



Unochapecó University is pioneering the use of blockchain to protect academic records. A simple project developed in 90 days running on 3 nodes that creates many solutions.





About Unochapecó





Unochapecó is a Community University, located in the Region of Chapecó Brazil. A community institution deeply identified with regional development and very attentive to the needs of the population and organizations located in its region.





The university was born 40 years ago. It is the initiative of local leaders with the purpose of guaranteeing the offer of education to the population of the region and for years it has been contributing actively to the development of the west of Santa Catarina. Through the training of qualified professionals, continuing education for professionals and leaders, production and publication of new knowledge, the development of community actions aimed at promoting economic, social, cultural, sports and health development, as well as social assistance actions.





In recent years, Unochapecó has prioritized investments in its modernization, as well as in the approach to the productive sector and social organizations. Improving its development support instruments, focusing on technological innovation, agility and quality of the services it provides and transformation of people as a privileged way of promoting development.





The purpose of the project





Several records need to become immutable after their generation, such as the class journal closures of the subjects (frequency, notes, and content). This is one of the most important information in the course of a student's academic life, and is often the target of many fraud attempts.





Although Unochapecó uses a robust set of systems to prevent fraud, the goal of this project was to build an additional layer of security to set in stone academic records. And to make it impossible for any party involved to access and make changes to distort the data released by teachers.





In addition, the project has simplified the process of generating reports of academic records, giving the teacher more autonomy, less dependency on the Academic Department, reducing costs and increasing traceability.





How the solution works





Once again showing itself to be an innovative university, Unochapecó adopted blockchain as the solution to meet the objectives of this project. A private network with three nodes was implemented, one in the local infrastructure of the university and the other two in the public cloud, and the blockchain solution was built in the form of APIs integrated to the academic management system of the university, "Minha Uno" (my Uno).





This is a pioneering project to use blockchain in universities in Brazil, and the implemented solution guarantees integrity, authenticity, traceability, inviolability and data security related to students' academic records.





Classroom logging is done through applications that are part of My Uno, the own academic management platform adopted by Unochapecó, and there is already a change in the teachers' access: the adoption of a second authentication factor (2FA) based on a private key generated and stored on the teacher's smartphone.





At the moment the teacher accesses the My Uno system using this new method, an event is generated and this login is registered in the blockchain, guaranteeing total traceability of the accesses made by the teachers.





After the release of the records, the teachers generate the reports digitally and the system identifies the unique digital identity of these documents, generating the hash of the files to be registered in the blockchain. A digital signature based on the teacher's identity is added and the reports information is recorded in a blockchain block, petrificating this data into the university system.





A receipt is generated and automatically attached to the reports with the academic records, indicating the hash of the documents, login with the teacher information, block in which it was included in the blockchain, and other information relevant to the process, allowing full traceability.













Previous Solution Blockchain Solution Atendence

Using “My Uno” Using “ My Uno” Login

Password Password Security

Key using 3 alfanumeric characters 2FA generated every 30s, which access event is recorded in the blockchain Signature

Printed reports signed by professors Digital reports with teacher's guarantee of authenticity Traceability

Practically Inexistent Total. Teacher's access as well as the generated reports Alteration of records An improper access allowed to change the registers and to generate inconsistencies Impossible to change a record recorded in blockchain









Benefits of using the solution





Higher level of security in accessing the teacher, eliminating the possibility of someone accessing using their credentials

Improved traceability of teachers' access to the Minha Uno system

Guarantee of integrity and inviolability of the data registered in the blockchain

Elimination of printing need for academic record reports

Elimination of teachers' need for the printed documents

Reduction of the workload of the Academic Secretariat with respect to the generation, printing and control of academic records

Increased reliability of the academic records process, enhancing Unochapecó's credibility in the marketplace

Expansion of the university's innovative vision, positioning itself as one of the first to implement blockchain technology in its processes

Creation of a blockchain network infrastructure of Unochapecó, which will allow the implementation of new projects focusing on other university processes

Creation of a knowledge base about technology and its potential, creating intellectual capital that can be transformed into extension courses for the academic community





Next steps