The Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development (MSBSD) has delivered over 100,000 verified digital certificates anchored on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain using the LegitDoc platform.
LegitDoc facilitated the partnership between the MSBSD and the Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSINS), which led to the creation of the initiative, which is a method for issuing and certifying digital documents based on blockchain technology according to a report by indianexpress.com on August 4.
“The project aims to digitise diplomas and transcripts that are annually issued to nearly 100,000 students annually by MSBSD. This was done by creating tamper-evident digital diploma PDFs that are anchored on Polygon Blockchain,” Neil Martis, co-founder of LegitDoc stated.
Blockchain-based degrees, in Martis’ view, offer the highest level of data safety, privacy, transparency, and financial savings when compared to conventional online certificates.
It’s important to note that the board previously was unable to offer degrees online. the board is making its first attempt to digitize the certificates with this undertaking,
“However, instead of switching to traditional centralized digital methods, the board has made the decision to leap-frog to directly on-chain-based digital certificates,” said Martis.
Prior to this, MSBSD exclusively produced paper mark sheets and diplomas. It typically takes a month and over a thousand employees from its network of training institutes and divisions to distribute hardcopy certificates to students.
According to Martis, confirming degrees required nearly three board officials and a median cycle time of 30 days to complete a typical verification request.
“Hence, this project was taken up to automate the entire process by digitising diploma issuance and verification via the blockchain technology and eliminate all kinds of manual interventions and inefficiencies.”
Maharashtra used blockchain tech for COVID certifcates
The Maharashtra government decided to issue blockchain-based diploma certificates given its success in implementing blockchain use cases. The Indian state of Maharashtra has previously used blockchain technology for a variety of purposes, including the issuance of caste certificates and COVID certifications.
Interestingly, the government has already tested this option for former student credentials in a pilot project using the Ethereum blockchain, but due to scalability issues and the high gas costs associated with Ethereum, “the board has made its full-scale deployment on Polygon.”