SmartCert BlockChain Imperative for Educational

Certificates
Tarek Kanan Ahamd Turki Obaidat Majduleen Al-Lahham
Department of Computer Science Global R&D Products Senior Engineer Department of Computer Science
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan Avertra Corporation Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan
Amman, Jordan Amman, Jordan Amman, Jordan
tarek.kanan@zuj.edu.jo aobaidat@avertra.com majdulen96@gmail.com

Abstract— The electronic authentication system authenticates

the documents electronically using the blockchain technology,
C. Motivations
which enables us to implement an integrated system of official A lot of commercial use cases can be enhanced or
documents of all kinds for Al- Zaytoonah University of Jordan. resolved by applying disseminated technology. It is used in
This technology allows us to build a robust database system that different ways where confidence amenities are wanted by
cannot be tampered with, modified, destroyed or altered. It business. This can be used by applying Blockchain
further ensures the safety of documents issued within the technology as a stage to form the confidence frame of the
University departments and those exported or deported outside scheme.
the University system; such as, financial documents, official
documents and academic certificates. Moreover, this system Blockchain directed to “Smart Contracts”, an invention
guarantees us a very high level of data and information security obtainable by cryptocurrency known as “Ethereum”. In
and confidentiality. Our system will be built using a database that Ethereum, inventers produce secured contract-based
provides 100% true information about the exports of that system. functions and cryptocurrencies that makes industries using
This technology will help users prevent the forgery of the data Ethereum to establish their guidelines and strategies in such
and official documents issued by the University of Al- Zaytoonah, purposes.
both internally and externally, and also enables the departments
within the University to issue documents to third parties while The technology used in Blockchain deals with several
ensuring confirmed, undeniable delivery and sound content. aids to companies which build a change when applying an
explanation that involves a great level of trust for
Keywords—Blockchain, Academic Certificate, Security, commercial communications. Applying this expertise offers
Education the opportunity to decrease the cost and enhance the
credibility.
I. INTRODUCTION
D. Objectives
A. Overview Outspreading SmartCert resolution to any innovativeness
Academic credentials are revered assets for an individual. structures will bring numerous amounts of high-level aids,
Whether individual applies for a position, a certificate, a such as:
passport or an ID card. Educational credentials formulate an For Issuing Authorities
indication for the identity. For the verification organizations,
the difficulties of working with forged credentials are 1. Issue cryptographically-sealed records that
reviling. In fact, these have become more acute. The greater cannot be faked
difficulty came from being able to verify the legitimacy of a
2. All records stored securely and referenceable
certificate. Counterfeit certificates is a problem that we do
fight daily. Companies looking for better schemes to help 3. No necessity to apply unintended stage to send
comprehend the issue. records to customers
Think that you are capable to own and distribute 4. Hold and distribute authorized records simply
identifications that are truthful, unchanged, and authorized as steady procedure
without any intrusion by the publishing specialist. So how
can the publishing specialists guard the work on the systems? 5. No danger of missing records
This could be happened by thinking usefully to use new 6. Third parties’ contractors be able to patterned
tools. Our paper argues how SmartChain resolves this records anywhere anytime
difficulty with SmartCert; an explanation established by
BlockCerts; a lead for Blockchain Certificates. 7. Negative necessity to distinctly erase of any
certificates even the one with faults
B. Ethereum-and-solidity-the-complete-developers-guide For Recipients and Consumers
Blockchain and Ethereum comprehensions have the most 1. Own and share cryptographically sealed
disturbing power. There is a small amount of information records
available to support the developers to understand what
Blockchains are used to. 2. Records are entirely in one room
The development society is trying to think about the 3. No delaying period to demand trustworthy
ultimate method to use Ethereum for developing new certified records
applications.
4. No danger of losing records

