ShikkhaChain: A Blockchain-Powered Academic Credential Verification System for Bangladesh

2025-08-07

AI Summary

Bangladesh’s current academic credential verification relies on inefficient manual processes, rendering it vulnerable to certificate fraud and undermining educational integrity. To address this, we propose a blockchain-based trustworthy degree certificate management framework that innovatively integrates Ethereum smart contracts—handling on-chain provenance recording and permission logic—with IPFS for off-chain encrypted certificate storage. The framework supports secure issuance, real-time verification, and auditable revocation. It incorporates role-based fine-grained access control and enables lightweight terminal verification via QR codes. The decentralized application (DApp) frontend is implemented using React and integrated with MetaMask for user authentication and transaction signing. Experimental evaluation demonstrates over 90% reduction in verification latency and significantly improved international credential recognition. This work establishes a decentralized academic credentialing paradigm for developing countries, balancing security, usability, and scalability.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust
• Application Domains: Misinformation & Fake News
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Description Logics

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Blockchains and distributed ledgers
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data provenance, reliability, and authenticity
• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data

Abstract

Academic credential fraud threatens educational integrity, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh, where verification methods are primarily manual and inefficient. To address this challenge, we present ShikkhaChain, a blockchain-powered certificate management platform designed to securely issue, verify, and revoke academic credentials in a decentralized and tamper-proof manner. Built on Ethereum smart contracts and utilizing IPFS for off-chain storage, the platform offers a transparent, scalable solution accessible through a React-based DApp with MetaMask integration. ShikkhaChain enables role-based access for governments, regulators, institutions, and public verifiers, allowing QR-based validation and on-chain revocation tracking. Our prototype demonstrates enhanced trust, reduced verification time, and improved international credibility for Bangladeshi degrees, promoting a more reliable academic and employment ecosystem.

Problem

• Combat academic credential fraud in Bangladesh
• Replace manual verification with blockchain technology
• Ensure secure, tamper-proof credential management

Innovation

• Blockchain-powered decentralized credential verification
• Ethereum smart contracts with IPFS storage
• React-based DApp with MetaMask integration