BSV Blockchain’s Association Signs An R&D Agreement With University Of Sharjah To Develop Blockchain-Based Academic Certification And Accreditation Platform

The BSV blockchain’s Switzerland-based association and University of Sharjah (UAE) have launched a joint research agreement to develop a blockchain-based system to validate the academic certifications and the accreditation of higher education institutions.

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Commenting on the signing of the agreement, His Excellency Prof. Maamar Bettayeb – Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, stressed the importance of this project in strengthening the relationship between the university and the industry while providing a very useful use case of the Blockchain Technology that helps not only the University of Sharjah but all the academic institutions around the world to authenticate academic credentials. In UAE, it is extremely prohibited to use fake academic certificates or credentials issued by an unauthorised academic institution, and the Federal National Council (FNC) has recently proposed in February 2021 a federal law to penalize anyone who uses false education certificates to secure jobs in the country with fines reaching 1 million dirhams and imprisonment from 3 to 24 months. The development and deployment of blockchain technologies has been a key priority for the government in the UAE, with the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 aiming to transform government services by putting 50% of transactions on-chain by the end of the year.

Commenting on announcement, His Excellency Mr. Jimmy Nguyen – Bitcoin Association for BSV Founding President, said: “With a firm mandate from the government to build and implement world-leading blockchain technologies for the benefit of all of its citizens, UAE represents one of the most forward-thinking and innovative destinations for blockchain and data technologies globally. We are very excited and pleased with the partnership with a premier institution in the UAE such as the University of Sharjah to develop an innovative solution that can help current and former students in the UAE and across the world to enable fast verification of their academic and professional credentials, plus prevent fake certificates circulation.”

The R&D project is led by Dr. Mohamed Al Hemairy and Dr. Manar Abu Talib, from the University of Sharjah. Dr. Al Hemairy added: “We are excited to work with the BSV Blockchain ecosystem on a project that advances the UAE government’s commitment to transition data activities to the blockchain to achieve a more efficient and trustworthy world. We have chosen our project to be implemented on BSV Blockchain due to its powerful features and capabilities, i.e., its massive scaling power, significant data capacity, low transaction fees and its public transparency, which makes it the perfect choice for the used case for our study. Once the Proof-of-Concept is competed; the second face of the study is to establish a Joint Venture to commercialize the research outcomes by launching a startup company within the University to provide the service to public & private universities.”

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In the United States alone there are around two million fake degrees or certificates in an actual use, and more than 300 unauthorized universities in operation, while in UK there are around 270 fake institutions. Globally, the cost on employers associated with the academic certificate scam is estimated to 600 billion dollars/year.

Dr. Manar Abu Taleb added: “The integrated system will not only improve the authenticity of a wide array of certifications and documentations, but it will also reduce risks of invalid certificates via the “immutable properties” of the blockchain. BSV Blockchain will be used as a public Blockchain “Open Source” that has thousands of peers distributed all over the world which validate the transactions and store the ledger in a decentralized environment.

The agreement will see the University of Sharjah undertake a multi-phased research and development program, beginning with the creation of a framework for validating and authenticating academic and professional certifications by leveraging the benefits of a public blockchain. This will be followed by the development of a prototype proof-of-concept application, implementing the principles and functionalities resulting from the research phase, and deployed on the BSV blockchain.

Mr. Muhamad Anjum, the Head of the BSV Hub for MESA, also commenting and said: “Developing relationships and supporting the academic institutions is a key goal of our regional BSV Hub and an impactful way that the blockchain technology can grow in the Middle East. The University of Sharjah has brought very strong used case to utilize the powerful features of the BSV blockchain. We are confident that we will see numerous engagements between BSV Ecosystem, and the University of Sharjah in the near future.

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