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5. Access of certificates and mark sheets anytime
6. Easily integrated block chain lookup services to
verify latest record
E. Project Outline
The authentication procedure checks for the credential's
truthfulness and legitimacy. The explanation offers relation
to the Blockchain credential and added efforts needed for
confirmation. The confirmation procedure certifies that the
certificate was not damaged by associating hashes with what
is recorded on the Blockchain.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Recently, Bitcoin became one of the most discussed
technologies. It was proposed in 2008 and applied in 2009.
The key consideration was given to the currency itself, but
not to the core technology. In his paper “Beyond Bitcoin
Enabling Smart Government Using Blockchain
Technology”, Blockchain. Ølnes, S. discusses that we must
investigate what is behind the currency and explore the
possible use of the Blockchain technology to support smarter
governments by applying the secure, disseminated, free, and
cheap Blockchain technology. The paper offers a use case
emphasizing the innovation of the new technology. The use
case showed that Bitcoin will be a capable technology for
authorizing many kinds of documents in the public sector
[1].
of Blockchain technology. In their article, Michael, J., Cohn,
A., & Butcher, J., recognize the evolving land for Blockchain
technology and cryptocurrencies, concentrating on regulatory
subjects and risks fronting associates of this area. Precisely,
the paper argues three components [4]:
x The fundamentals of Blockchain technology
with its existing uses
x The activities to explore and legalize
Blockchain plus the kinds of behavior that
could activate regulatory investigations
x Best practices for consideration customers
over regulatory examinations of Blockchain
actions
Data Decentralization is one of the most significant
benefits of Blockchain, adding to that obscurity persistency,
and auditability. Blockchain applications are extending from
cryptocurrency, internet of things (IoT), and finance to
community services. While a number of researches emphasis
on the Blockchain technology applications in different sides,
the authors of this paper “Blockchain challenges and
opportunities: A survey” focused on piloting a full review on
the Blockchain technology, together the technical and
application viewpoints [5,6,7].

According to the Ministry of Education, around one

III. OUR SMARTCERT SYSTEM
million students graduate annually in Taiwan. Throughout
their education, the students' diplomas, records, certificates, The software life cycle includes five phases:
transcripts and all kind of documents become a significant
x Planning
issue for admitting new universities or new jobs. Schools
make different kinds of documents and diplomas, just the x Analysis
schools and students names are the input. Because of the lack
of active falsification method, the reason of the certificates to x Design
be forged usually get noticed. To solve the issue of faking x Implementation
certificates, digital certificate scheme using Blockchain
technology has been proposed in 2018 by Cheng, J. C., Lee, x Testing
N. Y., Chi, C., & Chen, Y. H. The electronic certificate with
anti- falsification and authentication could be done. The These phases will be integrated to complete our project.
technique of delivering the electronic certificate in their
system went through some steps. Since the properties of the A. Planning Phase
Blockchain could not be modified, the system will improve In this phase we gathered information through interviews
the trustworthiness of numerous certificates, and also with universities employees. We also decided the time to
automatically reduces the risks of counterfeiting several start the project and the end time. Gantt chart offers a usual
kinds of certificates [2]. arrangement for presenting project timetable info by listing
job actions and their related begin and end dates, Fig 1.
Current Disaster Recovery (DR) systems has a technique
Below shows the diagram.
for truthfulness of the replicated files used for recovery
phase, these techniques could not be used when the file
modified. In their study, Bae, S., & Shin, Y., assumed that a
duplicate file is created as a block and succeeded (managed)
such as a block-chain. If the replica is ruined, the Disaster
Recovery system checked the truthfulness of the replicated
file by pointing to the block-chain and continue with the
recovery. Their suggested technology is confirmed over the
recovery routine assessment and developments [3].
Blockchain turn out to be an important part of financial
industries, cryptocurrencies advance its popularity, and the
possible for extra Blockchain claims is growing. Financial
business members are expected to have sharp regulatory
examination. Guidelines to customers involved in Fig. 1. The Project Gantt Chart
Blockchain-related activities must recognize the key features

