India’s second most populous state issues 100,000 diplomas on the Polygon blockchain

Source: Cryptonews

Through the LegitDoc platform, the Maharashtra State Skills Development Board (MSBSD) has distributed approximately 100,000 verified digital certificates anchored in the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain. 

LegitDoc catalyzed the collaboration between the MSBSD and the Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSINS), which resulted in the creation of the initiative, which is a method of issuing and certifying digital documents based on blockchain technology, according to a report by indianexpress.com on August 4.

“The project aims to digitize the diplomas and transcripts that MSBSD issues annually to almost 100,000 students a year. This was done by creating tamper-proof digital diploma PDF files that are anchored on the Polygon Blockchain,” stated Neil Martis, Co-Founder of LegitDoc.

According to Martis, compared to standard online certificates, Blockchain-based degrees provide the highest degree of data protection, privacy, openness, and cost savings.

First effort to digitize certificates

It is important to note that the board was unable to offer degrees online in the past. The board is making its first effort to digitize the certificates with this project. 

“However, rather than switch to traditional centralized digital methods, the board made the decision to make the leap to direct chain-based digital certificates,” Martis said.

Previously, MSBSD only issued paper grade sheets and diploma certificates. Delivering paper certificates to students often requires the involvement of more than a thousand workers across its network of training institutions and departments and takes about a month.

Martis notes that title verification was also a laborious procedure, requiring nearly three board officers and an average cycle time of 30 days to handle a standard verification request.

“Therefore, this project was taken to automate the entire process by digitizing the issuance and verification of diplomas through blockchain technology and eliminating all kinds of manual interventions and inefficiencies.”

Maharashtra used blockchain technology for COVID certificates

The Indian state of Maharashtra has previously used blockchain technology for a variety of purposes including issuing caste certificates and COVID certifications and given its success in implementing blockchain use cases, the Maharashtra government decided to issue diploma certificates. blockchain-based.

Interestingly, the government had already carried out a pilot project using the Ethereum blockchain to test this option for previous student credentials, but due to the scalability and high cost of gas related to Ethereum, «the board has made its implementation to large scale in Polygon».