Why education needs blockchain, not just ordinary digitization

Paper diplomas and PDFs have both failed to solve the trust problem

Paper diplomas can be printed with quality sufficient to fool non-specialists. PDF diplomas with digital signatures are an improvement, but still depend on the verifying party being able to contact the issuing institution for confirmation. When a foreign employer wants to verify a Vietnamese degree, they must submit a request through official correspondence channels, a process that typically takes weeks to months. This is time-consuming, lacks real-time capability, and is difficult to scale.

🔑 Read more: What is a Digital Diploma? The Trend of Digitizing Academic Credentials in Education

The problem grows more complex as the education system becomes increasingly diverse from public to private institutions, from domestic schools to international partnership programs, from universities to vocational colleges. Each institution maintains its own record-keeping system. Verifying credentials across multiple schools and levels of education becomes a paperwork chase.

Continuous school records remain a barrier

Students transferring from province A to province B, from a public to a private school, or from a standard curriculum to a bilingual program all face the ordeal of requesting transcripts, having them notarized, sending them by post, or seeking in-person confirmation. In a country that already has a National Public Service Portal and a National Data Center, this experience is inconsistent with the digital infrastructure already in place.

Lifelong learning and micro-credentials, lots of data, little trust

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), around 50% of the global workforce needs retraining to adapt to digital transformation and AI. This is driving an explosion of new learning formats such as technology bootcamps, cloud computing certifications, online courses, skills workshops, and micro-credentials.

However, each organization currently issues credentials in its own format from PDFs and digital badges to course completion emails. Skills data is therefore fragmented across dozens of platforms with virtually no unified verification standard.

The problem lies in the absence of a common standard for these credentials to be officially recognized. An employer reviewing a CV with 15 certificates from 15 different sources has no quick way to verify the authenticity of each one. As a result, many micro-credentials despite having real practical value, struggle to gain official recognition in hiring and career progression.

National blockchain and Verifiable Credentials open the possibility of standardizing these "proof of competency" records into data that is verifiable, interoperable, and instantly retrievable, making lifelong learning genuinely part of a national digital competency profile.

🔑 Read more: How Layer 1 Blockchain Solves Diploma Fraud in Digital Education?

Digital education models around the world

MIT Blockcerts - a pioneer since 2017

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was one of the first universities to issue degrees as blockchain-verifiable digital credentials (Blockcerts) starting in 2017. Students receive their degree as a digital file with a cryptographic signature that can be shared with employers. Verification takes only seconds, the employer uploads the file to the official verification page, the system checks the digital signature, and returns the result.

🔑 Read more: Singapore implements OpenCerts to verify educational credentials

Today, dozens of major universities worldwide have adopted Blockcerts or equivalent models.

European Digital Credentials for Learning (EDC) on EBSI

The European Union deployed EDC from 2020 as a common standard for digital learning credentials on EBSI infrastructure. A French student who graduates from university receives their degree as a VC under the EDC standard. When working in Germany, Spain, or the Netherlands, the degree is automatically verified through the EBSI network, without the need for notarized translations or confirmation requests to the original institution.

🔑 Read more:EBSI: The Blockchain Infrastructure Shaping Europe’s Digital Education Ecosystem

This demonstrates that cross-national standardization can operate effectively at scale.

Singapore OpenCerts

Singapore deployed OpenCerts, a national standard for digital learning credentials from 2019. More than 100 Singaporean educational institutions have participated, from public universities to vocational training centers. Graduating students receive an OpenCerts credential; when studying or working abroad, the credential is verified through a public website.

🔑 Read more: Singapore deploys the OpenCerts platform for education credential verification

South Korea's education DigiLocker

South Korea has integrated digital education credentials into its national MyData and DigiLocker platforms. Each citizen has a "digital academic wallet" containing their full school records, degrees, professional certifications, used for job applications and postgraduate enrollment.

A dedicated Domain Chain for education

With its Rootchain-Centric Hierarchical Multichain architecture, NDAChain allows Domain Chains to be built for each specialized sector. In the 2026–2027 roadmap, the Education Domain Chain is designed as the verification infrastructure for digital education, comprising three main application layers.

Layer 1: Tamper-proof digital diplomas

Each university, college, academy, or training center, once registered, becomes an issuer on the national blockchain infrastructure with its own DID recognized by the education regulatory authority.

When a learner graduates or completes a course, the institution issues a Verifiable Credential (VC) digitally signed with the organization's private key. These VCs are stored in the learner's NDAKey application rather than existing only as paper or PDF copies.

When applying for jobs or further study, the learner simply presents a Verifiable Presentation (VP). Employers or educational institutions can instantly verify:

• Which institution issued the credential

• Whether it is still valid

• Whether it has been altered or forged

By adhering to the W3C DID standard and enabling global interoperability, Vietnamese degrees can be verified across borders without lengthy manual confirmation processes.

Layer 2: Interoperable cross-level school records

When a student completes primary school, the school issues a Verifiable Credential summarizing their academic results. When transferring to a secondary school or moving to a different locality, the student no longer needs to request paper transcripts or manual confirmations, they simply present a Verifiable Presentation from NDAKey for the new school to verify and accept.

