Vietnamese Education Ministry Launches Blockchain Certifications Initiative 

Blockchain adoption has come in many ways over the years. However, while many have used the technology to shape their financial systems, the Vietnamese government is lending its efficiency to the educational sector.

Earlier this week, Singapore-based blockchain startup TomoChain announced that it had partnered with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) to implement a blockchain platform that will issue diplomas.

Improving Efficiency and Fighting Fraud

According to an official release, the project is part of a project called the “National Qualifications Archive.” Through this, the MOET plans to issue all forms of diplomas from high school and higher education institutions on the blockchain. 

The Ministry plans to begin this process in the school year ending in 2021, hoping that this new system will improve immutability and transparency in student qualification verifications. The MOET is the regulator of Vietnam’s education and training sectors. Agency records show that the country churns out about 2.2 million students annually from these institutions.

The new system will replace the legacy verification system that human relations officers and recruitment agencies use. It will begin with the country’s high schools, universities, and foreign language institutions.

Speaking on the development, Nguyen Van Phuc, the MOET’s deputy director, touted blockchain’s ability to save cost and improve operational efficiency.

“Diploma and certificate management is one of the issues that need to be renovated by technology, which is significant for the whole society and cost-efficient for the diploma management system in particular and the education sector in general,” he added.

The move also aims to combat the growing trend of academic fraud. As TomoChain’s announcement explained, Vietnam has seen a considerable rise in “Diploma Mills,” which churn out forged certifications. By moving all certificated to the blockchain, the government hopes to leverage the technology’s transparency and immutability for verifying certificates.

The latter application draws on one of blockchain’s fundamental uses. In its earliest days, the technology found significant use amongst companies in the manufacturing sector. Most of these companies needed means to verify their raw materials’ authenticity, and blockchain records provided the best use for them in this regard.

Blockchain Applications in Oher Industries

While blockchain is disrupting the Vietnamese education sector, other companies are using the technology for similar groundbreaking stuff. Yesterday, the Waves Enterprise announced the release of a blockchain voting system for corporations.

The new system uses blockchain at every step, with votes being recorded and counted with full cryptographic guarantees. It also uses homomorphic encryption to accurately tally votes without revealing the identity of who casts ballots. The system already got a trial test in Russia, where it helped conduct votes in several municipalities.

The day also saw the launch of VMWare Blockchain, an enterprise-ready blockchain platform from cloud computing giant VMWare.

Initially, to be a part of Project Concord, VMWare’s first blockchain platform, VMWare Blockchain already got a trial with the Australian Stock Exchange. Fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions is also using it to develop “blockchain-based solutions to transform capital market’s infrastructure.”

Broadridge’s DLT Head Horacio Barakat explained that the platform helped the company enforce multi-party agreements on a Scalable Byzantine Fault Tolerant platform.