How the World Benefits from Blockchain-based Qualifications
Blockchain is inevitably emerging as a groundbreaking technology, which will affect almost all aspects of our business activities. Just to name a few examples, it can help a company trace the exact origin of the diamonds it trades, execute robust digital contracts between parties and make recruitment quicker and easier for employers. But can the Blockchain revolution also benefit individuals on a global basis?
Almost a year ago, I was pitching Gradbase at a large tech conference in the Western district of Berlin. At the end of my pitch, a senior manager of a famous German multinational came to talk to me. He told me that, despite his company having very sophisticated, well-tested and carefully-designed HR procedures, they had just found out they had hired a fraudster originally from Latin America. The fraudulent engineer in question had in fact provided fake copies for several of the qualifications he mentioned on his CV. Yet it was only after six months, and the company having already invested in interviews, travel, relocation and training expenses, that the trickery was uncovered.
More broadly, this type of fraud raises the question of global mobility of the workforce: “if a company in country X cannot efficiently verify my qualifications because I come from country Y, does it mean that I am less likely to get the job?”
No one really enjoys taking risks. This is why universities and companies can be very cautious regarding their recruiting processes and rely only on trusted partners. For example, British employers can use ad-hoc nationwide services or individual registries to verify the academic degrees of UK universities. Yet when it comes to recruiting graduates from foreign countries, a degree of suspicion may rise since the trusted partners will rarely be able to provide complete verifications on applicants. Ignoring the talent from foreign countries simply because we do not have the power to verify it would be a wasted opportunity for both the candidate and the employer.
So how can we solve the issue of global trust for academic qualifications?
Public Blockchains can be seen as ready-to-use infrastructures that enable universities to publish their qualifications in encrypted form (a hash) in the public domain, without revealing private information about the candidates and without having to spend a fortune on a new IT project. Because the ledger is immutable and replicated worldwide, verification of the qualifications is instantaneous and can be performed by any party around the world that has access to an Internet connection.
If only trustworthy educational institutions can insert qualifications on the Blockchain, then the verification can be fully trusted. As a result, a talented graduate from any distant foreign country can get the same opportunities as a candidate from your home country.
Beyond the democratisation of worldwide qualifications, Blockchain technology can also offer graduates an entirely new level of autonomy as they embark on their careers.
Currently, most recruiting processes will involve your alma mater certifying your degree by the post, phone or email, or providing a paper certificate to the employer. But what if your alma mater has to shut down for economic reasons, or is affected by an earthquake, or stops operating because of conflicts and war in its country?
Using the Blockchain for your qualifications means you will not have to rely on the institution anymore to provide the certification of your degree: it will become permanently verifiable, worldwide.
So it is clear to see that Blockchain-based verification of degrees and personal claims goes well beyond simply solving a recruitment gripe. The decentralised system of trust, paired with the frictionless, immediate access to the true claim information, has the potential to boost worldwide workforce mobility, guarantees an unprecedented level of autonomy of the claim holder with respect to the issuing body, and thus can positively bring about more efficient distribution and matching of candidates with job opportunities.
