On-Chain Verifiable Credential with Applications in Education
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
A verifiable credential (VC) has been standardized and applied in various domains, including education. Due to its immutability, blockchain has been considered and used for credential issuance and verification. Most existing methods, however, are not compatible with the W3C VC standard. In this paper, an on-chain VC issuance and verification method has been described. The method is based on the standard VC data model and applicable to any credential type. It decomposes a VC document into a VC template and the corresponding value array(s). This allows a VC to be issued on-chain in the Bitcoin BTC network, which has a limited data embedding capacity. The proposed method reduces blockchain resource consumption due to the reusability of a VC template. In addition, it allows the use of a concise VC fingerprint format instead of a full VC for credential exchange. Two issuance modes, namely the full on-chain and partial on-chain, are proposed targeting different use cases. The proposed method has been applied for issuing and verifying two learning credential types. The method was evaluated on the Bitcoin Testnet to measure time and space complexities. With the reduced-size VC fingerprint, the proposed method can embed a VC on a traditional paper-based credential as a compact-sized QR code. The proposed method offered faster VC issuance and verification than an existing standard-based verifiable credential method.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
J.J. Carmichael and S.E. Eaton, “Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education: Conclusions and Future Directions,” In: Eaton, S.E., Carmichael, J.J., Pethrick, H. (eds) Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education. Ethics and Integrity in Educational Contexts, vol. 5, Springer, Cham, 2023.
G. Grolleau, T. Lakhal and N. Mzoughi, “An Introduction to the Economics of Fake Degrees,” Journal of Economic Issues, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 673–693, 2008.
R. McGreal and D. Olcott, “A strategic reset: micro-credentials for higher education leaders,” Smart Learning Environments, vol. 9, no. 9, 2022.
K.K. Miller, T.J. de St Jorre, J.M. West and E.D. Johnson, “The potential of digital credentials to engage students with capabilities of importance to scholars and citizens,” Active Learning in Higher Education, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 11-22, 2020.
S. Sadiq and S. Zamir, “Effectiveness of modular approach in teaching at university level,” Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 5, no. 17, pp. 103-109, 2014.
S. N. Braxton, S. Carbonaro and N. Jankowski, “Comprehensive Learner Record as a Vehicle for Assessment and Learning Transparency in a Skills Economy,” in Y. Huang (Ed.),
Handbook of Research on Credential Innovations for Inclusive Pathways to Professions, IGI Global, pp. 214-233, 2022.
B. Chakroun and J. Keevy, “Digital credentialing: implications for the recognition of learning across borders,” Meeting Report, UNESCO, 2018, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.54675/SABO8911 (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
A. Perisic, I. Perisic, M. Lazic and B. Perisic, “The foundation for future education, teaching, training, learning, and performing infrastructure The open interoperability conceptual framework approach,” Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 6, 2023.
1EDTECH, “Open Badges Specification Candidate Final Public Spec Version 3.0,” 2023, [Online]. Available: https://1edtech.github.io/openbadges-specification/ob_v3p0.html (accessed May. 2023).
M. Sporny, D. Longley and D. Chadwick, “Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 W3C Working Draft,” 2023, [Online]. Available: https://www.w3.org/TR/2023/ WD-vc-data-model-2.0-20230507/ (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
B. Rodrigues, M. Franco, E. Scheid, S. Kanhere and B. Stiller, “A technology-driven overview on blockchain-based academic certificate handling,” Blockchain Technology Applications in Education, IGI Global, pp. 197–223, 2020.
A. Rustemi, F. Dalipi, V. Atanasovski and A. Risteski, “A Systematic Literature Review on Blockchain-Based Systems for Academic Certificate Verification,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 64679-64696, 2023.
“Blockcerts blockchain credentials,” [Online]. Available: https://www.blockcerts.org/ (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
K. Kuvshinov, I. Nikiforov, J. Mostovoy, D. Mukhutdinov, K. Andreev and V. Podtelkin, “Disciplina: Blockchain for Education,” [Online]. Available: https://www.disciplina.io/yellowpaper.pdf (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
R. Mukta, J. Martens, H. -y. Paik, Q. Lu and S. S. Kanhere, “Blockchain-Based Verifiable Credential Sharing with Selective Disclosure,” 2020 IEEE 19th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), Guangzhou, China, pp. 959-966, 2020.
