Inspiration
Blockcredit was inspired by the growing crisis of fake academic certificates across Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa, which undermines trust in universities, employers, and public institutions. Seeing graduates delayed or rejected because verification takes weeks or months, while fraudsters exploit paper-based systems, motivated us to design a faster, more trustworthy, and continent-ready solution tied to Digital ID and verifiable credentials.
What it does
Blockcredit links academic credentials to a student’s verified Digital ID and records cryptographic proofs of those credentials on a blockchain. Universities issue tamper-proof digital certificates, students manage a lifelong credential wallet, and employers verify authenticity instantly via QR code or API, receiving a clear status like VALID, REVOKED, or INVALID.
How we built it
We designed a web-based MVP to be piloted at the University of Rwanda through UR Binary Hub, with separate interfaces for universities, students, and verifiers. Under the hood, smart contracts on networks like Polygon/BSC testnet handle issuance and revocation, DIDs and verifiable credentials define the identity model, and IPFS stores certificate files and metadata while only hashes are anchored on-chain.
Challenges we ran into
We had to balance decentralization with institutional control, ensuring universities can still revoke or update credentials while students retain long-term ownership of their educational identity. Another challenge was addressing institutional resistance, varying regulations, and digital literacy gaps, which require careful alignment with data-protection and Digital ID policies plus phased onboarding and training.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of designing an Africa-first architecture that connects academic credentials with national Digital ID systems to create a universal trust framework for education and employment. We also successfully mapped out a practical pilot path with the University of Rwanda, showing how the solution can be tested in a real environment with real students, staff, and employers.
What we learned
We learned that privacy-by-design is essential: personal data must stay off-chain, with only cryptographic proofs on-chain to meet legal and ethical expectations. We also saw that interoperability standards like W3C DIDs and verifiable credentials are crucial if we want credentials to move with students across borders, platforms, and future digital public infrastructure.
What's next for Blockcredit
Next, we plan to implement and test the MVP at the University of Rwanda, iterating on user feedback from students, registrars, and employers to refine UX and verification flows. We aim to expand to more universities and integrate more national Digital ID systems across Eastern Africa, moving toward a regional, interoperable academic credential network that supports fair hiring and labor mobility.
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