Trusted academic transcripts on the blockchain: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Much of the excitement around blockchain is mainly due to promising applications in the financial sector. However, many also believe in the technology’s potential to disrupt non-financial sectors and applications, including supply chains, energy, e-voting, healthcare, and education. The application of blockchain within the education sector is expected to make improvements to academic transcripts, credentials, digital libraries, and student records. Research in this domain is rapidly increasing, and current reviews summarize the proposed improvements. On the other hand, the analysis undertaken has remained at a general level that lacks the depth required to cover diverging proposals that have emerged. This review focuses on the application of blockchain for academic transcripts. The aim is to find, among the proposed models, converging aspects that resolve common challenges and may lead to a universally accepted de-facto standard. Furthermore, since academic institutions will serve as oracles to the particular blockchain applications, a discussion on their trustworthiness will be outlined to explore if the proposed applications efficiently address the oracle problem. The outcome of this review highlights the need for a standardized approach built on a public blockchain to promote faster adoption and acceptance. Furthermore, oracles should be incentivized in order for the system to be sustainable, while their identities and activities should be known and identifiable.