Abstract:

Given the way our world is organized in the current century, data decentralization is becoming a more and more vital aspect of our day-to-day life. Users need to have control of their data whilst people that need to access it must be able to verify that the information has not been altered in any way. Hence, a system that can handle and track student certifications across subjects, fields, universities and continents is becoming a necessity for all students that take part in any mobility program. Such a system will greatly improve the way faculties and Erasmus students have their data handled and subjects equated, compared to the current implementation that is not following any standardization, varying across educational institutions.

We propose a system that uses verifiable credentials that are a digital piece of information which is cryptographically signed and can be verified later as well as microcredits which are a way of quantizing the learning process by splitting tasks in small units. This system will provide each student with a unique profile, which will contain all the records related to his educational course. This will hold everything, from the subjects the student is taking, to the dorm entry id and cafeteria coupons. This way, the student is in control of his data, since it is held on the students’ devices, on digital wallets, and the owner of that device can prove the courses he attended and the subjects he has passed, by generating a verifiable credential that can be presented, read and validated by other educational institutions. This system can also be extended in such a way that companies can verify and confirm the graduation or achievements of the student as well as various other institutions that require proof from the students (with a Student ID) are able to use and verify the information.

In this paper we will compare the technologies that are required for implementing such a system, as well as providing a comparison between a similar implementation based on a regular, centralized technology stack and the forementioned distributed ledger implementation. There will also be an in-depth analysis of the limitations of the centralized and decentralized approaches, as both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The prototype is implemented using React and Typescript for front-end, Spring Boot and Java for backend. Calls from the front-end to the back-end are based on the REST standard with JSON for encoding data. For the regular system we used a PostgreSQL to store all the data which is saved and retrieved using SQL as well as the Hibernate ORM to simplify and speed up the time it took to implement, whilst for the implementation that uses a distributed ledger system, based on two different blockchains, the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain and Hardhat Ethereum, which will be activated using Spring Boot profiles. The back-end will communicate to the chains using RPC calls. For both implementations the front-end remains the same, as only the back-end implementation differs. The system is validated in a higher-education institution, with feedback from people in charge of mobility.

Keywords:

Technology, education, blockchain.