Governmental entities can issue claims about citizens and businesses easily in a Web3 consumable format, such as Verifiable Credentials, as João Rodrigues Frade, Head of Building Blocks sector in DIGIT, European Commission, highlighted at Brussels Blockchain Week, from 7 to 8 June.

European Blockchain Services Infrastructure

European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) helps the public sector to issue Verifiable Credentials, which become ‘reputation tokens’. EBSI is unique by making data from authentic sources of the public sector available in Web3-ready format, providing more transparency, censorship resistancy and openess to new entrants and innovators.

EBSI and Web3 have a crucial role in transforming the issuance of governmental claims, and governments have a role to play in bringing trust into the nascent Web3 economy, benefiting the citizens of Europe… Read more.

SmartDegrees has adhered to this European initiative, incorporating the Verifiable Credentials standard in its clients since July 2020, to take full advantage in favor of the universities and the final users.

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The objective is to help public administrations accelerate the creation of trustworthy cross border digital services.

Components

Verifiable Credentials associate three concepts:

• Decentralized identifier (DID).
• Verifiable credentials lifecycle, which enables standardization and scalable implementation.
• Digital wallets, allowing user interactions exchanging digital credentials, where VC are supported on them.

The video explains the Verifiable Credentials, its infrastructure (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, EBSI), and the vast opportunities that it currently provides, through a user’s journey (“Eva’s trip“).

SmartDegrees has adhered to this European initiative, incorporating the Verifiable Credentials standard in its clients since July 2020, and is participating in the Early Adopters Programme to ensure that SmartDegrees wallet takes full advantage of the value of this ecosystem in favor of the universities and the final users.

(Source: CEF Digital)

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European digital credentials

Its document Joining forces towards European digital credentials describes the opportunities and advantages of the initiative and the following information:

• Its infrastructure, European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), first EU-wide blockchain infrastructure, which began being operational in Q1 2020.
• Verifiable Credentials (VC) standard.
• Digital wallets, self-sovereign identities (SSI) and the European Self Sovereign Identity Framework (ESSIF) standard.
• User seamless experience, explaining in detail the process followed by a cross border university student, involving three countries, its public administrations and two universities (Eva Journey).
• An incubator, Early Adopters Programme, to facilitate the adherance of administrations, universities, providers and other stakeholders. The programme has set up the specifications EBSI compliance, in particular the required ones in the digital wallets and its APIs, to ensure interoperability.

Currently, as of 30 November 2021, the situation is:

• 29 countries are participating in the European Blockchain Partnership, that supports the initiative,
• 38 blockchain nodes in 21 countries,
• 18 universities participating in a multi-university pilot, in 15 countries.

SmartDegrees has adhered to this European initiative, incorporating the Verifiable Credentials standard in its clients since July 2020, and is participating in the Early Adopters Programme to ensure that SmartDegrees wallet takes full advantage of the value of this ecosystem in favor of the universities and the final users.

La entrada EU joins forces towards European digital credentials se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

Through a simple form, each student, if they wish so, gives their approval to register their undergraduate degree digitally. In this approval, he also has the possibility of accrediting his educational background at Nebrija University as his TFG, his internships in companies or his professional and language skills.

Nebrija Smart Portfolio

According to Clara Vizoso, professor of the Master’s Degree in ICT for Education and Learning Digital and responsible for the Nebrija Smart Portfolio project, Nebrija University, in its path of innovation and digitization, has decided to put the blockchain system into operation, “an incredibly secure platform, with great potential that allows through smart contracts introduce changes in the way of issuing academic degrees, providing agility, transparency, independence and a new way of transacting with institutions and with students”.

“One of the problems our graduates encounter when applying to a job is that of demonstrating their studies and activities. Thanks to the blockchain technology -which ensures the inviolability of their certificate- and the collaboration agreement signed with the company SmartDegrees, provider of registration services, students will be able to access their certifications in a digital and immediate way, directly through the SmartDegrees mobile application, which facilitates job search, enrollment in new studies and future access to oppositions. Diplomas and certificates go from being a static element on paper or in an electronically signed file, with room for fraud, to being secure digital assets and, therefore, dynamic, under the exclusive control of the graduate”, adds Vizoso.

Nebrija Smart Portfolio is especially useful in this time characterized by the health crisis and the elimination of face-to-face procedures. In addition, it affects the employability of the students themselves by facilitating the recruiter to verify their skills. This proposal will also increase, in a second phase, membership in the Nebrija Alumni Club, the group of alumni of the Nebrija University, which, sponsored by the Antonio de Nebrija Foundation, creates a link between the university and the graduates and postgraduates who have walked the classrooms and hallways of the different campuses.

(Article published by Nebrija University with the same title on its website)

Media coverage: El Economista, CoinTelegraph, Bolsa Manía, Bit2Me Crypto News

La entrada Nebrija University offers its students digital certification of their diplomas se publicó primero en SmartPortfolio.

Verifiable Credentials standard

It has just completed his white paper “Building the digital credential infrastructure for the future“, where it establishes the design specifications of the associated system architecture and offers a more powerful and convenient way to share, manage and verify credentials:

• It has a holistic approach and not biased to specific solutions or platforms, facilitating the convergence of other initiatives.
• His effort is focused on the “envelope” and the system that provides safe delivery and storage. The “envelope” contains information about who issued the credential and to whom it was issued. Both the identities and the integrity of their content can be verified to detect fraud or tampering.
• Recommends the Verifiable Credentials (VC) standard and its data model, performed by the European Commission, within the framework of its European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) initiative, because it meets the requirements established by the consortium and offers the following properties:
  • Digital, tamper proof and machine-readable.
  • Learner is at the center of exchanges of their data; their consent is required to exchange.
  • Learner may cryptographically prove the credential is about them.
  • Verification does not require consulting the issuer.
  • Content of the credential can conform to a variety of schemas and vocabularies chosen by the issuer.
  • Robust consideration of privacy, security, accessibility, and internationalization recommendations, making it suitable for high-stakes credentials such as transcripts.

Digital Credentials Consortium does not develop commercial products and services, but works with technology companies and platforms to create an ecosystem of options to choose from, as well as with employers to integrate verification services into their contracting workflow.

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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.

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Eva’s trip

The trip shows a Belgian girl who graduates in her country, studies a master’s degree in Spain and later undertakes in Italy. In her country of origin she obtains two documents, one from the national government that will certify his identity, while another from the regional administration validates his university degree. This information allows her to access postgraduate education in Spain, which in turn issues a new digital certificate that she can store in her EBSI wallet. With all that information, as standard verifiable credentials, Eva can undertake in Italy, accessing grants from Feder funds, thanks to the credentials she has collected.

The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure aims to offer cross-border digital public services throughout the European Union using blockchain technology. It is formed by a network of blockchain nodes distributed throughout Europe, taking advantage of an increasing number of applications focused on specific use cases, whose proof of concept will begin to be available from January 2020.

(Source: CEF Digital)

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