Trusted Academic Transcripts on the Blockchain: A Systematic Literature Review

Giulio Caldarelli,Joshua Ellul

doi:10.3390/app11041842

Giulio Caldarelli, Joshua Ellul

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041842

Copy DOI

Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: Feb 19, 2021
Citations: 44	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Verona, University of Malta

Abstract

Much of the excitement around blockchain is mainly due to promising applications in the financial sector. However, many also believe in the technology’s potential to disrupt non-financial sectors and applications, including supply chains, energy, e-voting, healthcare, and education. The application of blockchain within the education sector is expected to make improvements to academic transcripts, credentials, digital libraries, and student records. Research in this domain is rapidly increasing, and current reviews summarize the proposed improvements. On the other hand, the analysis undertaken has remained at a general level that lacks the depth required to cover diverging proposals that have emerged. This review focuses on the application of blockchain for academic transcripts. The aim is to find, among the proposed models, converging aspects that resolve common challenges and may lead to a universally accepted de-facto standard. Furthermore, since academic institutions will serve as oracles to the particular blockchain applications, a discussion on their trustworthiness will be outlined to explore if the proposed applications efficiently address the oracle problem. The outcome of this review highlights the need for a standardized approach built on a public blockchain to promote faster adoption and acceptance. Furthermore, oracles should be incentivized in order for the system to be sustainable, while their identities and activities should be known and identifiable.

Highlights

Analysis undertaken in this work aims to provide a blockchain agnostic framework to efficiently address the oracle problem, and to provide a blueprint of an emerging standard for academic applications
Ten articles (20%) were published in Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) venues, which was the most common, and as for the topics of publication venues: Figure 5 outlines their distribution
Regardless of the platform type, it emerges from the selected studies that universities, students and employers, would like more than just the ability for a transcript to be notarized on a blockchain and that detailed skills should be permanently stored on the ledger [8,32]

Summary

Introduction

In the last ten to fifteen years, the production of forged academic certificates’ has become a global problem as educational qualifications have gained increasing commercial value [1]. The rising number of fake diplomas is often seen as a consequence of the crisis, where desperate people forge certificates in order to obtain job qualifications [2]. Recent research shows that the counterfeiting of diplomas involves lower-tier staff and activists, members of the Government, officials, and university candidates [3]. As a recent review has shown, transcript issuance administration and management face many adversities [4]. Transcripts are still shared with difficulty between institution’s or employer platforms [7,8] while being highly exposed to security vulnerabilities.

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion