The Blockchain is a public ledger used to record all the transactions in a decentralized data log rather than a physical ledger or a single database. While blockchain technology was originally used to create cryptocurrencies, Nowadays blockchain is being promoted to different areas like trading, file storage, payment services, identity management, financial exchanges, medical records management, education and more.





Unfortunately, in today’s world, fake documents are epidemic and as most of you know there is no trouble in getting fake documents. As the fake documents precisely look like the originals, it is cumbersome for the layman to identify the real and duplicate. Service providers have to burn through millions to verify the documents of candidates.





Why Blockchain for verifying your documents?

However, blockchain also finds its applicability in document verification processes. A digital certificate in light of blockchain technology could address the above issue. Let us see how in detail in this article.





1. Document verification on blockchain technology eliminates the third party thus limiting the cost of transactions on the network. This essentially saves costs.





2. Certificates are placed on a distributed ledger so that people can have access to information anytime, anywhere. Under blockchain, the documents are securely placed that only authorized persons can access using their private keys.





3. Blockchain technology stores data in a form that cannot be altered. This is done through cryptography which involves encryption of data using a hash function. So data becomes unalterable. It is practically impossible to hack.





4. There will be no scalability issue anymore as transaction time taken could be as quick as few seconds. In this manner, Documents verified on the blockchain allows quick delivery of service.





Document verification is a common phenomenon as far as humans are concerned. They are bound to verify their documents in every walk of life be it a new birth, marriage, court proceedings, employment purpose or any new step in their life journey. This can effectively be done via blockchain technology. Today, document verification is no more strenuous and also immune to faulty representations via blockchain technology. Under blockchain technology, the documents to be verified are set on a distributed ledger. It is not the digital copy rather a cryptographic copy that is stored on the blockchain network.





Suppose, University has decided to store its degree certificates on blockchain technology. The first step of precedence will be converting document content to a one-way hash code using cryptography. The code is further stored under the blockchain. The one-way hash code resembles a copy of the document but represented as a string of codes. These string of codes act as a key for the document. When the user presents this document elsewhere, the code remains the same as stored in the blockchain.

Assume that a recruiter is in need of hiring a graduate and he requests for certificates from later for verification. Under blockchain, the former can verify/authenticate certificates via just hashing the content to a cryptographic mode. If the hash matches the details stored on blockchain by the university, the degree certificates produced are genuine. If the documents are altered, they will not match.





This is the means by which blockchain verifies documents and it is applicable to every one of the documents.



