Ethereum-Based Information System for Digital Higher Education Registry and Verification of Student Achievement Documents

Abstract

Blockchain is a new and modern technology that is gradually being used in various fields due to its ability to decentralize and organize secure and reliable data exchange and storage. One of the related research areas generating increasing interest is the field of education, with particular focus on the digitization and automation of educational management processes and the ability to store and verify digital documents about student progress. The main goal of this study is to develop a platform that creates a unified digital register of students’ educational achievements, which is one of the most pressing issues in the field of education, based on the Ethereum blockchain architecture. Blockchain is expensive; therefore, there is a need to consider performance criteria when evaluating any decision made about the technology, especially the most important aspects such as predicting traffic behavior, estimating transaction costs and providing the necessary indicators of system quality and functionality. However, most research ignores the evaluation of performance indicators, such as throughput, the speed of transactions and the amount of data stored in the Ethereum blockchain database, which are the main evaluation criteria. This paper aims to eliminate this gap by evaluating the performance of the developed platform and by discussing the obtained experimental results. Thus, the main results of this work are the design and deployment of a blockchain platform and the analysis of its transaction costs. We conclude that the proposed blockchain solution is applicable as a system for the accounting and verification of loans and student academic achievements.