Making diplomas tamper-proof with blockchain
Designing and deploying UDoCert: the University of Douala issues digital diplomas that any employer can verify in seconds, using the open Blockcerts standard.
- Problem
- Let anyone verify a diploma instantly, without relying on a trusted third party, while staying simple for university staff to operate.
- Role
- Blockchain project lead (final-year internship)
- Period
- Feb. – Jul. 2025
- Sector
- Higher education · Public sector
- Result
- 6 months from scoping to AWS deployment
Fig. 1Université de Douala
The lifecycle of a certified diploma
Click a step
The university generates the digital diploma in the open Blockcerts format: a JSON file holding the graduate’s identity, the degree and the institution’s signature.
01Context
Like many universities, the University of Douala faces diploma fraud. Verifying a diploma relied on manual exchanges: slow for employers, costly for the administration.
02Challenge
Let anyone verify a diploma instantly, without relying on a trusted third party, while staying simple for university staff to operate.
03Approach
Choose the right standard
Comparing digital credentialing approaches; choosing Blockcerts v3, the open standard from the MIT Media Lab.
Design the certification chain
Diploma issuance, hashing, anchoring on the Bitcoin blockchain (Testnet), public verification.
Deploy controlled infrastructure
Docker containers, Nginx reverse proxy, hosting on AWS EC2.
Document and hand over
Final-year thesis and presentation of the technical results to the CDNU teams.
04Deliverables
- Working issuance and verification prototype
- Containerised infrastructure deployed on AWS
- Technical documentation and thesis
Tools
- Blockcerts v3
- Bitcoin Testnet
- JavaScript
- Docker
- Nginx
- AWS EC2
05Results and measurement
| Value | Indicator | Scope and method |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | months from scoping to AWS deployment | February to July 2025, final-year internship. I led the project and handled the deployment. |
06What I took away
The technology was the easy part. The real subject was trust: who issues, who verifies, and how to explain a cryptographic proof to a recruiter in plain words.