Comparing digital certification and blockchain certification

Sangjin Kim

6/6/23, 8:14 AM

I am trying to understand the benefits of using blockchain technology in document certifications such as university diplomas. I would like to know the difference between digital certification and blockchain certification. To be more specific, the digital certification that I am considering works as follows. A trusted certification authority issues public-key certificates to universities. A university issues a certified digital diploma by signing a hash of the digital diploma. In blockchain-enabled certification, the difference is that signed documents are stored in the blockchain. Some proposals only store the hash value of a document instead of a digital signature. I am not considering such scenario because the storing process becomes too critical. In blockchain-enabled certification, decentralized PKI can be used instead of a centralized PKI. Putting aside the difference between decentralized and centralized PKI, I do not see any real advantage of blockchain-enabled certification except the longevity and availability of digital documents provided by the immutability and distributed nature of blockchain. What am I missing? Anything wrong with my scenario?

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certificates

pki

meshcollider

6/6/23, 8:20 AM

Blockchain is an overhyped buzzword and there is no other benefit to using it for this purpose.

kelalaka

6/6/23, 11:30 AM

@meshcollider there is an interesting usage if block-chain on diplomas. In some countries, maybe in all of them, if you find the correct person ( or people), you can have a diploma. If blockchain is used, then getting an old diploma can be easily seen since it must be on the newest blocks. Even if one buys the diploma during a regular time, the other students can still see someone who was not their classmates and post it online to fight it or start legal action against it.

user93353

6/7/23, 3:07 PM

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail.

user93353

6/7/23, 3:09 PM

@kelalaka - why can't the same be done with Centralized PKI - you can timestamp & sign the diploma if when it was issued is important.

kelalaka

6/7/23, 3:14 PM

@user93353 if you trust the Centralized PKI then no problem. Block-chain is the decentralized solution that aims to eliminate the center. Just add the diplomas to one of the chains done.

user93353

6/7/23, 3:21 PM

@kelalaka - the university which issues the diploma is the one who will handle it's centralized PKI - if you don't trust them, then why would you even trust if a real diploma issued by them has any real value?

kelalaka

6/7/23, 3:29 PM

@user93353 If you find the correct person, all can be done. Consider that it was trustful but now not ( say there is a corruption). So students can try to have a value of their diplomas. I'll not go to discuss this more since I'm aware that this turn into a trust issue.

user93353

6/7/23, 3:34 PM

@kelalaka - I am talking about the first issue - i.e. issue of a old dated diploma. That cannot be broken by finding the right person at the university - if you add a timestamp to the diploma along with the signature.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Comparing digital certification and blockchain certification

TH: เปรียบเทียบการรับรองดิจิทัลและการรับรองบล็อกเชน

RO: Comparând certificarea digitală și certificarea blockchain

RU: Сравнение цифровой сертификации и сертификации блокчейна

VI: So sánh chứng nhận kỹ thuật số và chứng nhận blockchain

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