Blockchain and smart contracts for higher education registry in Brazil

AbstractSummaryThe validation of academic credits and issuance of academic degree certificates in the Brazilian education system currently occurs in a semi or completely noncomputerized way. The actual digitization of this system could make it more secure and decrease bureaucracy in terms of document validation, saving in storage and labor. Due to the recent increase in forgeries and loss of records, it is paramount that this process becomes more transparent and reliable for all involved parties. This article presents a proposal and an implementation for the digitization of degree certificates and academic credits for higher education in the Brazilian education system. A transparent model based on blockchain is proposed, in which higher education institutions register students and their academic credits in a chain of records using the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure for identity management. This information, associated with smart contracts, enables the reliable and decentralized issuance of degree certificates through the validation of a historical database and the triggering of transactions using smart contracts. The focus of this article is the demonstration of an experiment that validates this proposal.We propose a blockchain‐based solution to automate the issuance of degree certificates in the Brazilian higher education system. The goal is to tackle unmanaged risk, bureaucracy, human interference, and frauds. The solution consists of Ethereum smart contracts that allow higher education institutions to register students' academic achievements. The Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure is used to identify institutions in the blockchain. When the smart contracts identify that a student has completed a degree, they issue a degree certificate in the blockchain. View Figure