Seal of Excellence of the European Commission

This collaboration culminates a 2019 year of full growth for SmartDegrees, in which the European Commission has provided it with its Seal of Excellence (Horizon 2020 quality certificate – the largest research and innovation program in the European Union – in compliance with its criteria of excellence, impact, quality and efficiency in the implementation), in addition to granting financing to accelerate its expansion. The company anticipates in this way a technology that will become essential in the medium term.

SmartDegrees also already collaborates fluently with the following institutions:

• University of the Illes Balears. Agreement signed with the objective of carrying out joint research studies on blockchain technology, to expand its possibilities in academic degrees, anticipate future trends and boost its communication to other universities.
• Master in Banking and Financial Markets in Casablanca. A joint initiative between the universities Hassan II of Casablanca and Cantabria, which since August already issues its first university diplomas in blockchain, registered and certified by SmartDegrees.
• Sicomoro Foundation. It has its meetings minutes certified in blockchain, simplifying and guaranteeing its processes, through an innovative end-to-end solution provided by SmartDegrees, since December.

Microsoft for Startups initiative

This innovative and disruptive model has not gone unnoticed and has obtained adherance to Microsoft for Startups initiative, consolidating its university certification platform, by hosting the blockchain nodes in the Azure cloud, improving security and scalability, in addition to multiple advantages for its expansion, for the benefit of universities.

In addition and in order to complement the above, SmartDegrees has expanded its services, incorporating a business strategic consulting activity, which it develops through SmartDegrees Consulting.

SmartDegrees began providing its services for the registration and certification of blockchain degrees at the University Carlos III de Madrid, in July 2018, to help university graduates in the labor market, promoting services around the degree and guaranteeing the validity of diplomas.

La entrada SmartDegrees completes a second year of major milestones se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

The innovative and disruptive nature of this technology opens up enormous possibilities in all sectors, particularly in higher education, new graduates, alumni, universities, work platforms and recruiters.

SmartDegrees has the service available in several universities and educational institutions in several countries, being the University Carlos III of Madrid the first to have its official university degrees registered and certified in blockchain. Graduates who have joined the service can manage their titles from their smartphone, through a free app that allows them the following benefits:

• It facilitates the enhancement of the title, speeding up its sharing with work platforms, recruiters and third parties.
• The graduate is the sovereign owner of their data and decides how, where and when to display them.
• The app and support technology, blockchain, guarantee its inviolability and prevent fraud.

The blockchain platform used by SmartDegrees consists of its own network, which operates on Quorum, Ethereum‘s enterprise evolution, and, in addition, uses the public Alastria network, which provides security, transparency and puts in value ​​the integration and interoperability between blockchain networks.

Its main advantages: security, scalability and monitoring

The support of the blockchain nodes of SmartDegrees, private and public, in the Azure cloud of Microsoft, increases security, scalability and gives more possibilities, both in the monitoring processes of the nodes, as in the access to developing tools.

SmartDegrees is a member of the Microsoft for Startups initiative, which provides multiple benefits in the expansion of the SmartDegrees service to the rest of Spanish universities and other countries, interested in being members of the network of user universities.

La entrada SmartDegrees uses Microsoft to consolidate its university certification platform in blockchain se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

University Carlos III de Madrid

This collaboration puts the finishing touch to a 2018 year of full growth for SmartDegrees. The most important milestone has been the collaboration with the University Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), which since July already issues the first university degrees in blockchain, registered and certified by SmartDegrees.

SmartDegrees has adhered to the Alastria blockchain network, where it also records its activity, increasing security and transparency, as well as enhancing interoperability between networks.

With such an innovative and disruptive model, SmartDegrees has been present in several activities and events, both in the educational and technological sectors, such as the European initiative Soft Landing or BMC Exchange, a benchmark for IT innovation, in which executives and experts analyzed the situation, possibilities and challenges for the future of this market.

Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas (CRUE)

As for the educational world, SmartDegrees has participated in several sectoral meetings of the Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas (CRUE), showing the opportunities of blockchain technology in the university world and its vocation of service in terms of quality certification and the truthfulness.

SmartDegrees was created in August 2017 with 100% Spanish capital, with the aim of offering registration and certification services for degrees in blockchain, to help university graduates in the labor market, promoting services around the degree and guaranteeing the validity of the diplomas.

La entrada SmartDegrees ends its first year with ambition and positive synergies se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

The objective of the day was to evaluate the maturity of this technology and what are its advantages and risks for universities, legal aspects and use cases in universities.

University Carlos III de Madrid degrees

Maite Agujetas, COO of SmartDegrees, has described how blockchain is used to register and certify official university degrees in University Carlos III de Madrid, since last July, that the graduate can manage from his smartphone, through a free app that allows the following benefits:

• It facilitates the enhancement of the degree, speeding up its sharing with labor platforms, recruiters and third parties.
• The graduate is the sovereign owner of their data and decides how, where and when to display them.
• The app and support technology, blockchain, guarantee its inviolability and prevent fraud.

The results are very positive, so the service is being extended to other universities, initially in Europe and Latin America.

Keys to success

In the experience of SmartDegrees, the keys have been “to choose the blockchain platform well”, which for the certificates of degrees has been a permissioned network, for facilitating the implementation of the specific activity of the certificates, and “avoiding the cryptocurrency”, if it is not necessary. This is the case of SmartDegrees, which uses Quorum, enterprise version of Ethereum, open source and without cryptocurrency. Maite Agujetas has also highlighted the current possibilities of the technology, which facilitates interoperability and integration between networks, as does SmartDegrees, which notarizes its operations in another additional blockchain network, that of Alastria, increasing the security provided by the SmartDegrees blockchain platform.

