Cross-border candidate credential verification using ZKP and blockchain Ethereum and Polygon perspectives: a scalable solution for authentic global corporate interviews

In the contemporary global job market, the secure and efficient verification of a candidate’s academic qualifications presents a significant challenge, particularly across international boundaries. Conventional techniques frequently necessitate physical documents or PDF scans, rendering them inefficient, susceptible to falsification, and hazardous about privacy. This study presents a contemporary, scalable framework that integrates Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), blockchain technology, and decentralized storage (IPFS) to establish a secure, privacy-oriented method for candidate verification. In this proposed system, candidates submit their academic documents, which are digitally signed by the issuing universities using cryptographic methods. The signed files are preserved on IPFS, guaranteeing their integrity and accessibility. The hash of each document is then stored on a blockchain, either Ethereum or Polygon, offering a public and immutable reference. Zero-Knowledge Proofs enable candidates to validate the legitimacy of their credentials while safeguarding sensitive information. Human Resources teams can authenticate these documents in real time, validating their integrity against the blockchain hash while preserving the candidate’s confidentiality. The evaluation results demonstrate that Ethereum offers robust decentralization and trust; nevertheless, Polygon proved to be more pragmatic because to its reduced gas price and expedited transaction times, making it suitable for high-volume recruitment. This proposed initiative addresses weaknesses in digital recruitment by guaranteeing trust, privacy, and automated credential verification procedure. It provides a customized approach for present recruitment requirements, particularly for organizations engaged in cross-border hiring, where security, scalability and protection of candidate information are paramount.