Schools are recording students' results using bitcoin tech
Using shared database blockchain saves schools money and makes it easier for employers to check candidates' credentials
Recording and verifying candidates' credentials can be costly and time-consuming for academia and businesses alike. Now, some education facilities are turning to bitcoin technology for help.
They are using blockchain, which was developed alongside the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin , to record their students' achievements in a cheap, secure and public way. Blockchain works like a decentralized ledger, storing information on a global network that is publicly available and should be safe from tampering.
One example is Holberton School of software engineering in San Francisco, which was established as a project-based alternative to college. In October 2015, the school announced plans to share academic certificates on blockchain from 2017.
"For employers, it avoids having them to spend valuable time checking candidates' educational credentials by having to call universities or to pay a third party to do the job," according to Sylvain Kalache, co-founder at Holberton School.
Using blockchain also means the school saves money from building and operating its own database.
"Because of the design of the blockchain-distributed database, it cannot go down and cannot be altered, making the data always available and secure…the blockchain does this free of charge," Kalache said.
The University of Nicosia in Cyprus is also using the technology to record students' achievements and it is proving popular, according to George Papageorgiou, a digital currency lecturer at the university.