novel tree-structured protocol using smart contracts for secure, transparent, and machine-verifiable diplomas, enhancing trust and fraud prevention.

Findings

Provides a cryptographically secure diploma verification system

Increases transparency of the certification process

Maintains acceptable costs compared to existing solutions

Abstract

Still to this day, academic credentials are primarily paper-based, and the process to verify the authenticity of such documents is costly, time-consuming, and prone to human error and fraud. Digitally signed documents facilitate a cost-effective verification process. However, vulnerability to fraud remains due to reliance on centralized authorities that lack full transparency. In this paper, we present the mechanisms we designed to create secure and machine-verifiable academic credentials. Our protocol models a diploma as an evolving set of immutable credentials. The credentials are built as a tree-based data structure with linked time-stamping, where portions of credentials are distributed over a set of smart contracts. Our design prevents fraud of diplomas and eases the detection of degree mills, while increasing the transparency and trust in the issuer's procedures. Our evaluation shows that our solution offers a certification system with strong cryptographic security and imposes a high level of transparency of the certification process. We achieve these benefits with acceptable costs compared to existing solutions that lack such transparency.