How useful it is to issue digital certificates on the blockchain?

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Blockchain technology is used in several ways in varied industries for offering high-security managing distribution systems and recording valuable information. Blockchain records all transactions without any verification from third parties. An evolving issue in recent years is - counterfeiting certification. It is posing serious threats to people. Issuing paper-based certificates manually is prone to errors and time- consuming. Day by day, the number of people's data is increasing, so deploying a system for both issuing and verifying digital certificates based on blockchain technology can solve issues of forged documents.

What is the current problem with document certification?

Many organisations and businesses need original documents for verification purposes before further processing. Some valuable documents like (birth certificates) exist only once. Parties involved in verification and issuing other certificates may experience hesitancy to handle these sensitive documents and that can result in damage or even loss. Many parties are unable to protect the valuable physical pieces of paper with this process. Another big problem comes from data theft. Many people have reported it. So the question comes: how can this issue be solved? Creating digital proof or digital certificates certified or signed by respective institutions or authorised organisations can be beneficial. With blockchain-based digital certificates, you can access and verify the digital asset's authenticity without depending on any intermediary or third party. Traditional data records like paper files deteriorate over time. storing records like digital certificates on the blockchain can help in safeguarding sensitive credentials from destruction & damage. Blockchain document security methods can help users seamlessly secure their sensitive documents.

What about blockchain solutions?

Blockchain technology has brought a revolution in storing and sharing data. The mechanism of cryptography helps in keeping information fully secured. Blockchain offers a digital ledger or decentralised database of data. Centred on computer networks that approve updates before data get recorded and verified. It lessens the reliance and vulnerability of centralised data storage. Instead of handling physical pieces of documents, issuing and storing digital certificates in blockchain can be advantageous to users. You can efficiently utilise the benefits of blockchain, like - authentication, encryption and decentralisation. Every certificate consists of references of both issuer and receiver with a hash (a sign of document), that is stored in the public database. It is identical in the number of computers throughout the globe. These digital certificates with blockchain technology have vital additional advantages over any other certificates.

How does blockchain make digital certificates work?

When a digital certificate is issued, data gets digitised. A digital identity gets assigned to every certificate. All of the digital certificates are tagged as well as traceable. Original documents are stored safely in the computer networks in the blockchain which are known as nodes. In totality, blockchain makes digital certificates highly transparent and secured. It also makes it easy to unfurl any fraud because this technology can expose any forged or outdated certificates.

Are these digital certificates tamper-proof?

Yes, the digital certificates are tamper-proof not by just signing but right after the beginning of the transaction. A signing algorithm produces a signature that is encrypted through a private key. The digital signature in these certificates can never be forged without having access to the private key of the user or members. With the help of document security QR codes, users can secure their valuable credentials.

What are the potential benefits of issuing digital certificates on the blockchain?

Blockchain has evolved to be beneficial for the financial industry. This technology is the most talked about and sought-after technology used in the world. There are innumerable benefits of issuing digital certificates on the blockchain. Some of them are here: a) Require fewer resources for issuance: Issuance and maintenance of digital certificates on the blockchain require a very less number of resources. As a result, the whole process saves time, effort and human capital. b) Digital certificates are conveyable: Contrary to physical certificates, the digital ones issued on the blockchain need not be carried around every place. Digital certificates are there to exist for a lifetime. These certificates can be easily accessed on any of your devices from any part of the world. c) Ideal as Identity proof: Digital certificates based on blockchain are the best substitution for the traditional proofs of paper identification. Digital certificates are issued on a highly secured framework of blockchain which is fully secured. These verifiable certificates can be easily traced all the way back to an issuer. This method makes the procedure transparent. You can use the blockchain document security method for securing and storing your valuable documents. d) Gives overall data security: Paper certificates can also take days and months to get issued and dispatched. Paper certificates can be altered without issuing the institute's knowledge and that is risky. Digital certificates issued on the blockchain can not be altered by any person. If someone tries to tamper with it, then verification will fail. This makes data in your digital certificates fully secured as well as traceable. e) No third party requirement: Blockchain verification of digital certificates can be performed by any person having access to the network. There is no need for any third party interference for verification. Digital certificates can be verified even if any organisation that issued them no longer exists. f) For micro-credentialing: Every data remains encrypted in the digital certificates issued on the blockchain. Organisations or businesses can issue "micro-credentialing" for recognizing, career skills, learning and so on. It can help both students and organisations. g) Comes at an affordable cost: Using blockchain is not expensive. With the help of the blockchain-powered platform, you can issue digital certificates for numerous services with ease. You may need no extra software or hardware and be done with an internet connection. So in nutshell, the unique features of blockchain technology make issuing digital certificates easy and tamper-proof. Blockchain technology simplifies and facilities the entire process of issuance of digital certificates. It also helps in the easy transfer of these certificates leading to the expansion of contents and information. We hope in the next few years, more and more organisations will come forward in embracing digital certificates issuance on the blockchain. A blockchain document security system can help you to secure sensitive credentials with ease.

Use of Blockchain Security for the Safety of Transaction Data: How Does it Work?

Posted on September 23, 2021

Today blockchain is everywhere. It has two main components: a decentralized network enabling and verifying transactions and the immutable ledger that the network up keeps. Each one in the network can see the shared transaction ledger, but there would be no single point of disaster. Hence, nobody can hack or corrupt records or digital assets. It is this decentralized trust that makes blockchain security worth using for the safety of your transaction data.

And if you think that blockchain is limited to bitcoin, then you are wrong. Blockchain is the robust data structure that permits Bitcoin, and other emerging cryptocurrencies, to thrive. It does so via a mixture of anonymity, decentralized encryption, immutability, and global scale. Moreover, on the blockchain, the procedure of transaction verification and recording gets immediate and permanent. The ledger gets distributed across numerous nodes, which means the data is replicated and gathered instantaneously on each node throughout the system.

When you record a transaction in the blockchain, specifications like an asset, price, and ownership are recorded, verified and established within seconds across all nodes. Any confirmed change registered on any single ledger is even simultaneously available on all other replicas of the ledger. Since every transaction is transparently and permanently saved across all ledgers, open for anybody to see, you do not need third-party verification.

Cryptography in blockchain safety Explained

Cryptography is the concept of forming protocols that avert third parties from seeing private data. Advanced cryptography integrates the disciplines of computer science, math, physics, engineering, and more like:

Encryption – Encoding text into an incomprehensible format
Decryption – Reserving the encryption – changing a muddled message into its original form
Cipher/SHA 256 – a robust algorithm used for performing encryption or decryption precise steps to be followed.

The point is blockchain Technology employs cryptography in manifold diverse ways. Some of these are like for secure transaction, security wallets as well as privacy-preserving protocols.

Public Key Cryptography in Simple Words

Mainly one uses public-key cryptography for encrypting messages between two individuals or two computers securely. You can use someone else’s public key to encrypt a text or message. However, once encrypted, the only way to decrypt that message is through the corresponding private key. It is the main ingredient of blockchain technology. You can take it as the characteristic technology for transactions and wallets. Once being a user create a wallet on a blockchain, you are generating a public-private key pair.

Private key Cryptography

A private key is a particular type of cryptography that enables a user to access their cryptocurrency. It is private blockchain wherein the key is secret. Furthermore, a private key is an essential aspect of bitcoin and alt coins. Hence, the security makeup helps to protect a user from robbery and unauthorized access to transaction data or funds. Moreover, private keys may take a couple of different forms, generally shown as a series of alphanumeric characters. It all makes it challenging for an attacker or hacker to crack.

Cryptographic Hashing

Many companies use cryptographic hashing for their secure transaction. It is another critical piece of blockchain technology and is directly accountable for generating immutability, one of the blockchains’ most crucial features. However, remember that people mainly use hash functions for authentication, but businesses are using it for other purposes too, like:

To ensure data integrity,
Protection against unauthorized modifications,
Guard stored passwords, and

Usage of Secure QR Codes

You all have heard about QR codes. But a secure QR code is blockchain-based. Now, if you have a blockchain-based QR code on your transaction data, you can be sure that there is a unique hash value to it. The hash value on the QR code is associated with another hash value recorded on the blockchain network. Once anyone tries to access the transaction data by scanning the QR code through a QR reader, the system matches the hash value in the QR code with the hash value in the blockchain network. Hence, if it does not match, it turns out to be invalid. In other words, just like biometric and DNA security, blockchain-based QR codes are permanent and future proof.

The bottom line

Blockchain technology is still in an initial stage, and cryptocurrencies are just its first primary use case. Beyond cryptocurrency, blockchain technology is slowly changing how you transact and how you record and confirm transactions. Whether Private or public blockchain, it is here to stay. Soon you will see blockchain as an essential part of all industries for transaction data and overall security. Talk to us at Proofeasy, if you want to get started with blockchain. We will be happy to assist you in the right direction.