University College London Fights CV Fraud via Bitcoin Verification

Imagine getting treated by a doctor with a fake diploma, or losing a job to another candidate who faked his resume. Unfortunately, such cases are all too prevalent these days in various parts of the world where proper documentation verification is too cumbersome or too costly. However, bitcoin might provide the answer to making sure this reality is preventable in the future.

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Bitcoin CV Verification

University College London (UCL) has announced that its Centre for Blockchain Technologies has concluded a pilot program enabling MSc graduates in Financial Risk Management to offer instant verification of their academic qualifications using bitcoin.

All graduates of this course in 2016 and 2017 could register their degree details on a platform developed by London-based startup Gradbase. The school checked the validity of this data and then the system issued a transaction validating the authenticity of these degrees via bitcoin. The participating graduates received a QR code they can place on their CV documents, business cards or professional profiles which anyone can scan to verify their credentials.

The company’s co-founder, Cédric Colle, commented: “Academic fraud is a global issue which needs a global solution. The ambition of Gradbase is to become the first platform for easily and trustworthily verifying any qualification around the world.”

University College London’s Centre for Blockchain Technologies

Founded in 1826 in the heart of Britain’s capital city, UCL is the third largest university in the UK by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment. It has about 38,000 students from 150 different countries as well as more than 11,000 staff.

Its Centre for Blockchain Technologies (CBT) serves as an academic interdisciplinary research hub for bitcoin and related innovations, as well as a think tank connecting developers and regulators. It provides consultancy services to industry members, knowledge-transfer activities and in-house solutions.

“We are very excited to have collaborated with Gradbase on a pilot which is a UK first. The UCL CBT is playing a leading role in enabling the use of Blockchain technology in the education sector, and we believe that, in the future, such technology will become mainstream,” said Paolo Tasca, Executive Director of UCL CBT.

Would you want to have verification of your ID, CV or academic qualifications stored on the bitcoin blockchain? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.