Certificate and Document Manager

Project Title

Certificate and Document Manager

Project Area of Specialization BlockchainProject Summary

Certificate and Document Manager is designed for GIFT University for Certificate and documents management and security. In manual storage of certificates or other techniques used to store them is not secure a lot of chances of corruption. Typically Students have to visit HEC for the verification of their degree to prove that their degree is real this process takes time and cost too. Organizations need staff to manage this process or Certificate management. On another hand, If we want to store a large docment we face security issues. Our System is a secured Blockchain system. Where you can store any size of the document. That you can view or print anywhere and anytime. International verification is also done within minutes. We provide two interfaces one for the general public to view their saved documents and degrees. Another for the institute to upload degrees. We provide web services that are designed to communicate with other programs. That further helps to provide this facility to other institutes too.

Project Objectives

The goal is to complete the project by September 2020.  The idea of verification works properly. A web application that is responsive and available 24/7.   

Motivation and Scope

To ensure the security of student’s certificates and documents, we will use blockchain technology to secure them. Secure certificates and documents on the blockchain within minutes validate the certificates according to the approval process and push to the blockchain. It will massively reduce administrative costs Verifiable certificates easily accessible to students everywhere. International verification is also done within minutes. Blockchain technology in education is still a young discipline but has a lot of potential to benefits the educational sector at large. It can be extended to store and manage data like Passport, NIC and images, etc. In our project, we handle certificates and documents only.

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Project Implementation Method FrontEnd:

We use HTML, CSS, Javascript, and bootsrap4 for making an attractive interface.

Backend:

We use the Hash Blockchain technique. 

Storing a Hash:

The most efficient method is to store a document’s hash on-chain while keeping the whole document elsewhere. The document could be stored in a centralized database or on a distributed file storage system. You would put the document through a secure hash algorithm like SHA-256 and then store the hash in a block. This way you save a huge amount of space and cost. Additionally, you will be able to tell if someone tampers with the original document. The change in input would result in a completely new hash value, different from your original document.

Hash values are far smaller than whole documents and so are a vastly more efficient blockchain storage method. It also scales efficiently. For storing multiple documents, you can put the hashes into a distributed hash table, which you then store on-chain. 

STEP 1: DIGITAL FINGERPRINT

Just like the fingerprint that is unique to a human being, digital also has a unique 'fingerprint'. To be more exact, a digital asset's fingerprint can be created by using so-called cryptographic hash functions

For example, you will (hopefully) get a 32 character long digital fingerprint of ‘ 173013304aeec4e49cc6718cb4caeccb‘

STEP 2: CREATE A SIGNATURE (JWT - JSON WEB TOKEN)

In the same way, we can engage in a commercial contract by putting our 'unique' hand-written signature on a piece of paper, in Step 2, the digital fingerprint from Step 1 gets signed. In order to achieve this, Public-Private-Key-Pairs (RSA Keys) is required as an input parameter for signing the digital fingerprint.

Example of a valid JWT for the digital fingerprint ('173013304aeec4e49cc6718cb4caeccb') created in Step 1

using the RSA private key

As this is only an example outlining a solution, the private key is shared. as the name suggests, in practice this private key (RS256) should never be shared and should be protected ( kept private ) at all costs. 

STEP 3: COMMIT FINGERPRINT AND SIGNATURE TO BLOCKCHAIN

In the last step, the digital fingerprint and the JSON Web Token (Signature) are 'uploaded' to the Blockchain. This is now the first time in this solution an interaction with a Blockchain is required. It is important to keep in mind that not the digital asset itself but only the information about the asset (its fingerprint) and the signature get stored on the blockchain.

Database:

We use the Etherium database. The reasons to prefer the Ethereum Blockchain are usage by a large community, the possibility of quick access to solutions to possible mistakes, presentation of extensive API support, and library of web3.js or web3.php (Ethereum for PHP) which is compatible with PHP based Moodle. This library makes it possible to perform operations on the Ethereum Blockchain using PHP or JavaScript language.

Benefits of the Project

Benefits:

• The database is secure.

• Time and money saved in the degree verification process from HEC.

• Illegal changes can’t be done.

• Can’t need a staff to manage this process of manual Certificate management.

• It based on decentralized topology.

• Distributed Consensus and Immutableness"; "Smart Contract-Based Privacy, Security and Access Control" and "Single Ledger, Multiple Participants.

• Any size of the Document can be stored.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Secure Blockchain base web application to store documents and certificates.

Final Deliverable of the Project Software SystemCore Industry EducationOther IndustriesCore Technology BlockchainOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	10000
500GB SSD hard drive	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000