Role of Non Fungible Tokens in Transforming Academic Credentials for Trust and Transparency

Blockchain technology in education offers immutable records of academic achievements, ensuring secure storage and verification of credentials. It enables transparent, decentralized systems for certification, fostering trust, eliminating fraud, and providing individuals with greater control over their educational data and achievements. Additionally, blockchain facilitates efficient and instant verification of qualifications, streamlining processes for educational institutions, employers, and learners. The current research explores the transformation of non-fungible items into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and their significance in authentication and verification within the blockchain realm. Addressing the limitations of traditional certificates, NFT certificates leverage blockchain technology to ensure trust, ownership proof, and enhanced transferability. The study extensively discusses the ERC721 standard for NFT implementation, the OpenZeppelin library for smart contract security, and tools like Hardhat, Alchemy, Pinata Cloud, and web3.js in NFT creation and deployment. The research demonstrates the practical implementation of NFT token minting, ownership verification, and transfer operations through smart contracts on different networks, highlighting the significance of NFTs in ensuring secure and transparent ownership in the digital landscape.