Russian University Stores Diplomas Using Blockchain Technology

A Russian state university has revealed that it was able to store the diplomas of its graduates using digital ledger technology. The official statement was announced by the institution on June 26, Cointelegraph reported.

The university said that diplomas given over the past 10 years have been stored using blockchain tech, as confirmed by a tweet and statement by the Financial University under the government of the Russian Federation. The intention behind it is for employers to verify the credibility of digital diplomas placed on the university’s website, with the feature going live in September.

The stored diplomas were tagged with a unique encryption using the SHA-256, a Secure Hash Algorithm similar to what the Bitcoin network is using to perform its Proof-of-Work procedure. Apparently, the Financial University – ranked fifth among the best universities in Russia – is the first ever school to implement such a system.

The first ever university in the world to use blockchain technology to store publicly encrypted digital diplomas was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which did it back in October 2017.

Universities around the world aren’t just using blockchain as a means of data storage but are also looking to incorporate the tech itself into their curriculums as the need for professionals in the crypto space is seeing an exponential increase in demand. Lawyers, engineers, interface designers, and project managers are just some of the professionals needed in the crypto market today.

As such, schools are teaching crypto to produce experts in this industry. However, creating a curriculum around the subject is notoriously difficult since blockchain is evolving at an accelerated rate. There’s also the challenge of finding professionals who can teach the subject as those who are available are gravitating towards companies that are providing them with competitive salaries.

One such example of this is Cambridge professor Garrick Hileman, who created the university’s first-ever course on blockchain technology. Currently, Hileman is working with Blockchain.com, where he was hired to helm its research division aimed at developing blockchain innovations for the company.