• India PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched blockchain-based degrees at IIT Kanpur to ease certificate issuance and prevent faking.
• This is among numerous other efforts the nation is making in the quest to massively adopt blockchain tech.

Even with the back and forth regarding the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies in India, the country has not shied away from using blockchain tech in other sectors. On Tuesday, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched blockchain-based digital degrees at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, during the institution’s 54th convocation ceremony.

At the same time, all students were issued with the said degrees developed by the institute’s blockchain-driven technology. The initiative not only digitizes the creation and distribution of these credentials but also rules out the likelihood of forgery. Blockchain tech guarantees these degrees cannot be faked and that they are verifiable on a global scale.

India immerses further into blockchain tech

The launch and certificate issuance took place under the National Blockchain Project. Its main objective, as shared on its official website is:

Empowering India to become a Global leader in Blockchain Technology.

The project achieves this by developing blockchain-based “e-governance solutions,” all funded by the National Security Council Secretariat. Among the technologies it leverages are Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum, Tendermint, and Quorum.

So far, the project has managed to come up with two blockchains utilizing solutions to some of the challenges in India. The first, a Secure Healthcare Infrastructure, preserves patients’ privacy. Meanwhile, Lands Records Management registers properties and conducts land record management. IIT Kanpur is conducting further research for more applications of the technology. These solutions will be executed under the institution’s incubated start-up CRUBN. The company even partnered with the South India state Karnataka in late November to develop blockchain-based procurement systems across the country.

Earlier this month, India, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, released what it calls a National Strategy on Blockchain. The framework lays focus on a wide variety of blockchain-based applications in various sectors. These include “maintenance of electronic health records, education certificate chain, medication supply chain, and agriculture” among others.

Mushrooming blockchain-based applications

According to the Connecticut-based research firm Gartner, multiple new innovative companies will leverage the $5 trillion blockchain economy in 2022. At least one of these businesses will have a $10 whopping billion valuation. Gartner projects this business’ value to grow to $176 billion by 2025 and $3.1 trillion by 2030. The firm attributes this growth to the 2030 forecast of at least 30 percent of global customer bases to be utilizing blockchain tech.

Other than India, other nations have also come up as strong champions of blockchain tech. China, even while holding reservations on cryptocurrencies, launched the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) to enable faster and cheaper innovation for its companies. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is working on smart cities fully powered by blockchain-based solutions. Canada is using the technology for government tracking while Chile uses it for energy distribution.