M. Turkanovi ́c, M. H ̈olbl, K. Koˇsiˇc, M. Heriˇcko and A. Kamiˇsali ́c, “EduCTX: A Blockchain-Based Higher Education Credit Platform,” IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 5112-5127, 2018.
C. Brunner, F. Knirsch and D. Engel, “SPROOF: A Platform for Issuing and Verifying Documents in a Public Blockchain,” in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Inf. Syst. Secur. Privacy, pp. 15–25, 2019.
C.S. Hsu, S.F. Tu and P.C. Chiu, “Design of an e-diploma system based on consortium blockchain and facial recognition,” Education and Information Technologies, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 5495–5519, Jan. 2022.
Y. Mezquita, B. Podgorelec, A. Gil-Gonz ́alez and J. Corchado, “Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Systems, Interoperability Model in a Pharmaceutical Case Study,” Sensors, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1-19, 2023.
M. Gottlieb and G. Bacharach, “Cleaning Up: Interplay Between European Standards and Verifiable Credentials for Higher Education Institutions,” Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol. 634, pp. 777–788, 2023.
D. Longley, M. Sporny, “Data Integrity EdDSA Cryptosuites v1.0,” W3.org, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-dieddsa/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
D. Longley, M. Sporny, “Data Integrity ECDSA Cryptosuites v1.0,” W3.org, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-diecdsa/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
“BBS Cryptosuite v2023,” W3.org, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-di-bbs/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
“Merkle Proof Signature Suite 2019,” W3C Community Group, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/lds-merkle-proof-2019/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
“Merkle Disclosure Proof 2021,” [Online]. Available: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/Merkle-Disclosure-2021/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
“Getting started OpenCerts,” Government Techno-logy Agency (Singapore), 2022, [Online]. Available: https://docs.opencerts.io/docs (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
“OpenAttestation: Document Endorsement and Verification Framework,” Government Technology Agency (Singapore), 2023, [Online]. Available: https://www.openattestation.com/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2024).
C. Adams, P. Cain, D. Pinkas and R. Zuccherato, “Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Time-Stamp Protocol (TSP),” Network Working Group Ietf.org, 2001, [Online]. Available: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3161.txt (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
S. Santesson, N. Pope, “ESSCertIDv2 Update for RFC 3161,” Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), 2010, [Online]. Available: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5816.html (accessed 15 Feb. 2024).
G. Michoulis, S. Petridou, K. Vergidis, G. Michoulis, George, “Verification of Academic Qualifications through Ethereum Blockchain: An Introduction to VerDe,” XIV Balkan Conference on Operational Research, pp. 429-433, 2020.
J. Tellew and T. Kuo, “CertificateChain: decentralized healthcare training certificate management system using blockchain and smart contracts,” JAMIA Open, vol. 5, no. 1, April 2022.
R.J.Maestre,J.BermejoHiguera,N.G ́amez Go ́mez et al., “The application of blockchain algorithms to the management of education certificates,” Evol. Intel., vol. 16, pp. 1967–1984, 2023.
A. Tariq, H. Binte Haq and S. T. Ali, “Cerberus: A Blockchain-Based Accreditation and
Degree Verification System,” IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 1503-1514, 2023.
M. Bartoletti and L. Pompianu, “An Analysis of Bitcoin OP RETURN Metadata,” In: Brenner, M., et al. Financial Cryptography and Data Security: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10323, Springer, Cham, 2017.
J. Mols and E. Vasilomanolakis, “Visualizing the Bitcoin’s OP RETURN operator,” Proceedings of the Twenty-First International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing (Mobihoc ’20), pp. 305–306, 2020.
M. Bartoletti, B. Bellomy and L. Pompianu, “A Journey into Bitcoin Metadata,” Journal of Grid Computing, vol. 17, pp. 3–22, 2019.
P. Rodwald, “An Analysis of Data Hidden in Bitcoin Addresses,” Theory and Engineering of Dependable Computer Systems and Networks: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1389. Springer, Cham, 2021.
J. Bukowski et. al., “merkle-tools,” [Online]. Available: https://github.com/tierion/merkle-tools (accessed May. 2024).
W. Fdhila, N. Stifter, K. Kostal, C. Saglam and M. Sabadello, “Methods for Decentralized Identities: Evaluation and Insights,” Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 428, Springer, 2021.
“QR code, 2D barcode invented by Denso Wave,” Denso Wave Incorporated, [Online]. Available: http://www.qrcode.com (accessed 15 Mar. 2024).