Digital Credentials are future of credentials management & governance
Telangana: Fake educational certificate racket busted, four arrested. The police said they recovered around 40 fake consolidated memorandum of marks, 30 fake degree certificates and 30 fake provisional certificates from the accused.
This was the headline in the leading newspaper in July 2022?
There are more than 30% of fake and forged certificates are circulating in the industry. This makes it hard for the industry to verify and validate the authenticity of these credentials. They must rely on a third party to check the credentials and report on the status. The issuers must go through the pile of records manually and check to confirm the same to the third-party agency. This takes 3 weeks till the verifier is ready to decide. If it is neglected it might be disastrous to the organization to onboard a resource who does not have the necessary skills. The issue was confirmed by the registrar of a reputed university whilst I was discussing it over a coffee.
Search in Google for the text fake certificates and you will see many new reports on this, the issuer resources being involved in the process, or a third party cloning the certificates and issuing them for a fee. Many professionals like doctors have faked their certificates.
Fraudulent certificates are a bane to the education industry. We all know that people produced fake covid vaccination certificates and fake lab reports during covid. Had this been mandated via blockchain we would have realized how many of them tried to fake it.
I spent almost 4 years in healthcare emergency medical services. Where the sector is very unorganized, and it is difficult to trust whether the doctor who comes into the ambulance is qualified. Does the driver have a real driving license? Do the staff have undergone CPR training? There is nothing to verify you must go with the gut feeling. If we have blockchain-enabled credentials mandatory here the level and quality of service and trust raises the bar.?
What are digital credentials?
Digital credentials are the digital version of the paper-based certificates which have been issued traditionally by issuing authorities like Universities, Colleges, Training companies, EdTech, L&D, Government. These are not restricted to education it is beyond that. Some examples are
Driver’s License, Birth certificates, Medical Ids, Vaccination records, Insurance Ids, Skills Passport, Passport etc.,
Like Intel’s chip is for the computers “Intel Inside”, Digital credentials are for the Credentials Industry.?
Why do we need digital credentials? Why Now?
The emergence of blockchain technology has made it secure, immutable, time-stamped, and verifiable. With 5 G implementation, there will be an increase in the speed of business processes. The NFT marketplace has taken this digital identity to the next level. This is the right time as the western world has seen 35 to 40% adoption which is increasing every year. The APAC region will show growth in the next year as more companies are coming up with these solutions to try to capture market share and there is a growing awareness in the market.
How does this process of digital identity work?
Each record is stored as a digital identity (DID).
As the records are stored on the blockchain, whenever there is a request for verification by the verifier the hash value of the digital credentials is activated and opens the certificate as a new instance every time. The viewer verifies the certificate, metadata, and issuer credentials, and with the audit proof tracking, they can see the blockchain transaction which will show the time stamp, issuer details, transaction id etc., to authenticate the certificate or badge.
Advantages of Digital credentials over Physical certificates?
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Digital
What is the current state of digital credentials?
The status across the world shows more than a 35% increase in the issuance of digital credentials over 2021. There is an increasing trend in the increase of issuance of digital badges vs digital certificates.?
Though there has been decent progress in this space for adoption. The western world has shown more adoption than its Asian counterparts. 2023 will be the year for digital credentials in APAC.
Positive impact on the environment:
Digital credentials save paper or plastic and zero need for paper or plastic-based issuance. This helps save the environment.
How does one renew the credential if it is a limited-period certificate?
This is very important for professionals who receive credentials for a limited time. As soon as the renewal date is completed, the issued digital certificate or badge is no longer valid. Professionals need to follow the guidelines of the issuing authority for the extension of their credentials. E.g., PMP, Agile etc.,
What is the difference between a digital certificate and a digital badge?
A certificate is issued for higher education or long-term education or training programs. Whereas the digital badge is issued to motivate, incentive-wise performance, driving innovation, creativity, sports, extracurricular activities etc., Digital badges are also referred to as micro-credentials.?
Digital badges are mostly used for non-academic purposes or activities such as attendance, volunteering, coordinating, moderating, mentoring, performing, or as a speaker for an event.
Digital badges can be created for a long-term program which has multi levels to complete to achieve the final certifications. E.g., a Train the Train program or Certified coach will have multi-levels to complete before the final certification is awarded. For each of these micro levels, a digital badge can be issued. The final step will be the issuance of the certificate authenticating that the person is now qualified to be a trainer or coach.
A combination of both certificate and badge are used typically by an organization which are driving membership like professional certifying bodies like PMI, Google Cloud, Chartered Institutes etc., where you get the certificate confirming that you have all the necessary skills to practice that domain e.g., Project Management, Cloud Architect, Blockchain Professional etc., while the badge authenticates that you are the member of that professional body.
The scores are based on the author’s individual experience of using the digital platform vs a physical issuance
What is the demand for digital credentials?
Professional bodies and training institutions are the largest consumers of digital credentials at this point. Followed by Higher Education though still a long way to catch up with Professional bodies. There have been a few areas where government agencies and events have started adopting digital credentials.?
What is the benefit for the industry with digital credentials?
What is next in digital credentials?
