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In the announcement, MIT explained that certificates were issued through an application called Blockcerts Wallet, which allows graduates to reliably share a "verified" and "unauthorized access" digital version of their diplomas with potential employers and others.
The pilot, based on blockchain, is a partnership between MIT and Cambridge, the Software Learning Machine, based on MA, which last year jointly developed the open standard for Blockcerts.
According to Chris Jager, co-founder and CEO of Learning Machine, MIT is among the first universities that "issued official records in a format that can exist even if the institution goes away.
The Blockcerts system uses the bitcoin blockchain, according to Jagers, because it "determines the priority of security compared to other qualities such as speed, cost, or ease of use."
Although the diploma information itself is not stored in a blockchain, the system uses a temporary transaction indicating that MIT has created a digital record for the certificate. This allows the student to confirm his right to receive a diploma later.
With interest in the precedent for technology gathering, the Ministry of Education and Employment of Malta and the Australian University in Melbourne have also begun testing Blockcerts to track academic certificates in recent weeks.
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