Time to harness the benefits of blockchain technology in Punjab...by Navraj Singh Gill

Chandigarh: Blockchain, a buzzword in the industry, is not just a hype but a solid technology that is here to stay and is going to be the backbone of many services. With the advancement in technology, newer technologies are adopted and the previous ones become obsolete.

Out of all the technologies of this era, governments worldwide are adopting Blockchain at an unprecedented pace.As per Fortune Business Insights, the global blockchain technology market size was valued at USD 11.14 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 59.9% to reach USD 46f9.49 billion by 2030. 

Given the quick-paced adoption of Blockchain technology, governments globally are exploring the use of blockchain in governance and public services.

The question that arises is why such a momentum to implement this technology around the world. Is blockchain platform panacea to the most important concern of a common man, that is, an online transaction, let’s say a financial one or verification of some documents, reliable?

It is the responsibility of the government to provide such a mechanism on which all the stakeholders like financial institutions, academic institutions, businesses and citizens can rely upon. In pursuit of this, the Government of India has launched several initiatives. 

The Vishvasya-Blockchain Technology Stack, offering Blockchain-as-a-Service was recently launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.The Vishvasya, rolled out with a geographically distributed infrastructure is designed to support various permissioned Blockchain based applications.

National Blockchain Framework (NBF) is visualised for promoting research and application development; facilitating state-of-the-art, transparent, secure and trusted digital service delivery to citizens.

 As per the department, the Technology Stack is hosted on geographically distributed infrastructure at NIC Data centres’ i.e. Bhubaneswar, Pune and Hyderabad. India has emerged as a global leader in the adoption of blockchain technology.As taxpayers, we are also concerned about whether this change of technology is justified enough to spend this huge amount of money by the government.

Here, enabling a common person to understand technology is like winning over their fears against the adoption of new technology.  Let us simplify and explain this by understanding, the Blockchain, using the education sector as a use case.

In general, people easily recognise the Bitcoin rather than to identify the technology behind, The Blockchain. Earlier the word Bitcoin was synonymously used with blockchain.

Whereas Bitcoin is an application built with Blockchain technology. The Cryptocurrency Bitcoin was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto(pseudonym) who introduced this technology in 2009.

Blockchain got identified  separately from bitcoin when Ethereum, the decentralized blockchain platform  became one of the biggest applications of blockchain technology and paved the way for numerous business applications other than cryptocurrencies. Ethereum introduced smart contracts and provided developers with a platform for building decentralized applications.

It was then that financial institutions and other industries began to recognize and explore blockchain's potential.This led to a shift in focus from digital currency to the development of blockchain technologies.

The basic construct of blockchain is a block that contains a record of transactions. Each transaction is time-stamped and added to a block. A block can be added only sequentially at the end of a chain.

Moreover, no block can be changed retrospectively without changing the blocks already on the chain. Any change in the data in a block would mean a change in the cryptographic hash value stored in it.

These hash values act as links in the chain, and every block records the hash value of the previous block, so any change in one block would mean a change in hash value of all the subsequent blocks on the chain. Along with that, consensus of nodes on the network would be required for any change. Block is validated through a consensus mechanism. 

It is a distributed digital ledger that records all its transactions across the network of nodes. Each node on the network maintains an updated and validated copy of ledger where each transaction is recorded.

Data is not stored in a single location and is not controlled by any authority or entity. This boosts confidence in the system's reliability. Preserving data integrity is inherent to blockchain architecture.In simple words to understand blockchain technology as a layman, let us imagine a neighborhood.

The simplest analogy would be that if someone is permitted to build a new house, only and only, at the end of a sequential lane in neighborhood, with a unique address, everyone comes to know about new inhabitant(block), the day they occupied the house (timestamp),the building is immutable for once now as per administration’s laws and rules(Smart contract which executes automatically)and becomes an approved entity, every neighbour knows who resides next to me on either side, and any change in the occupants of the house(block) in neighbourhood would require consensus(51% of nodes must have consensus) and the day housewarming takes place, all neighbours knows the final occupant or inhabitant(Block is closed).

Also, any interaction among blocks i.e. transactions is to be approved (by neighbourhood rules).

From this, we clearly understand that any change requires consensus rather than permission from a central authority. This is how the decentralized, distributed database in blockchain conducts transactions whereas centralized databases work using different types of access granted by a central authority.

Blockchain differs from other databases in the manner it uniquely stores its information.The benefits to harness from this technology are myriad and one of them is to deploy this technology to store academic records like degrees, marksheets, etc.

In the present system, most of the academic institutes award certificates at the completion of courses in the form of a printable, a paper-based certificate. The paper-based certificate is perishable and vulnerable to getting stolen, misplaced, misused or tampered.

