Smart Contracts as a diploma anti-forgery system in higher education - a pilot project

The problem of counterfeiting diplomas in education with the advancement of digital technology is increasingly pronounced. The process of forging documents is almost always accompanied by reduced transparency in issuing the documents with no possibility to easily check the validity of the document. One of the currently very attractive and challenging technology in digitized society is the blockchain technology and all the sequential systems that have emerged based on it. One such system is the Ethereum platform, which uses blockchain technology and enables the creation of decentralized applications programmed to run on the Ethereum network. One of the Ethereum use is a Smart Contract, which allows applications to be executed online, completely autonomously without the influence of a third party, once a previously defined condition is satisfied. The objective of this research is to explore the possibility of using a Smart Contract in the process of the creation and issuance of diplomas at a higher education institution. At the end of the analysis, we provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of this procedure, as well as potential possibilities for its improvements. The possibilities of automation and the cost of such a process were also considered.