Page 125 - Handbook of Deep Learning in Biomedical Engineering Techniques and Applications

Chapter 4 A critical review on using blockchain technology in education domain 113

operation an identity and traceability. When an abnormal
behavior is detected, it can be traced to the source. Student
can be identified with his name and college identity. Since re-
cords are immutable, all the actions are recorded and can be
traced back.
• Fault tolerance: Decentralized devices are less likely to fail
accidentally because they rely on many separate components.
BC is a point-to-point decentralized network, and every node
has same copy of record that is why failure of a single node
has not effect on the network. So BC prevents from single point
of failure.
• Trust and provenance: Data provenance can be established
using digital signatures. The technical infrastructure estab-
lishes trust for secure transactions such as payments and
certificate verification.
• Removing third-party risks: BC technology makes the nodes
capable of performing operations without the intermediary
or third party, thus making it risk free from third party. Hence,
nodes in the network collaborate well.
• Self-sovereignty/decentralized control: Users can identify
themselves while at the same time maintaining control over
the storage and management of their personal data. This elim-
inates the need for a central controlling authority to manage
transactions.This eliminates cost, time inefficiency, and risk
of single point of failure.
• Transparency: This ensures that user transactions are knowl-
edgeable to all the members.
• Immutability: In BC, records are written and stored perma-
nently, without the possibility of modification or tampering.
So student certificates can be maintained in a tamper proof
manner. This property can be used to preserve the intellectual
property of publications/learning materials and perform veri-
fication on plagiarism.
• Smart contracts: These can be used to write rules/verify con-
straints when a transaction is to be verified. In education
domain, if a smart contract is used for course registration,
the constraint to be satisfied by the student to register for a
course can be verified using a smart contract.
• Registry/ledger: The ledger maintains a systematic time-
stamped immutable record of transactions. For example, in
education domain, all the credentials of the student once he
passes a course can be maintained in BC. These records can
be used for graduation purpose.
Generic attributes for the BC specified can be further extended
for specific usage in academic environment as follows [21,37]: