B4E: A System for Creating and Validating Digital Credentials using Remote Signing and Blockchain

In recent years, a large number of organizations and universities, such as EduCTX, BCDiploma, Singapore universities, etc., have used blockchain technology in creating and validating certificates because of the advantages of transparency and data immutability. The generated digital credentials can be quickly verified through decoding data and verifying the issuer information on the blockchain network. However, this digitization process contains a significant drawback in identifying the issuer. Specifically, the head of an educational institution typically cannot sign into digital certificates because of the complexity of blockchain technology. Therefore, these certificates’ data are merely written to the blockchain network by technically proficient staff. To solve this problem, we build a system for digital credentials creation and validation named B4E based on two technologies, i.e., remote signing and blockchain. In particular, the remote signing allows the head of the organization to digitally sign the credentials, similar to signing traditional paper credentials. After that, information about the signed digital credentials is uploaded to the blockchain network. In this paper, we present our approach, describe the B4E system, introduce the process of digitizing a specific certificate, and provide performance evaluations.