Several institutes, like CBSE and Punjab School Education Board, have made use of government repository Digi locker to store and make available the digital certificates to the candidate/student.

However, the verification of these documents, by the employers, educational institutes, financial institutes and many other organizations where a certain level of qualification is a prerequisite to avail some benefits or services, are always under an uncertainty regarding the authenticity of documents.To crosscheck any counterfeits, most of the institutes or organizations send the documents relating to educational qualifications back to the issuing authority.

This process of verification is a cumbersome task loaded with delays: Firstly, the physical movement of the paper-based certificate gives rise to additional logistics cost. Secondly, there is no trustworthy system without human intervention.

Thirdly, the present system completely relies on the issuing authority’s final communication which cannot rule out the play of malicious actors. Lastly, the problem of tampering during transit is also possible.

Leveraging technology to build trust in the educational qualification and competence of an Individual is of paramount importance as the entire career and earning potential of an individual is attached to it.

In such a scenario, blockchain is an ideal case for storage, verification and retrieval of academic documents. The properties of blockchain platform -being a distributed platform, immutable and requiring consensus, prove it to be the best possible solution, technology-wise. 

The National Informatics Centre, indigenously has developed the blockchain-based technology called Certificate Chain that could be used explicitly for storing paper-based certificates in digital formats across the nation. It is not limited to academic documents only but extends to many other certificates like the certificate of ownership of assets, birth certificate, caste certificate, agriculturist certificate etc.

It has met the requirements of all the stakeholders by storing and producing the certificate on demand without the need of a third party. This initiative has led the citizens to a traceable and transparent system where the entire control of their documents is in their hands.

It implies that rather than being dependent on any institution for their academic records and verification of them, they will have direct access to documents and all the stakeholders can verify it themselves without the need for any intermediary. 

To achieve this, the Central Board of Secondary Education has rolled out Academic (Blockchain) Documents (ABCD), in technical collaboration with the National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

Based on blockchain technology, CBSE has firmly established itself as a pioneer in using technology to provide reliable services to the students, it has entirely migrated the trust to the technology being used that is inherently immutable. 

To mention a few more states of India that are frontrunners in adopting blockchain in the education sector and have eventually shifted the trust from any agency, institution or organisation to the blockchain technology itself.

The Government of Karnataka has adopted blockchain technology for issuing and verifying Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) and Pre-University Course (PUC) certificates. Chhattisgarh has implemented blockchain for Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur.

Also, Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development has collaborated with local start-up ,LegitDoc to use blockchain technology to issue and verify digital diplomas to students.

In Manipur, the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur has taken the initiative. It shows that the strong wave of transformation to tether the trust factor with the blockchain technology is inevitable. The benefits of blockchain are being reaped in several states of India, especially in the education sector.

However, the state of Punjab is still painting an old picture. Recently, a Special Investigating Team (SIT) was constituted, to bust a large-scale racket providing forged educational degrees and work experience certificates to applicants seeking to migrate to the USA.

 Ludhiana police have registered a case against a group of seven accused based in Punjab who helped students procure fake degrees and tried to deceive the US embassy. It was a complaint from Eric C Molitors, an overseas criminal investigator at the regional security office of the US Embassy in New Delhi.

In yet another case, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) explanation has been sought from nearly 100 students accused of using multiple state domicile certificates to secure seats. 

A domicile certificate is an important official document establishing an individual’s residency in a specific state or Union Territory (UT). This certificate is proof of one’s permanent residence.

Around 100 students reportedly declared themselves as bonafide residents of Punjab using fake domicile certificates, which led to depriving genuine candidates of the state of their opportunity at admission. 

With the number of complaints flooding concerning in the education sector, the government of Punjab too should align itself with the prevailing trend and eradicate the problems related to the forgery of academic and other paper-based certificates by adopting blockchain technology for storing and verification.

Especially, academic document verification demands such a kind of technology as this service is time bound to.Implementing Certificate Chain or blockchain technology to provide access to tamper-proof, non-destructible digital certificates without the intervention of a third party shall restore back the credibility of the education system of the state worldwide.

This service can prove to be a boon for students’ careers as it is not limited to credential verification for employment and higher studies, it shall also facilitate students in obtaining educational loans from financial institutions and scholarships from the government.

The education sector is the backbone of any progressive economy. Now is the time, when the Government of Punjab has to play the crucial role of facilitator for providing a conducive environment to the industry players by introducing regulatory reforms, skill and capacity building, and infrastructure to capitalize on the benefits of the blockchain technology.

October 6, 2024