Digital Credentials are your Blue Ocean Strategy:
Blue Ocean strategy is your approach to your customers with a new version or model of the existing product or service. Though your conventional certificates which are paper-based, and badges which are paper, plastic or steel based do the same necessary job of providing credentials, they are not truly verifiable, and cannot ensure trust, time stamp, credibility, and provenance of the credential. Takes a lot of time to verify and build trust. On the other hand, digital credentials solve this problem of trust, credibility, authenticity, immutable, and time stamped. The decision-making is instant. Those who adopt this now are going to be early movers in the industry and capitalize on the various benefits it will bring for your University, Department, College, Training Academy, Government agency or ministry etc., If you want to be a leader in your space, digital credentials are one of the drivers to build your business strategy for growth, innovation, and great customer experience.
Digital credentials can help the issuer to build a channel to track their alumni who go on to become founders of Unicorns or Global leaders. Instantly you can work on communication with your target audience about your alumni’s success. You can have frequent engagements with the alumni. Get feedback from them on what changes need to be implemented so an issuer you are aligned.
Another feature is skill mapping which will be critical to all the Universities to see the gap between the current offering and where the industry is heading towards. With fast-paced technological growth, the 3 – 4 years curriculum will become outdated, and students might find it difficult to be employable or the industry needs to invest a lot in training. This gap can be reduced with constant review of the industry trend and being flexible in altering the curriculum or building bridge courses for students to narrow the gap.?
Industry can issue micro-credentials in partnership with universities for internships. Which validates the resources have spent time and upskilled during their internship cycle. If Industry finds smart students who innovate or perform outstandingly, they can reward the interns with these verifiable credentials.?
What does Industry prefer?
The advantages digital credentials provide are simply unparallel to what paper or plastic-based credentials provide. The enormous list of benefits and time which gets saved in the entire process Industry will always go for digital credentials. As the digital credentials industry and adoption grow, this will become a platform for many other things like resumes, and the search for the right resources, long-term and short-term engagement models will be in play in the next few years. When Industry needs resources for short-term or project-based or niche areas digital credentials are their first source of identifying the right candidate.
Digital credentials can act as verified profiles like social media ticked profiles. This makes the candidature trustworthy and genuine for employers who are looking for credible resources.?
Current Challenges:
The adoption of using blockchain-enabled solutions is more of a Change Management issue. The old-school management of leadership which is not understanding or ignoring or neglecting the power of this technology should be given a clear mandate to implement secure credentials within a time frame. Implementation Challenges and Integration with the existing LMS or ERPs are minor issues with digital transformation. Understanding Blockchain technology, the Insecurity of the issuer that they will lose control, no trust in the new technology or lack of confidence in the solution are mere excuses.?
Technology has already been proven and has disrupted all industries. There is no doubt about this as it is the most futuristic solution in the credentials management space for the next decade and beyond. The whole world will be transitioning to digital credentials in the next 2 to 3 years.?
With the interoperability feature of blockchain, the issuers can choose to change the providers in the long run and all the old records will be accessible, shareable, and verifiable. Here only the service provider is changing rest all the basic features of blockchain will remain.
These five utility levers?
are going to be key factors which make this solution one of the best, easy, and faster to adapt for long-term benefits.?
Educating the market is one of the tasks for the credential issuance platform companies to take out the fear of failure or overwhelming implementation fear from the issuers. Creating the need with a better alternative solution is one of the keys to success for making this a go-to product which solves the problems for ages and multi-stakeholders.
Conclusion:
Would you use a smartphone or a normal phone? This says it all.?
Education:?Universities, EdTech, and Training companies should have a long-term vision and invest in blockchain-enabled digital credentials. This solves the problem of campus to corporate, supports admission cycles, and gets Industry eyeballs catching for industry engagements etc., It will depend on how the leadership of these entities play their strategy.?
Government:?issuing Birth, Death certificate, Licenses, Accreditation, Events, Ownership of deeds, Healthcare, Land records, Travel, etc., Every minister and Bureaucrats need to explore the opportunities in their respective ministry where all they can implement this and make thing simple for all stakeholders. APAC and Africa have great opportunities here to build trust and transparency.
Healthcare: issuance of vaccination, blood test reports, lab test reports, etc., are some areas which need this implementation as there will be no choice to manipulate the data. People should not be asked for new lab reports from multi labs within a valid period.?
Private memberships:?Club membership, Access to Lounges, Housing Societies / Apartment complexes, Sports events, Events many more used cases will develop with adoption.
Legal:?Wills, Court Orders, Ownership of deeds, all proofs which are produced as support of evidence, etc.,
A digital credential is affordable to the issuer as most of the solution is plug and play and charge based on per issuance or bulk issuance or unlimited issuance, but it is worth a million. It is less than the price of a Starbucks coffee. The faster the adoption the bigger will be the impact for all the stakeholders.
The Future is here
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2 年Exceptionally-written article, and I completely agree about the great opportunities in APAC for verified digital credentials. My company specializes in Software for verified digital credentials, would love to partner with implementation providers in the area. Our solution is portable, and unlike the competitors we offer an Enterprise version which can run on-prem or customers environment.
Rama Venugopal AICTE