EduCTX: An Ecosystem for Managing Digital Micro-credentials

Blockchain technology enables the creation of a decentralized and distributed environment in which transactions and data are not controlled by a central authority. Simultaneously transactions are secure, ubiquitous and trustworthy due to the used cryptographic principles. In this paper, we present a global decentralized blockchain-based platform and ecosystem called EduCTX. The platform enables managing, assigning and presenting credentials for individuals and educational institutions as well as other potential stakeholders such as companies, institutions and organizations. Further it enables the development of own digital services, which offers organizations the opportunity to automate the evaluation of individuals' skills and knowledge. The EduCTX platform is implemented on the blockchain platform Ethereum on a consortium-based network of Ethereum run nodes. The platform enables a globally efficient, simplified and ubiquitous environment to avoid language and administrative barriers.