Ethense and uPort bring educational certificates to Self-Sovereign Identity
When we think of “identity,” things like name, nationality or age are often the first to come to mind. However, our identity consists of a variety of other attributes, not only these given to us at birth, but also the ones we’ve been collecting throughout our lives. If we think of identity elements as a sort of badge, we can all agree that some are easy to acquire, while others require a lot more work. Educational “badges” like degrees, diplomas and certifications are definitely the latter.
What school you went to, what you studied and the results of your academic accomplishments carry a lot of underlying information about you. This information has a significant impact on things like careers, social activities and people’s perceptions of you. In short, you typically spend a quarter of your life as a student and that effort should form a significant element of your “earned” identity.
At uPort we’re working hard to give users the opportunity to create and control their own digital identity, in whatever form it takes. This is why we’re proud to be working with Ethense to enable users to store their educational credentials in the uPort app.
Ethense, an easy tool for issuing blockchain-based educational credentials.
Ethense is a tool built by ConsenSys Academy that enables universities, schools, online learning platforms and practically any educational institution to issue Ethereum-based certificates to their students.
Students, after getting this certificate, store it in their uPort wallet and no longer need to worry about having to provide a paper copy to validate their educational credentials. This eliminates the need to stand in a long line to get a sealed transcript or having to call mom to frantically dig through storage boxes in the basement. Their certificate is available to them at any time and place.
Using a certificate issued with uPort is also far superior to current digital version s like PDFs that are easily forgeable and useful only in a handful of cases. When an educational institution issues a certificate with uPort, it cryptographically signs it, making it tamper proof. Thanks to this, universities can easily issue counterfeit-proof certificates to their students without worrying about forgeries that can create serious brand and reputational damages. Additionally, while letting students own an ethereum-based certificate is for sure an interesting novelty, it is also a way of having a less manual and more secure process when it comes to answering requests for re-sending transcripts.
How do educational institutions issue certificates to their students using Ethense and uPort?
- Using the Ethense platform, an issuer creates a certificate template. Using a straightforward drag-drop interface, they decide what information the certificate will hold. If we’re talking about a university certificate, it would probably include the student’s name, course, GPA, date of degree, maybe a thesis title. This broad flexibility makes Ethense applicable for a diverse set of programs and schools.
- With the certificate created, the issuer then adds the email addresses of the recipients.
- Each recipient receives an email from the issuer with a unique QR code. Once they receive it, they scan it with their uPort app and become owners of their education certificate etc. This is how they become owners of their certificates, and it is then added to their previously created identity on the uPort app.
- The school gets a notification when the student claims their certificate.
Ethense and uPort out in the wild. Real use cases of issuing verifiable credentials.
Blockchain-based certificates have been already issued as part of pilot programs run by several educational institutions. As a result, several hundred users have claimed their certificates via uPort. In many cases this was their first step in creating their self-sovereign identity. Multiple education institutions issued certificates this past year across a variety of use cases using Ethense’s adaptable and flexible product. We highlight here a selection of them.
The Frankfurt School of Finance & Management was the first university in Germany to create and distribute credentials to students who completed the “Certified Blockchain Expert” course. Participants learned about the new technology, its possibilities and applications within various industries while also personally experiencing some of its advantages by getting full ownership over their certificate.
ConsenSys Academy issued certificates to developers who successfully completed their Developer Program, and have expanded the use to all of their in-person and online programs. This enables users in the future to build a digital CV that consists of verified statements and certificates stored in their uPort wallet.
Ethense-created claims have also been used by more than just educational institutions. In a less formal use case, Couger, a Tokyo-based company focused on emerging technologies, issued certificates to participants of the Ethereum Hackathon in Tokyo. This was a three-day event co-hosted by Couger and ConsenSys with more than 65 people participating in the event. As a prize, the winning team received certificates issued through Ethense. Couger also collaborated with a Blockchain Workshop hosted by the University of Rwanda, where more than 40 participants received certificates for completing the workshop.
This is just the beginning…
The flexibility of creating various kinds of certifications with Ethense and the possibility of safely storing them in the uPort app opens a vast array of possibilities.
We’re just at the beginning of this journey. The number of benefits to owning and managing your educational credentials will grow as the network of institutions and various companies that use uPort expands. This will also enable better applications of smaller educational data sets that don’t have a good way to surface them today. Imagine that attending a particular course gives you access to certain labs within universities around the world. Or, because you majored in French linguistics, you get additional miles for your vacation flight to Paris.
The possibilities are endless… and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned!