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1) Definition of the problem: The Current system
The current confirmation approaches do not promise
reliable, protected, and preserved records. The ownership of
the document does not lie with the individual. There is a
decent risk of damage or loss of documents. In this
circumstance, distinct users cannot willingly benefit copies
of the certificates. In thrilling cases, if the supplying
specialist stops to survive, records can no more be existing.
Dependency on 3rd party - A lot of organizations depend on
third-party verification agencies to verify the authenticity of
the documents with the issuing authorities.
2) System Requirements
So that we can solve this problem properly, it was
necessary that we collect information about the problem and
details on which they depend. The main objective of
gathering information is to get on the requirements of various
system (functional and non-functional system requirements
and users) so that we can design the system in a later stage.
Different methods of gathering information mismatch of
observation and viewing, including interviews and
questionnaires, and others.
We have used in this project two main types of these
methods which are:
1. Observation and seen
2. Interviews
3) Cost estimation
For this purpose, we used:
x A free solidity online coding Remix
x Metra mask for contract
x Rink by free test network
B. Analysis Phase
The analysis phase of the most important stages
throughout the system at all because of their significant role
in charting the way forward for the system designer, which
depends on what has been reached at this point.
The analysis stage describes the necessities of the
system, free from how these necessities will be proficient.
This stage outlines the problem that the client is trying to
resolve. The deliverable outcome at the end of this stage is a
requirement detailed document. This manuscript conditions
in a rich and exact style what is to be constructed.
The most important results derived from the analysis
phase is to obtain a document requirement from which we
can design the system in the next stage as the models and
drawings that we design in the next stage depend largely on
the results of this phase and that will help us achieve the
goals that we wanted from the system.
1) Data Acquisition
Data and the required information were collected
through oral questionnaire made with students and stuff
inside the University and a few from other universities,
trying to figure out the needs of these students and the
problems they were having with the traditional systems, and
applying for universities to study abroad, also from personal
observations for the university and the ability to reach its
resources from any place around the world.
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2) The Current (Solution) System
The distributing specialist generates a digital credential,
cryptographically marks and lists a contract for the certificate
on the blockchain. Getting and Allocating Receivers
certificates into their permit holder. The holder (Wallet)
holds the distributed credential and the mark required to
validate, so that the receiver has the whole record that they
can distribute. The issuer uses their numerical sign to deliver
a certificate to a receiver, recognized by a recipient public
fundamental on the blockchain.
Authenticating the confirmation procedure authorizations
for the certificate’s truthfulness and legitimacy. The solution
provides link to the block chain certificate and additional
inputs needed for verification.
C. System Design
To define a project’s specifications clearly, the designer
needs to develop an understanding of:
1) Overveiw
The SmartCert system can be used easily and simply,
only needs a few backgrounds and being familiar on how to
navigate the internet.
The proposed system is very helpful to students also to
universities, especially when it giving them the open option
of be sure about the documents [8].
To describe the system with all its entities, and how it
processes as a whole, the Data Flow Diagram “Fig. 2” has
been included with a brief description about it and about all
its stages:
x Input stage
x Process stage
x Database storing stage
x Output stage
Fig. 2. The Project Data Flow Diagram
System Scenarios Interface examples for the Input Phase:
User: as an input for the whole system, All the users on
the network can view the certificate using the national ID.
Owner of the contract: the root admin in this project has
the ability to create a new certificate, and can add
administrators up to five for the whole system. The page for
the owner of the contract only contains input fields that the
owner can create new certificate and deploy it to the leger.
The below Fig. 3. Shows the pages for any user who
want to check out the existence of the certificate.















 

3) System Testing
Table. 1 below shows the validation process for our
system.
TABLE 1. SYSTEM VALIDATION

Input Expected Output

Invalid student National ID The Student Not found
Certificate ID Number &
Valid student National ID
Details

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Nowadays, maximum indication of accomplishment is
kept in an exclusive information system or informally on
documents. Specific schemes offer an informal method to
dispute educational credentials in a digital layout that is kept
on Blockchain. Receivers can retain and suitably share with
the customers. Relatively than consuming to trust on issuing
establishments to communicate authorized credentials, the
Blockchain delivers an original official structure permitting
authorizations to be public on a peer-to-peer system and
confirmed as authentic. Blockchain technology is the
upcoming of certification. We think that in the subsequent
years, more universities will use the free Blockchain to
protected their certificates and credentials. It is extra
effective, protected, and simple than what we can catch today
in the industry.

Fig. 3. Some of The Project Interface Pages
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research paper was supported by Al-Zaytoonah
University of Jordan fund by the project titled “A novel
approach to extract illegal and terrorist contents form Arabic
social media posts using machine learning techniques”.
“Resolution number 2018-2017/28/10”.

D. System Implementation & Testing

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