A COMPREHENSIVE BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SYSTEM FOR EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS MANAGEMENT AND VERIFICATION TO COUNTER FORGERY

Educational certificate forgery is a widespread problem that undermines the credibility of academic qualifications and employment systems worldwide. Traditional verification methods are often inefficient, slow, and vulnerable to fraud. This paper proposes ElimuChain, a comprehensive blockchain-based system designed to manage, issue, and verify educational certificates across multiple institutions and education levels. Using blockchain technology, the system ensures transparency, immutability, and secure record management. Smart contracts are used to automate certificate issuance, verification, and revocation processes, while the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) provides secure and scalable storage for certificate files. Government and regulatory authorities supervise the system by registering institutions, managing equivalency certificates for foreign qualifications, and revoking invalid certificates through a decentralized web application. The system also incorporates role-based access control to prevent unauthorized issuers and degree mills. Verification is open and fee-free for third parties such as employers. Experimental results show that ElimuChain significantly improves efficiency, security, scalability, and costeffectiveness compared to traditional certificate verification methods.