Digitally notarized certificates — from the comfort of your smartphone
Have you ever dreaded Notarizing a document? Everyone does, because Notarizing any document means long lines in the court corridor, showing a smiling face even when sweating profusely, giving all the documents to the pie, jostling around in the crowded entry and then returning after hours to collect the Notary certificate with stamp. It’s nothing short of sheer torture. But this is a necessity nonetheless. As we know, when applying for visa in a foreign country and more so when planning to open a new company, the owner being an Indian, one must notarize every document that needs to be produced to the foreign authorities — there are different notaries e.g. Apostille appointed by Govt. who gets the original documents apostilled by Ministry of External Affairs, for a fortune. While govt would charge a minuscule amount, the total bill with courier pick up and drop comes to a minimum of Rs. 7000. You bet that is an extravagant amount and think of that kind of spending needed to be done by a student who is going for a post graduate course to Europe. And if you ever though that is this fool proof pause and think again, does the Notary really do their job? Yes, but when a client wants to befuddle them, they also go for a ride. Numerous cases of forged document were notarised, and nothing could be done as there was no photography or video evidence of this notary process.
In a recent case for opening of a company in Europe which prides itself in digitalization, notary verification was conducted fully digital over a skype call. What was done was the notary verified the face pattern in camera with the passport of the company owner held over the camera and in a jiffy, the process was complete. Similarly, it was done for address proof through portal with the consumer ID, scanning the document and then verifying the same printed document held over the camera. With simple pattern matching software, good camera and internet call over Skype the Notary process was completed. Even the whole verification was recorded so that there is video proof of each item of the conversation. Even countries like Estonia’s e-residency program is all dependent on digital notary.
Talentchain brings these digital notaries with the security of Blockchain and that too in a smartphone. In many a case the Talentchain user may earn a certificate from an institute which doesn’t issue a certificate on Blockchain. But as a user he needs to be provided the verified version of this certificate for a job interview. He just invokes the Notary node of Talentchain. Certificates that are self-uploaded by students goes to a notary and can be attested by notary through video call. Notary will approve the documents if all criteria is met and sign off with a digital signature. Notarized certificates get uploaded to Blockchain and the customer can share it with his interviewer just through an email or WhatsApp message.
About the Author:
Moutan Lahiri, editor for Talentchain’s thought leadership blogs, has been actively consulting global customers on Blockchain technologies. She is also been part of the product strategy team at Talentchain. She has been a technologist with 11 years of implementation experience working for global giants like PwC and Mindtree.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moutan-lahiri-86922b4a/
