Tamper-proof Certificate System

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Tran Huy Hiep

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We develop a blockchain-based certificate store website that improves the process of generating and issuing certificates, ensures secure storage, and enables fast certificate verification.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Yes, our project outputs will be open source, utilizing the MIT License. This license permits users to freely use, modify, and distribute the code for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

We are committed to fostering collaboration and transparency within the development community. The entire codebase, documentation, and associated resources will be publicly accessible on link

While the majority of the project will be open source under the MIT License, specific proprietary elements, if any, will be clearly identified in the documentation. Our choice of the MIT License reflects our desire to encourage widespread adoption and contribution to the project.

[METADATA] SDG rating

Our project focused on the management of credentials, strongly aligns with the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated sub-goals:

1. SDG 4: Quality Education

• Subgoal: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.
• KPIs: Increased access to education credentials, fostering lifelong learning.

2. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Subgoal: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.
• KPIs: Facilitate efficient credential verification for employment, contributing to a skilled and productive workforce.

3. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• Subgoal: Build resilient infrastructure, and promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization.
• KPIs: Implement innovative and secure credential management systems, enhancing infrastructure for verification.

This detailed SDG Rating underscores our commitment to supporting education, economic growth, and innovation through the effective management of credentials. For further insights or specific inquiries regarding our SDG alignment, please feel free to contact our team.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

In this solution, we will create a website where the university/training center will issue certificates to eligible students as NFTs. Students need a digital wallet to receive and store certificates. Students can choose which certificates they want to share for others to see to generate QR codes. With this QR code, employers can easily validate the certificate.

Target users:

• Schools/training centers need to issue certificates to students quickly.
• Students who need to store their certificates securely and export them for easy attachment to their CV.
• Employers who need quick and accurate certificate validation and weed out candidates using fake certificates.

Benefits from the project:

• Preventing counterfeiting.
• Cut down on time and cost of creating and certifying processes.
• Avoid damage and loss like paper certificates.
• Candidates can easily attach certificates to their CVs and employers validate them quickly.

Demonstrating Impact:

• Attract more people to know and use blockchain both directly and indirectly.
• Evaluate growth by the number of users and their feedback.

Beneficiaries and Importance to Cardano:

• Beneficiaries: Prevent counterfeiting, avoid damage, and loss due to bad storage. Reduce the time and cost of creating certificates. Easily export and validate certificates.
• Importance to Cardano: Cardano blockchain application to solve real-world problems. Increase the number of people who know and use the Cardano network.

By increasing awareness and adoption of Cardano, the goal is to expand the user base, resulting in a higher number of wallets and transactions on the platform.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

We have developed a startup project based on leveraging blockchain technology to combat the issue of fake certificates. Our innovative idea aims to create a business that effectively deals with this problem by implementing secure and decentralized verification processes. With our solution, we strive to provide reliable and trustworthy credentials, ensuring the integrity of educational qualifications.

Benefits for Cardano:

• Optimal for all parties to use: By issuing certificates as NFTs and storing them on the blockchain.
• Promote the development of the Cardano ecosystem: Users will know the Cardano blockchain as a diverse and attractive ecosystem. Attract schools, students, and employers to use the Cardano blockchain system and trust.

Besides building a website, building a community is also our big goal. Most of the people we target don't really understand blockchain or the Cardano network. Our project both solves a real-world problem and acts as a bridge for users to access and learn more about blockchain.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Our team comprises two experienced instructors in the Blockchain field, who have successfully raised capital in rounds 6, 7, and 8 of Cardano. We also have three team members with extensive knowledge of Blockchain through various courses and hands-on experience in building Cardano-based systems. Our diverse skillset includes proficiency in programming languages such as Haskell, Python, Java, .Net, React, and expertise in developing a range of applications including web, and mobile games.

With this project, we achieved first prize in the school-level scientific research competition.

Therefore, we understand the business, the technology to develop the website, how the Cardano blockchain works, how to create NFT... as well as the collaboration between the members. The next stage is to develop more features and optimize the website, so we are completely confident that we will bring the project to the goal.

As a proof of knowledge and research skills, some of our current articles are attached:

• Article 1: "Report on the orientation of implementing scientific research projects on project catalyst"
• Article 2: "Cardano student showcases at Student Scientific and Research Conference at the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi, VietNam"
• Article 3: "Web3 Bootcamp for the Vietnamese community"

To ensure effective money management, we implement the following strategies:

• Budget planning: We carefully allocate funds to different project areas, considering development, operations, and marketing expenses.
• Transparent expense tracking: We maintain a clear record of all expenditures, promoting accountability and providing visibility into our financial transactions.
• Periodic reports: We generate regular reports to evaluate our financial performance and make informed decisions.

These practices help us maintain financial stability, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall financial management.

Transparency and communication are key principles of our project. We prioritize open and honest communication with all stakeholders, providing regular updates and fostering a collaborative environment. This ensures that everyone is well-informed and actively engaged in the project's progress and decision-making process.

The main goal of the project is to provide a facilitation tool for the following participants:

• School/training center: Simplify the process of creating and awarding certificates. Save time, cost, and labor.
• Students: Avoid damage/loss of certificates due to bad storage, easily export certificate information into QR code to attach CV.
• Employers: Easy to verify certificates quickly, now candidates using fake certificates no longer have the opportunity to apply.

