BlockCerts 101: How to Get Started

Hello there,

I’m quite new to blockchain technology and after a crash course on how to get this up and running.

I’m looking at integrating this certification process in an education environment in lieu of the traditional online Badges that can be associated with backpacks.

  1. What do I need to get started for generating, issuing and verifying blockcerts?
  2. Is there a central verification site or does the open source code need to be applied and built out on a separate web server?
  3. Are there any APIs developed to be injected into Blackboard and or Moodle LMSs?
  4. What are some of the challenges you have faced as new implementers of this technology in your institutions?
  5. What sort of pushback was received and how did you address it?
2 Likes
  1. For a technical quickstart to get you issuing certificates, check the README at https://github.com/blockchain-certificates/cert-issuer. That’s the Python project that you’ll want to get running, and the quickstart includes a sample certificate payload.

  2. As far as verification, you’ve got a couple of options. One is to use the verifier at https://blockcerts.org, which is free and available for anyone to use. The other is to get a verifier of your own going, for which you can have a look at https://github.com/blockchain-certificates/cert-verifier-js.

  3. This is a good question, and one to which I do not know the answer offhand. If there are, I’d like to hear about it :slight_smile:. I went back to school and finished my Bachelor’s in my late twenties, at an institution that featured Blackboard as its platform, and it would have been interesting to be a part of an integration along those lines.

There are other folks who can do a much better job than I of answering questions 4 and 5. Maybe @Chris_J would like to jump in?

@EduTechSolutions Currently exploring these very questions in Denver. Send me a dm via Twitter @taykendesign

Hi There - I am interested in the answer to 3 - 5. Please connect via Twitter @ricardodallen