With frauds pertaining to circulation of fake academic certificates and other testimonials on the rise, blockchain technology can be a vital tool to curb such malpractice, Shiva Kintali, a former teacher at Princeton University and researcher in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and game theory, has said.

Mr. Kintali, the founder-CEO of the US-based consultancy firm, TrueCerts that specialises in blockchian technology, said tamper-proof digital certificates brought out by using the latest technology would bring a big relief to the employers and save lot of money in detection of frauds.

He had a word of praise for Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for his decision to adopt blockchain technology for digitisation of land records at Amaravati and later introducing sharing of the arrival and departure details of guests by 200-odd hotels in Visakhapatnam with the police for better monitoring.

More than 25% of academic information is found to be false. More than 300 colleges, universities and seminaries in the United States do not have recognition,  he pointed out.

Mr. Kintali, who was here to participate in just-concluded Vizag Fintech Festival, said recruitment frauds result in loss running into crores of rupees across the globe.

At present, many use outsourced agencies and middlemen to verify the authenticity of testimonials and verification of on the genuineness of certificates submitted by job aspirants. They also incur production loss for months together owing to termination of service of fraudsters who could secure jobs by producing fake credentials, he said.

Authenticity matters

Highlighting that several frauds were detected in airlines, healthcare, teaching, government and legal services, causing disastrous consequences and heavy losses, Mr Kintali advocated the use of blockchain technology as a way out.

Of late many are realising the need for issuing blockchain-powered digital certificates as they are tamper-proof and authentic, Mr. Kintali, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, added.

According to him, employers often do not verify the educational qualifications and credentials of job applicants for it is a time-consuming process. However, at a later stage, they come across the fraudulent practice.

Many employers in India recruit candidates based on educational qualifications and experience certificates without verifying their veracities. These days, it has become easy to obtain fake online degrees and hence, issuing of digital, tamper-proof certificates should be made mandatory, he added.