DESIGNING BLOCKCHAIN BASED NON-FUNGIBLE TOKEN CERTIFICATE SHARING FRAMEWORK
Date
2023-10-20
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0000-1383-888X
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The sharing of academic achievement certificates and credentials requires enhanced security measures to ensure faultless and fraud-free practices, while also prioritizing data trust and user privacy. It is crucial to provide convenience and secure control over access rights based on user roles. Traditionally, educational institutions issue hard copy certificates to students who have fulfilled the prerequisites. However, when it comes to sharing validated certificates, especially for students pursuing higher studies, different issuers follow varied approaches.
The traditional method of mailing certificates involves time-consuming and costly back-and-forth involvement with universities. Similarly, email-based approaches raise concerns regarding trust and authenticity. In all of these approach there exist intermediaries that are need for verification and validation. Existing sharing platforms restrict student's control over their data and limit the validation process. Moreover, once a certificate is shared through these methods, students often lose control over its further usage and distribution, which is not an ideal approach.
Until recently, there was no standardized approach to accurately monitor and verify the sharing of certificates, including the sender, recipient, and conditions. However, with the emergence of distributed ledger technologies, specifically designed for NFTs, a decentralized peer-to-peer network has now become the most efficient solution to address these challenges. This technology enables secure and verifiable sharing of certificates, ensuring transparency, trust, and greater control for students over their credentials. By utilizing NFTs, students can retain ownership and control over their certificates even after sharing them, thereby eliminating the concerns of loss of control and unauthorized distribution.
To achieve this, a distributed application layer was added on top of the centralized system to create a more feasible and practical approach. This study focuses on utilizing a permission-less blockchain, specifically the public network of the Ethereum blockchain, to develop a secure data sharing framework. The research proposes an architecture and delves into the necessary components and factors to consider during the design and implementation of the system. The aim is to provide students with complete ownership and permanent access to their digital certificates, which are verified by the university and accepted by employers. This framework supports immutability, authenticity, enhanced security, trusted records and is a promising means to share academic certificates involving students, universities and employers.
The framework is evaluated via a user study. The extended Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) and a Trust-Privacy Security Model are used to evaluate the usability of the NFT-framework. The evaluation allows uncovering the role of different factors affecting user intention to adopt certificate-sharing platforms. The result of the evaluation point to guidelines and methods for embedding privacy, user transparency and drivers of using the application.
Description
Keywords
Blockchain, NFT
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Computer Science
Program
Computer Science