Nic, great questions:
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Currently, this open-source toolkit is configured to anchor records to the Bitcoin Blockchain, which comes with all the computing power and security needed. This means that universities don’t have to mine or create any infrastructure themselves. If a network of universities wanted to form their own private network/chain, Blockcerts could certainly be expanded to facilitate that use case. Of course, that would require much more involvement/resources/mining from the universities to setup their own network. It’s unclear if that approach has any advantages?
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The new version of the issuer has been expanded to allow freeform design on the display layer. And technically, any type of document could be hashed and registered on the blockchain.
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In Blockcerts, only the Issuers/schools pay for mining, costing about $1 per batch (which may contain thousands of certificates). Everything is free for recipients.