Australia-based startup TrustED has launched a blockchain-based academic credential verification service. The platform leverages blockchain technology to enable educational institutions and graduates to both store and authenticate grades, credentials, or certificates for employers, simplifying the process of how academic credentials are verified all the while ensuring legitimacy.
The platform open beta began on November 15, and full scale release is planned for Q3 2019.
“There are many examples where even the C-level staff were not completely honest about their diplomas. These and other unpleasant stories lead to the excessive bureaucratization of verification processes,” said Kosta Batzavalis, co-founder of TrustED.
“The project TrustED uses advanced solutions in the field of blockchain. Our main task is to increase trust between the academic community, business, and common people. Simplifying the process of verifying educational documents will allow teams to focus on more important tasks than paperwork.”
TrustED allows students, educational and training institutions to upload and store their academic credentials such as transcripts, certificates and diplomas. Credential holders upload their credentials to the platform, but these remain unverified until validated by the respective credential issuer. These have access to their verified credentials at all times, while having complete control over the distribution of these credentials within the system.
Credentials issued by verified institutions are cryptographically secured and stored on TrustED’s distributed network. Blockchain enables TrustED to offer immutability, preventing any third party to make edits, changes or removals to the data.
Permissioned parties like employers can access and verify potential employees’ educational and training qualifications.
TrustED’s distributed network is built on Hyperledger Fabric but the TrustED Token (TED) will be based on the ERC20 standard13. The company said TrustED will be a hybrid system with interoperability between Hyperledger and Ethereum.
TrustED has already signed partnerships with universities and schools including PDM University in India, the Cyprus International Institute of Management (CIIM), and EdWay, a training organization that does short courses in construction, health and hospitality.
“CIIM focuses on training top-level business professionals,” said Theo Mourouzis, course coordinator at CIIM.
“We pay close attention to the accuracy of information that potential employers can get about our graduates. That is why the TrustED project fits perfectly into our vision of how information should flow between all parties of the educational process in the new century.”
TrustED was founded in 2017 in Adelaide and has since expanded to include offices in California.