The same model can be applied across the entire learning journey: transitioning to high school, transferring universities, switching between education tracks, or moving between professional courses. Academic data travels with the learner as a verifiable credential, rather than being scattered across multiple paper records.

This is particularly valuable in mountainous provinces and remote areas, where accessing education authorities or obtaining record confirmations remains difficult. Digital interoperable transcripts significantly reduce the cost, time, and administrative burden for students, parents, and schools alike.

Layer 3: A lifelong learning passport

Each individual has a "learning passport" in NDAKey containing all their learning-related Verifiable Credentials, from primary school through to professional certifications acquired throughout their career. This includes:

• School transcripts

• Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees

• Language certifications (IELTS, TOEIC, JLPT, HSK, etc.)

• Professional certifications (AWS, Microsoft, PMP, CFA, etc.)

• Skills credentials from bootcamps and MOOC platforms (Coursera, edX, Udemy, FUNiX, etc.)

• Certificates of participation in conferences, projects, and initiatives

Crucially, all Verifiable Credentials comply with the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard, allowing credentials from multiple domestic and international organizations to coexist within a unified identity wallet. Learners retain full control over their own data: they can choose which credentials to present, to whom, and in what context. Rather than sending dozens of separate PDF files or scanned copies, individuals need only share a single instantly verifiable Verifiable Presentation.

🔑 Read more: Digital Diplomas and Self-Sovereign Identity: The Future of Academic Records

Four specific applications in Vietnam

1. University admissions and application verification

Each admissions season, Vietnamese universities must process hundreds of thousands of applications, each accompanied by dozens of documents: transcripts, high school graduation certificates, language certifications, priority documentation, and more. The manual verification process is extremely time-consuming and creates opportunities for fraud.

With the Education Domain Chain, application materials become a Verifiable Presentation submitted by the applicant, verified automatically by universities through the national blockchain. The admissions process becomes faster, more transparent, and significantly less dependent on manual document confirmation.

2. International partnerships and studying abroad

Students participating in international partnership programs or studying abroad typically face a lengthy process of verifying transcripts and degrees — including notarization, translation, and submission through multiple intermediary layers.

With the Education Domain Chain, transcripts and degrees can be issued as Verifiable Credentials with globally verifiable capability. Foreign universities simply verify on the blockchain to check the validity of the academic data.

A process that previously took days or weeks can be reduced to just seconds, while significantly cutting administrative costs for both learners and educational institutions.

3. Recruiting high-quality technology talent

Resolution 57-NQ/TW identifies science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as key drivers of development. Vietnam needs hundreds of thousands of high-quality technology professionals during the 2026–2030 period.

Fast and accurate recruitment is a decisive factor. The Education Domain Chain allows employers, particularly technology corporations and FDI companies to verify degrees, professional certifications, and micro-credentials from major bootcamps in seconds rather than weeks.

This model is especially valuable for talent in strategic technology sectors (Decision 1131/QĐ-TTg), where recruitment speed can determine a company's competitive edge.

4. Corporate training systems

Many large enterprises run internal training programs, courses covering technical skills, management, and leadership for their employees. With the Education Domain Chain, enterprises can become issuers, publishing VCs to certify employee course completion. Employees keep their Verifiable Credentials in the NDAKey application if they move to another company, those credentials retain their value and are recognized by the new employer as proof of skills.

This model transforms "internal training" into a social asset, one that is not "lost" when an employee leaves the company.

Challenges and the implementation journey

Digital readiness varies significantly across institutions. Top universities such as Bach Khoa, Vietnam National University Hanoi, and Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City have fairly modern learning management systems ready to issue VCs. However, many vocational colleges, provincial trade schools, and community training centers have yet to fully digitize their systems. SaaS edtech providers offering "issuer-as-a-service" solutions are needed to help smaller educational institutions issue VCs without requiring large investment.

The legal framework for VCs in education needs to be completed. The Law on Electronic Transactions recognizes digital signatures, but specific standards for educational VCs require guiding circulars from the Ministry of Education and Training. In particular, the legal equivalence of VCs and paper degrees needs to be formally clarified.

The "notarization culture" remains deeply ingrained in society. Many Vietnamese agencies and enterprises still require "notarized copies with local confirmation", a habitual reflex rather than a genuine need. Time is needed for digital credentials to be accepted as the default standard in administrative transactions.

Employer adoption will determine the pace of uptake. When major corporations (Samsung, Intel, FPT, Viettel, VinGroup, Masan, MISA, etc.) publicly accept educational VCs, schools will have strong motivation to issue them. NDAChain is working with ecosystem partners, many of whom are validator corporations within the network to build a sector-by-sector implementation roadmap.

Learning becomes the "competency passport" of the 21st century

In the 21st century, a "competency passport" is becoming an asset as important as a physical passport. Every verified degree, certificate, or skill is a "stamp" on each individual's learning and career journey. National blockchain does not replace traditional education, it serves as a trust infrastructure layer that makes degrees and credentials instantly verifiable, tamper-proof, and globally interoperable. With the Education Domain Chain on NDAChain, every learner can hold a "digital learning passport" in NDAKey, where their entire learning journey is stored as verifiable data, ready to be used anywhere in the world.

👉 Learn more about NDAChain - Vietnam's National Blockchain Infrastructure at https://ndachain.vn/en