BCDiploma white paper Highlights #2 — The Identification Certificate in the BCDiploma Ecosystem

BCDiploma will allow all schools of higher education to certify their diplomas and attestations on the Ethereum blockchain. Graduates will receive a simple URL link they can share on social networks, post on their CV or send to a recruiter. This link is valid for a lifetime and provides a one-click access to the diploma and to all the proofs of its authenticity.

But… how does it work? How can I be sure that the consulted data is authentic? And in order to do so, how can I check the identity of the school in one click? This is the question we are answering here.

Let’s imagine an ideal world where diplomas are certified through BCDiploma: You are recruiting a future collaborator, who sends you the BCDiploma link of its diploma. You click on it, BCDiploma guarantees you that it’s a true one… but you want to take it further so you click on “Consult the proofs of authenticity” of this diploma.

At this point, you are consulting the “ID certificate” of the school that issued the diploma. What is this all about?

This is the proof in plain text (directly readable in the transaction data via etherscan[1], for example) of the school’s identity, cross-checked by the publication of its Ethereum address on the school’s corporate website. It contains inter alia the following data: school name, characteristic of the diplomas that will be issued, URL of the corporate website page on which the school’s Ethereum address is published and the DApp URL to read the diploma.

If you are curious, you will check that the URL of the server on which you are currently viewing the diploma is effectively the one announced. If you are a bit more curious, you will follow the link to the corporate website… and if you are even more curious, you will follow the link to etherscan… and there you are, totally convinced that the data you are looking at have been issued by the announced school!

How does the school issue a certificate of identity?

To obtain a “ID Certificate”, the school carries out the SmartIdentification smart contract. This smart contract:

• Verifies via a SmartValidation smart contract that the identity of the school has been verified by a validator.
• Publishes the school’s “ID Certificate” in the transaction data, without any encryption.

This certificate serves a dual purpose:

• A diploma can only be issued “from” a valid certificate. The end date of the validity certificate can be valued in due course by the school, using a SmartIdentification smart contract method;
• Upon consultation of a diploma, the certificate will be proof “in plain text” (directly readable via etherscan, for example) of the school’s identity. This proof is cross-checked by the publication of its Ethereum address on the school’s corporate website.

It is also useful for another purpose that has to do with the performance of the ecosystem: the certificate makes it possible to share information that is generic to all diplomas that are published, thus avoiding redundancy of information on Ethereum.

Once this certificate is issued, it is time to let cryptography certify the diplomas!

[1] “DApp”, or “Oracle” application allowing to read the data of a transaction on Ethereum by providing a secure Web access.

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