Chiba Institute of Technology, in collaboration with PitPa Co., Ltd., will issue NFT degree certificates to be awarded to graduates and graduates in 2022.About 1100 applicants will be presented sequentially from March 3.This is the first case in Japan where a university has converted a degree certificate to NFT (*As of March 20, 2023, according to PitPa).
This NFT degree certificate is a combination of two technologies: NFT, which is open to the public with on-chain information, and VC* (Verifiable Credentials), which can be set to be public or private by students.
In NFT, it is possible to prove that you are a graduate of Chiba Institute of Technology, and personal information such as personal name and degree is recorded in VC to protect privacy. VC information can be set to "public / private" on the student side. I can prove it.
In addition, NFT has the characteristic that it can be managed by individuals through cryptographic asset wallets such as MetaMask, so identity can be verified simply by connecting to the online chat tool "Discord" or the task management tool "Dework" that can work with NFT. It can be done and promotes the way of working in the web3 era.Since it is issued in a form that complies with international standards, it can be used on a global scale.
In addition, there is the issue that reference checks at the time of employment are time-consuming and costly, but by utilizing NFTs that can guarantee "transparency" and "authenticity", employers can rely on third parties Recruitment can be promoted based on proven work history information.On the student side, there is no need to request the university to issue a certificate or disclose information one by one, so both sides can reduce costs.
Joichi Ito, Director of the Innovation Center of Chiba Institute of Technology, said, "The reason for issuing not only VC but also NFT is to allow graduates to centrally manage this NFT degree certificate and other credentials. Wallets that manage NFTs have the property of being “permissionless,” meaning that they can be managed by themselves without being controlled by a single company or institution.Based on this property, we have decided to issue NFTs. We also used open source and open standard authentication technology to ensure a mechanism that allows anyone in the world to check the results.In the future, when issuing credentials, the holder will be I feel that it is important to consider how to accumulate it and use it globally.”
In addition, the design of the certificate was devised by three students of the Inasaka Laboratory, who are engaged in design research. It is expressed in the color "purple".Regarding this point, Director Ito said, "Since the design of this NFT degree certificate is displayed everywhere on web3 where graduates connect to their wallets, the design itself expresses that they are CIT students. I am very excited.As the first university in Japan to issue an NFT degree certificate, I am proud that the design of the NFT is the design of CIT.”
* VC is digitally verifiable personal information that proves qualifications and abilities.It is standardized by W3C, an international technical standardization organization.