“Universities benefit from our activity, they are our partners, and we do not interfere with their internal processes, by resting in an API architecture.” However, “our final objective is the graduates, whom we help to value their qualification in the labor market and in the society, promoting services around the degree, which goes from being a static element in paper or electronically signed file, to be a secure and, therefore, dynamic digital asset, under the exclusive control of the graduate”.

La entrada SmartDegrees participates in the first Blockchain Conference of CRUE se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

The innovative and disruptive nature of this technology opens up enormous possibilities in all sectors, particularly in higher education, new graduates, alumni, universities, labor platforms and recruiters.

This service is open to all universities, the University Carlos III de Madrid has since July the first official university degrees in blockchain, registered and certified by SmartDegrees. Graduates who have joined the service can manage their degrees from their smartphone, through a free app that allows them the following benefits:

• It facilitates the enhancement of the degree, speeding up its sharing with labor platforms, recruiters and third parties.
• The graduate is the sovereign owner of its data and decides how, where and when to display them.
• The app and support technology, blockchain, guarantee its inviolability and prevent fraud.

The blockchain platform used by SmartDegrees operates on Quorum, Ethereum‘s entreprise evolution, the same protocol as Alastria network, which ensures strength, flexibility and high scalability.

Its main advantages: security and interoperability between blockchain networks

Through the notarization in the Alastria network, the security provided by the SmartDegrees blockchain platform is increased with that offered by the Alastria network, as well as the integration and interoperability between blockchain networks is evidenced and valued, whose importance will be increasing in the future .

The SmartDegrees service is being extended to other Spanish universities, as well as other countries in Europe and Latin America, interested in being members of the network of user universities.

About Alastria

Alastria is a non-profit association that aims to provide Spain with the basic blockchain infrastructure, the ‘Alastria Network’, and the ‘ID Alastria’ digital identity standard that allows transactions over the network to be legally valid, and with it , Spanish society can develop its own strategy. Alastria is a multisectoral consortium to which more than 300 entities of all types of sizes and sectors have already joined. Alastria partners collaborate and compete within a ‘semi-public’ network, which has the fundamental tools for the development of blockchain strategies designed to distribute and organize products and services for the Spanish market.

About SmartDegrees

SmartDegrees was created in August 2017 with 100% Spanish capital, with the aim of offering registration and certification services for blockchain degrees, to help university graduates in the labor market, promoting services around the degree and guaranteeing the validity of the diplomas.

Media coverage: Economia de Hoy, Ibercampus.es

La entrada SmartDegrees activates in Alastria its solution to validate university degrees with blockchain se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

La entrada Jaime Castillo se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

It uses the technology of distributed ledger, blockchain, whose innovative and disruptive nature makes it the most important for changing higher education and opens up enormous possibilities for graduates, universities, labor platforms and recruiters.

University Carlos III de Madrid degrees

The degrees and certificates go from being a static element in paper or electronically signed file, to being secure and therefore dynamic digital assets, under the exclusive control of the graduate. The mission of SmartDegrees is to put in value the university graduates in the labor market and in the society, promoting services around the degree and guaranteeing the validity of the diplomas. The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid already has since July the first university degrees in blockchain, registered and certified by SmartDegrees.

Its main advantages: agility, comfort and safety

Its users can manage their university degrees from their smartphone, using a free app that allows them the following benefits:

• It facilitates the enhancement of the title, speeding up its sharing with work platforms, recruiters and third parties.
• The graduate is the sovereign owner of its data and decides how, where and when to display them.
• The app and support technology, blockchain, guarantee its inviolability and prevent fraud.

These are the first university degrees in the world registered in a mature and scalable blockchain network, with the potential that smart contracts allow, such as Quorum, based on Ethereum.

The service is being extended to other universities, initially in Europe and Latin America, interested in being members of the SmartDegrees user network.

SmartDegrees was created in August 2017 with 100% Spanish capital, with the aim of offering registration and certification services for blockchain titles, to help university graduates in the labor market, promoting services around the degree and guaranteeing the validity of the diplomas.

Media coverage: El Economista

La entrada SmartDegrees, the blockchain-based university certification platform se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

Their graduates will be able to manage their university diplomas from their smartphones, through an app that will allow them to share any data they wish to with other work platforms, recruitment companies and third parties, guaranteeing the inviolability of their degree certificate, as it is recorded and certified with the distributed registration technology, blockchain.

Advantages and opportunities of blockchain in the higher education

UC3M wants to make the most of the opportunities that blockchain technology provides in the sector of higher education and the technological capacities developed by the SmartDegrees platform.

The benefits for graduates are the following:

• It enhances the value of the diploma, allowing it to be shared more easily.
• The graduates are the exclusive owners of their data and decide how, where and when to share it.
• The app and its supporting technology, blockchain, guarantee inviolability and prevent fraud.

SmartDegrees is a Spanish start-up, set up in August 2017, with the objective of offering services for the registry and certification of degree certificates in blockchain.

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is an innovative public university, committed to improving society with cutting-edge research and high-quality education. It’s the best young university in Spain and the 22nd worldwide, according to the QS ranking Top 50 Under 50.

Media coverage: Madrid es Noticia, InnovaSpain

La entrada University Carlos III de Madrid is issuing degree certificates with blockchain se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.