TrustEdu: A Blockchain-Based Framework for Secure Educational Document Verification

Abstract

In today’s digital world, the authenticity of educational documents is a critical issue faced by academic institutions, employers, and verification agencies. Traditional centralized verification systems are vulnerable to data tampering, document forgery, and unauthorized access. This paper presents TrustEdu, a blockchain-based decentralized framework designed to securely issue, store, and verify educational credentials. By leveraging smart contracts and IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), the system ensures transparency, immutability, and accessibility while eliminating the dependence on intermediaries. The proposed model enhances document security through cryptographic hashing and decentralized validation. Experimental results demonstrate that TrustEdu offers a reliable, tamper-proof, and efficient mechanism for document verification across academic and professional domains.

Introduction

The text presents TrustEdu, a blockchain-based framework designed to ensure the secure issuance, storage, and verification of academic credentials in educational institutions. As institutions increasingly digitize student records and certificates, concerns over forgery, unauthorized duplication, and data breaches persist, particularly in centralized systems that suffer from single-point failures. Blockchain technology addresses these issues through its decentralized, immutable, and transparent properties.

The literature review highlights existing blockchain-based certificate verification systems using platforms such as Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum with IPFS, noting challenges related to scalability and complexity. TrustEdu improves upon these approaches by combining smart contracts, decentralized IPFS storage, and a lightweight blockchain mechanism to deliver a secure, efficient, and cost-effective verification solution.

The proposed TrustEdu framework involves three stakeholders: educational institutions (issuers), students (document owners), and verifiers such as employers or universities. Academic documents are uploaded to IPFS, hashed, and their hashes are stored on the blockchain via smart contracts. Students receive a QR code or unique hash, which verifiers can scan to instantly validate document authenticity using blockchain records. Smart contracts automate issuance, access control, and verification, while IPFS ensures scalable and decentralized storage.

Implementation using Ethereum, IPFS, React.js, Node.js, and Web3.js demonstrated strong performance, with document verification completed within 2–3 seconds per transaction. The system enhances security, reduces storage costs, prevents forgery, and supports interoperability across institutions. Overall, TrustEdu provides a robust and extensible model for trusted academic credential management, with potential applications in government and corporate verification systems.

Conclusion

TrustEdu demonstrates how blockchain and IPFS can transform document verification processes in the education sector. The decentralized nature of blockchain ensures data integrity, while IPFS provides scalable, distributed storage. In the future, AI-based verification mechanisms and zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) authentication can be incorporated to further enhance privacy and automation. TrustEdu can also be expanded to verify professional certifications, government-issued documents, and healthcare records, making it a universal document trust framework.

References

[1] Garima Sethia et al., “Academic Certificate Validation Using Blockchain Technology,” IEEE, 2022. [2] Gayathiri et al., “Certificate Validation Using Blockchain,” IEEE ICSSS, 2020. [3] Pavitra Haveri et al., “Securing Educational Documents Using Blockchain Technology,” IEEE, 2021. [4] Latha S et al., “Blockchain-Based Framework for Document Verification,” IEEE AISP, 2022. [5] Jashuva Peyyala, “A Survey on Blockchain-Based Documentation Verification,” IJRASET, 2022.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Soham Kale, Nikhil Khose, Vaibhav Kolekar, Vedant Kondejkar, Amol Jagtap. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.