ARK is all about being used not only for commercial usage, but also in academic waters where knowledge is being generated and shared. And what better way to get ARK name out there than in a pool of most respected and educated society?

So we are happy that ARK is being used in one of the first academic blockchain Proof-of-Concept Europen projects named EduCTX, developed by academics working at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Slovenia, Europe).

Why EduCTX?

The main purpose of EduCTX initiative is to establish a trustworthy and tamper-proof platform for storing student credentials and other digital certificates thus delivering authenticity and a digital copy archive.

In the long run EduCTX will offer also other forms of digital credentials. All credentials will be saved on the blockchain providing a secure and tamper-proof audit trail whereby the certificate owner will be instantly verifiable by the allowed users (employers, government agencies, etc..). Furthermore, APIs will be prepared in order for the stakeholders’ to easily integrate the EduCTX system into their own workflows and use cases.

Why with ARK?

Ark was used because of it’s simplicity, efficiency and opensourceness. ARK already comes with more than 10 client API implementations, making it very flexible and adjustable for other institutions to join and contribute to the the EduCTX initiative by the programming language of their choosing. As ARK is open source project and driven by the community, this is something that also higher educational institutions can relate to, as all generated knowledge, tools and applications is being reviewed, used and shared inside the community.

Learn more about ARK by visiting: https://ark.io and https://blog.ark.io

As summarized by the EduCTX itself:

“ This platform is based on the concept of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). It constitutes a globally trusted, decentralized higher education credit and grading system that can offer a globally unified viewpoint for students and education institutions, as well as for other potential stakeholders such as companies, institutions, and organizations. As a proof of concept, we present a prototype implementation of the environment, based on the open-source Ark Blockchain Platform (http://eductx.org). Based on a globally distributed peer-to-peer network, EduCTX will process, manage and control ECTX tokens, which represent credits that students gain for completed courses such as ECTS and other completed certifications. Educational institutions are the peers of the blockchain network. The platform is a first step towards a more transparent and technologically advanced form of education systems. The EduCTX platform represents the basis of the EduCTX initiative which anticipates that various educational institutions would join forces in order to create a globally efficient, simplified and ubiquitous environment in order to avoid language and administrative barriers. Therefore we invite and encourage educational institutions to join the EduCTX initiative and the EduCTX blockchain network.”

Research paper has just been published on:

This research paper is currently also under review and is awaiting to be published in PLOS ONE (https://www.plos.org/).