Besides, the project attracts new users to use and learn about Cardano. Prove to them the potential of the ecosystem in particular as well as the blockchain in general.

To validate the feasibility of our method, we will use both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Quantitative validation:

• Number of upgraded and added modules via GitHub.
• Report the number of users on the system.

Identity verification:

• Conduct user satisfaction surveys.
• The level of excitement when introducing the project to users.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

The project uses many different platforms, so for easy tracking, we created a sheet page containing the links and budget tracking here: Tracking UTCert Project. You just need to save the sheet page path to track the project easily. Below is a summary of my team's activities:

Milestone 1 (1 month): Project initialization

• Additional design user guide interface, FAQ.
• Re-design the structure of the code, and database.
• Identify API endpoints.
• Rent a server and deploy the development environment.

Milestone 2 (1.5 months): Upgrade the old version. 

• Develop the drawing at stage 1.
• Upgrade the old version.
• Clean code optimized for reuse.
• Restructure the BE code according to the 3-layer model.
• Upgrade Pinata plan.
• Deploy test environment.

(This picture shows certificate generation flow)

Milestone 3 (1.5 months): Develop new features. 

• Contact management module: Issuer can only send certificate when holder accepts contact. Avoid holders receiving unwanted certificates.
• Certificate ban module: Handles invalid certificates that are discovered after the issuer has been issued.
• Export certificate QRcode module: Allow holders to export certificates via QRcode
• View certificate module: Display certificate with important information such as AssetID, PolicyID... when scanning QRcode.
• Implement multiple sign-on NFTs Module: Allows multiple parties/organizations to sign the certificate
• Manage test scores during student’s studies

(This picture shows verify certificate flow)

Milestone 4 (1 month): Testing and fixing bugs. 

• Perform both automation and manual testing.
• Performance testing.
• Fix/improve issues.

Milestone 5 (1 month): Project promotion, estimate. 

• Cooperate with the Cardano Vietnam community to introduce products to users.
• Integrate with recruitment websites in Vietnam.
• Organize user introduction sessions on how to create an Eternl wallet, website features, and benefits of using blockchain.
• Build a YouTube channel with instructions on how to use our project step by step.
• Continue to improve according to the feedback.

To track the progress of the project, please follow the criteria below here:

• Mentioned milestones: The project will be promoted according to the milestones outlined above.
• Works on Git Hub: The project source code will be continuously updated on Git Hub, and everyone can rely on it to check the team's activities.
• YouTube channel: Instructions for using the new modules when completed. At the same time, update information about the project through the YouTube community.
• Trello workspace: Divide tasks for each member, and monitor progress and deadlines.
• Budget tracking: Update receipts/expenditures with amounts provided by Catalyst.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Mr. Hiep Tran - Project Manager/Technical lead

Experiences: 

• Software Engineer at Samsung R&D.
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, ReactJS, Angular.
• Backend: Java Spring Boot…
• Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher.

Contact:

Email: tranhuyhiep0710@gmail.com

Github: https://github.com/TranHuyHiep

Mr. Bach Trinh - Full-stack Developer/Blockchain Developer

Experiences: 

• Software Engineer at GrapeCity
• Frontend: ReactJS, VueJS.
• Backend: .NET Core, Dapper, EF Core, SQL, Redis…
• DevOps: Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, Nginx…
• Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher.

Contact:

Email: txbach.11@gmail.com

Github: https://github.com/Bachhsunkid

Mr. Minh Le - Quality Assurance, content creator

Experiences:

• Lecturer and PT-Leader at Teky Steam Academy
• Testing: Jmeter
• Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher.

Contact:

Email: minhld.dev@gmail.com

Github: https://github.com/dinhminhlh

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 1 (1 month): Project initialization.

Estimate cost: 10,000 ADA ~ 15.38%

Milestone 2 (1.5 months): Upgrade the old version.

Estimate cost: 15,000 ADA ~ 23.07%

Milestone 3 (1.5 months): Develop new features. 

Estimate cost: 20,000 ADA ~ 30.76%

Milestone 4 (1 month): Testing and fixing bugs.

Estimate cost: 10,000 ADA ~ 15.38%

Milestone 5 (1 month): Project promotion.

Estimate cost: 10,00 ADA ~ 15.38%

Total 65,000 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The cost of 65,000 ADA for the project is justified and represents value for money for the Cardano ecosystem due to the following reasons:

1. Reasonable Allocation: The total cost includes expenses for building the system, paying for labor, hiring experts, and promoting the startup in Vietnam. This allocation of resources ensures the project has the necessary infrastructure, skilled workforce, and marketing efforts to effectively deliver its objectives.
2. Social Value: The primary purpose of the project is to address a specific issue through simulated blockchain solutions and enhance the understanding of blockchain technology among Vietnamese individuals. By providing educational resources and practical demonstrations, the project creates social value by empowering people with knowledge and fostering blockchain literacy.
3. Contribution to the Cardano Network: The project contributes to the growth and strength of the Cardano network by attracting a considerable number of users (at least 200 individuals) and facilitating interactions on the blockchain network. Additionally, it plays a crucial role in expanding awareness and knowledge about blockchain, particularly within the Cardano ecosystem, among a wider audience.

Overall, the cost of the project aligns with its goals and objectives, ensuring the allocation of resources necessary for building the system, delivering educational value, and contributing to the Cardano ecosystem's growth in Vietnam and around the world.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept