The Responsible Organisation

The University of Lille is a french research university located in the north of Europe. In 2024, the institute counts with 9.900 international students of 115 nationalities, 1.000 partnerships, and 2000 students on international mobility. 

Blockchain Certified Data – BCdiploma is a French computer company specializing in blockchain technologies. The company provides blockchain solutions to issue digital credential data.  

The problem

The University of Lille enrolls nearly 80.000 students on an annual basis, receiving approximately 25.000 and issuing 700 different documents per year, consisting of primarily diplomas and certificates. Given the significant size of the University and the profuse administrative activity consequence of this, a large production of documents is generated every year and is shared in PDF or paper formats with the students and other eventual users. 

Despite this practice of sharing is quite common within Institutes' network, the University of Lille has highlighted several potential risks. Firstly, diplomas delivered in PDF and/or paper formats could be easily tampered with by computer programmers or editing software, and the procedure for verifying certificate’s authentication could be costly. Additionally, the large volume of documents produced negatively affects the University’s energy footprint, as well as the workload of University’s staff and may lead to delays in issuing certificates.

The solution and its implementation

With the aim of addressing the above-described problems, the University of Lille has implemented a blockchain solution to digitalise the issuance process of diplomas and certificates. 

Through this decentralised system, the Institute submits data of students’ certificate via the BCdiploma blockchain protocol. Subsequently, the information is encrypted in blockchain technology and, as a result, a unique link is generated for each certificatethrough the BCdiploma DApp. Graduates can access and share their certificate through the given URL, which contains the encryption key and grants access to the diploma data. Universities, recruiters and potential employers can directly verify its authenticity using the "Reader" app. This solution secures the data, ensuring verifiability, tamper resistance, and containing comprehensive evidence of authenticity. 

Moreover, the University of Lille has designed the blockchain-based digital certificate to resemble the previous format, facilitating therefore the certificate’s user-friendliness. At the same time, the University incorporated features to ensure the accessibility of the certificate for visually impaired users, as illustrated in Figure 1. Furthermore, an online "Diploma Verification Page” dedicated to recruiters was developed as well, enabling the authentication of the diploma.  

Regarding the solution’s energy footprint, since 2010, the University of Lille has implemented the Avalanche blockchain. Being based on a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol, it enables the optimisation of consumption: the energy footprint of a digital diploma has been estimated at about 0.025g of CO2.

Figure 1. The design of University of Lille blockchain-based digital certificate (source: University of Lille)

The digital transformation process undertaken by the University of Lille with blockchain applications is part of the wider EU’s efforts implemented by the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) and the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI). The programmatic objective at the European level is to deploy a standardised blockchain digital ecosystem across Europe. In this framework, the French government launched the fr.EBSI project in 2021, led by the University of Lille. Its purpose has been to issue digital credentials based on the EBSI blockchain as promoted by the European Commission, i.e. W3C "Verifiable Credentials. Additionally, Lille University has carried out, in concurrent to the fr.EBSI project, the Dem-Attest-ULille project, dedicated to the development of students’ digital credentials on a large scale.  

Regarding the development, testing and implementation of this specific solution, the first test took place in 2019 through the delivery of 248 certificates for CLES diploma (namely, certificate of competence in higher education languages of the University of Lille). Based on students’ positive feedback, the University has continued this pathway testing and piloting the solution and gradually achieving the complete integration of the issuance of digital attestations within the University systems and process by 2023, replacing the PDF format certificate issuance. In total, since 2020, the Institute has issued over 60,000 digital blockchain-based diplomas.   

[1] The European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) is a European initiative to develop a common strategy on blockchain and promote a blockchain infrastructure for public services. For more information on the EU strategy, please click here. The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) is an initiative funded by European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership with the objective of fostering the use of blockchain for the public good. For further information, please consult EBSI website.

Expected benefits

According to the University of Lille, the blockchain-based digital certificate solution presents the following advantages:  

• A primary benefit is its robust prevention of fraud through a sovereign mechanism.  The blockchain technology indeed enables data verification preventing fraud and forgeries of certificates. 
• The application of blockchain technology is a step forward towards modernisation of Lille University’s offices, which brings various positive effects on the University’s processes and administration. For example, the solution can increase the quality of data production processes. A further advantage stems from the resource reduction required for issuing and verifying diplomas and certificates, as well as minimising delays associated with potential revocation and reissuance. For instance, in the pivotal phrase of the projects involving the Faculty of Law of the University of Lille, the blockchain system enabled students to receive their diplomas significantly faster, within 10 days after deliberations, compared to previous procedures 
• An additional gain refers to the added value of this solution in fostering students’ mobility. The digital certificates are issued in bilingual format, i.e. English and French. This allows students to avoid traditional translation services that could be costly and often lack specialization in scientific disciplines, increasing the risk of errors in representing students' actual studies. To mitigate this, the university translated all 700 types of certificates under the supervision of each faculty to ensure accuracy and avoid mistakes. 
• Another positive benefit for students regards the possibility to easily share the link of their digital certificates with social networks, such as LinkedIn, providing verifiable proof of authenticity. Moreover, blockchain technology makes the certificate permanent and secure as it is GDPR compliant. 
• Additionally, this initiative can promote positive spillover effects for the uptake of Blockchain solutions within the EU, as the University of Lille can continue to contribute to European Union’s efforts for the implementation of “verifiable credentials" with the European blockchain infrastructure EBSI. 

Main challenges 

Along with the benefits abovementioned, some challenges have been identified regarding aspects of the design, quality, legal interoperability and recognition, and sustainability of the blockchain-based digital certificate solution implemented: 

• A first obstacle is the improvement of the design and quality of the solution. The current solution represents an interim solution and follows a minimalist design approach. While the University learns from the present version and tests functionalities and improvements in the future, several aspects of the application have yet to be considered. There are plans for future enhancements in the user interface. Additionally, the University of Lille aims at enhancing the quality of the solution, leveraging on the participation in the EBSI-Vector European project, which aims at fostering the uptake of blockchain technology for educational credentials among other application sectors.   
• Secondly, a lack of legal recognition for this type of certification poses a legal interoperability challenge. In this regard, collaboration at both European and international levels fosters the future interoperability of these digital certificates within EBSI framework.  
• Another challenge lies in the hesitancy of other public administration managers within the education sector to accept this blockchain-based solution. Given the notable lack of understanding of technology, there are significant opportunities to raise awareness on the added value of using a separate infrastructure for diploma issuance instead of traditional classic signature methods.  
• Related to this, scaling this solution to include other French universities requires determined political and financial support. Such support would foster trust among university communities and technology providers, thereby promoting its adoption and associated benefits.  
• Finally, the sustainability of the solution itself represents a challenge for the University of Lille, as securing the necessary funding to sustain the project has been identified as an obstacle. 

• University of Lille  

Perrine de Coëtlogon, University of Lille, fr.EBSI & DemAttestUlille coordinator, Board Member at Open Education Global, representative of France at the European Blockchain Partnership – EBSI

 perrine.de-coetlogon@univ-lille.fr 

• BCDiploma       

Luc Jarry-Lacombe, Co-founder & CEO Blockchain Certified Data – BCDiploma 

luc.jarry-lacombe@bcdiploma.com