News

A pilot project for the digital issuance of verifiable credentials applied to digital diplomas created jointly by experts from the advanced networks CUDI (Mexico), RENATA (Colombia), REUNA (Chile) and CEDIA (Ecuador), with the support of RedCLARA, was one of the initiatives presented at the first Symposium of the Ibero-American Network of Blockchain and Cybersecurity - RIBCI, which was held on October 5 and 6, in hybrid format, with the face-to-face activities developed in the premises of the Technological University of Panama.

The DIPLOMA Project was presented to the participants of the event by the Services Manager of RedCLARA, Carlos Gonzalez, in a panel held during the second day of the event. DIPLOMA allows national research and education networks (NRENs) in Latin America and the Caribbean to provide their member institutions with mechanisms to issue their students' diplomas and that information can be stored permanently, immutably and securely on blockchain. "This is a project that runs on LACChain networks, managed by LACNet. We worked with the NRENs to create a single data format, allowing for easier exchange of information and recognition of diplomas among the different institutions in the region," explains Carlos Gonzalez.

The model creates a "trusted registry", which ensures that the institution issuing the diploma has been duly validated by its respective NREN, which, in turn, has been previously validated by RedCLARA. "This creates a chain of trust where it is confirmed that whoever issued the certificate had the authority to do so, providing greater confidence for all stakeholders."

According to Carlos González, DIPLOMA is now in two parallel phases. "On the one hand, a pilot is being completed with some institutions that are using software as a service to issue certificates. We expect to finish this phase by the end of 2023, so that DIPLOMA can be used as early as 2024 through the NRENs. On the other hand, institutions interested in exploring the topic at a more technical level can contact RedCLARA or the networks involved and be part of a group that will be doing local deployments on a trial basis."

In addition to the joint initiative of RedCLARA member NRENs, the RIBCI symposium featured presentations on the use of blockchain for traceability initiatives, maintenance of evidence and proof within legal trial mechanisms, cybersecurity in industrial environments, among others. Among the face-to-face and hybrid sessions, representatives from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico and Spain were present.

Funded by the Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development (CYTED), RIBCI is a project promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Cordoba, Argentina, and has RedCLARA as one of its founding members. The objective of the network is to contribute to inclusive and sustainable industrialization, fostering innovation through the application of Blockchain and Cybersecurity technologies, within sound and equitable regulatory frameworks, for the strengthening of human capital and transfer to strategic productive and government sectors in Ibero-American countries. In addition to RedCLARA, RIBCI is integrated by 13 research groups and three institutions from Argentina, Panama, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, Chile and El Salvador. For more information, visit https://www.cyted.org/ribci

For more information on the DIPLOMA Project, please write to servicios@redclara.net