Blockchain is a reliable and innovative technology that harnesses education and training through digital technologies. Nonetheless, it has been still an issue keeping track of student/graduate academic achievement and blockchain access rights management. Detailed information about academic performance within a certain period (semester) is not present in the official education documents. Furthermore, academic achievement documents issued by institutions are not secured against unauthorized changes due to the involvement of intermediaries. Therefore, verification of official educational documents has become a pressing issue owing to the recent development of digital technologies. However, effective tools to accelerate the verification are rare as the process takes time. This study provides a prototype of the UniverCert platform based on a consortium version of the decentralized, open-source Ethereum blockchain technology. The proposed platform is based on a globally distributed peer-to-peer network that allows educational institutions to partner with the blockchain network, track student data, verify academic performance, and share documents with other stakeholders. The UniverCert platform was developed on a consortium blockchain architecture to address the problems universities face in storing and securing student data. The system provides a solution to facilitate students’ registration, verification, and authenticity of educational documents.

Blockchain is a new and modern technology that is gradually being used in various fields due to its ability to decentralize and organize secure and reliable data exchange and storage. One of the related research areas generating increasing interest is the field of education, with particular focus on the digitization and automation of educational management processes and the ability to store and verify digital documents about student progress. The main goal of this study is to develop a platform that creates a unified digital register of students’ educational achievements, which is one of the most pressing issues in the field of education, based on the Ethereum blockchain architecture. Blockchain is expensive; therefore, there is a need to consider performance criteria when evaluating any decision made about the technology, especially the most important aspects such as predicting traffic behavior, estimating transaction costs and providing the necessary indicators of system quality and functionality. However, most research ignores the evaluation of performance indicators, such as throughput, the speed of transactions and the amount of data stored in the Ethereum blockchain database, which are the main evaluation criteria. This paper aims to eliminate this gap by evaluating the performance of the developed platform and by discussing the obtained experimental results. Thus, the main results of this work are the design and deployment of a blockchain platform and the analysis of its transaction costs. We conclude that the proposed blockchain solution is applicable as a system for the accounting and verification of loans and student academic achievements.

It has been recognized that Blockchain technology contributes to environmentally sustainable development goals (SDGs). It has emerged as a disruptive innovation capable of transforming various economic and social sectors significantly. This conceptual paper is driven by the need to explore how blockchain, specifically a consortium-based Ethereum architecture, can be integrated into higher education institutions to ensure data sovereignty, integrity, and verifiability while adhering to legal and ethical standards such as GDPR. We propose a multi-layered blockchain-based model for Kazakhstan’s Unified Platform of Higher Education (UPHE). This model employs hybrid on-chain/off-chain data storage, smart contract automation, and a Proof-of-Authority consensus mechanism to address system limitations, including data centralization and inadequate verification of academic credentials. Empirical simulations using Blockscout and Ethereum-compatible tools demonstrate the model’s feasibility and performance. This paper contributes to the growing discussion on educational blockchain applications by presenting a scalable, secure, and transparent architecture that aligns with institutional governance and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. It also supports the objectives of UN SDG 4 (i.e., Quality education) by fostering trust, transparency, and equitable access to verifiable educational credentials.

This article discusses the practical implementation of a prototype academic transcript storage system based on blockchain technology and smart contracts. The digital transformation of higher education requires reliable mechanisms for ensuring the integrity and verifiability of academic documents. It presents the design and experimental validation of a blockchain-based system for storing and verifying academic transcripts within the higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The proposed solution is based on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contract implemented in Solidity and deployed on a test network. The testnet was used as the experimental environment, and transaction monitoring was performed using the BlockScout v11.0.3 explorer. The architecture of the TranscriptStorage smart contract is presented, including a role-based access model, a data indexing mechanism using keccak-256, and storage of transcripts in a mapping structure (bytes32 => Transcript[ ]). The experimental results confirm the successful recording of the Transcript in the distributed ledger, event recording (Logs), and the correctness of the ABI encoding of input parameters (Raw Input), as well as a change in state (State Changes) reflecting the fee payment. The use of events is shown to enable cost-effective third-party data verification without the need to store the entire text in the contract state. The comparative results showed that the proposed system reduced gas consumption by 804.5% compared to Blockcerts, 48.8% compared to ECertChain, 82.5% compared to ShikkhaChain, and 43.5% compared to zkEVM. These improvements were achieved while maintaining high scalability, robust privacy features, and security, making it a practical solution for Kazakhstan’s educational system.

The sustainability of higher education systems increasingly depends on the integrity, transparency, and long-term verifiability of academic credentials. Widespread diploma fraud, unauthorized modification of academic records, and fragmented verification mechanisms undermine institutional trust, graduate mobility, and public confidence in educational outcomes. These challenges directly affect the social and governance dimensions of sustainable development, particularly in the context of universities’ digital transformation. This study proposes a blockchain-based approach to support the sustainable governance of academic documents by strengthening transparency, accountability, and auditability. The proposed system employs cryptographic hash anchoring and smart contract–based enforcement to verify academic credentials such as diplomas, transcripts, and certificates. Document contents are processed and stored off-chain, while cryptographic representations and essential metadata are immutably recorded on an EVM-compatible blockchain, ensuring data privacy and resistance to tampering. Any modification to a document results in a mismatch between the original and recomputed hashes, making fraudulent alterations immediately detectable. A web-based application and a role-restricted smart contract were implemented to support document issuance, verification, and immutable audit logging. System evaluation based on blockchain transaction evidence confirms reliable document registration, deterministic verification outcomes, and verifiable linkage between institutional actions and on-chain records. The results indicate that blockchain-based document verification can contribute to the reduction in corruption risks and improve transparency, strengthening institutional trust and supporting sustainable digital governance in higher education systems.

The digital transformation of higher education has heightened the need for reliable mechanisms to verify the authenticity, integrity, and independence of academic documents. This study presents the design and practical implementation of a blockchain-based, multifunctional educational document verification system for the higher education environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The proposed system is presented by a hybrid multi-layered architecture that integrates a frontend web portal, a C# ASP.NET backend service, a PostgreSQL off-chain database, a Smart Bridge integration subsystem, and an Ethereum-compatible blockchain layer with Solidity smart contracts. The system separates operational educational data from trust-sensitive verification records: student, graduate, catalog, and document metadata are stored off-chain, while selected transcript and diploma-related data are registered on-chain and linked to transaction hashes. The Smart Bridge subsystem enables secure interaction with state information systems via SOAP/XML and digital signatures, improving the reliability of personal data used in academic record processing. The blockchain implementation uses transaction hashes, event logs, BlockScout monitoring, and role-based smart-contract authorization to support traceability and tamper-resistant verification. Experimental implementation showed an average gas consumption of approximately 226,125 gas per transaction. The proposed system demonstrates that blockchain extends existing centralized educational infrastructures by adding a transparent, auditable, and user-accessible trust layer for academic document management and verification.