Recordkeeping of academic degrees through an application based on Blockchain and Smart Contracts

The implementation of new technologies in any type of institution arises from the need to generate improvements in the processes they execute in order to offer better products and services. This article analyzes the feasibility proposal of an application based on Blockchain technology and smart contracts to execute the process of assigning academic degrees to students without the need for a central entity, third parties and bureaucratic processes while taking advantage of the characteristics of these technologies such as transparency, security and immutability. Thus, two complementary smart contracts were developed, taking advantage of the features that currently exist to create structures that represent real-life objects and functions that handle these structures as parameters. These contracts were executed in a virtualized environment in which an Ethereum blockchain was simulated with the Truffle toolset. Smart contracts were evaluated by entering test data and with these records stored in the blockchain, the process of assigning academic titles to students through a function within the main smart contract was executed. To validate that the process ran successfully, the blockchain was queried, and it was verified that the title assignment records were successfully generated and stored on the blockchain. In this way, it was possible to conclude that the proposed model based on blockchain technology and smart contracts is feasible.

• Main Author: Morales-Morales, Mario (author)
• Other Authors: Rosero-Correa, Luis (author), Morales-Cardoso, Santiago (author)
• Format: article
• Language: spa
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: aplicaciones descentralizadas; blockchain; contratos inteligentes; Ethereum; títulos académicos; academic degrees; decentralized applications; smart contracts
• Online Access: https://revistadigital.uce.edu.ec/index.php/CATEDRA/article/view/2200