Malta is first country to put education certificates on blockchain

A two-year-old pilot project to put educational certificates on blockchain will be scaled up in the coming years to encompass all schools in the education sector.

The Maltese government this morning entered into a two-year contract with Learning Machine, a blockchain company, building on the pilot project that started in September 2017.

The Blockcerts project so far has seen students from MCAST, ITS and other institutes taking ownership of their certificates, in what has been described as an exercise in empowerment.

Under the new contract, all education certificates will be issued on blockchain, including secondary school certificates issued by State, church and independent schools.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat lauded the project in a short address during the signing ceremony at Castille. He said Malta the first country in the world to put student credentials on blockchain.

“In 2017, we said Malta will become the blockchain island, and it has,” Muscat said, adding the project helped minimise bureaucracy and provided greater security for students’ private data.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said it was important that the country embraced technology but insisted this had to be done in a framework of economic growth, social justice and continuous investment in education.

During the brief ceremony, digital economy parliamentary secretary Silvio Schembri announced that a second tranche of scholarships in blockchain would be out on Monday.