# Blockchain-Based Applications in Education: A Systematic Review
## 4 Discussion
### What Benefits Could Blockchain Technology Bring to Education? Blockchain technology could bring significant benefits to education, including high security, low cost, enhancing students' assessments, better control of data access, enhancing accountability and transparency, identity authentication, enhancing trust, improving efficiency of students' records management, supporting learners' career decisions, and enhancing learners' interactivity. Using blockchain assures the security and privacy of data/transactions exchanged between the intended parties. The nature of peer-to-peer topology in the blockchain helps reduce the security risks in education field. In Reference [30], the consensus protocol was used to maintain the order of transactions and reduce the risk of unsecured ones, whereas the intended parties can verify the ledger content. Using the cryptographic hashes and signatures assured the reliability of the transactions as well. The beauty of blockchain relies on securing the data itself and verifying that it has not been tampered with. To illustrate, the blockchain was used to sign and validate learning traces and records [22]. Each learning block is composed of various types of data related to a learning activity. To protect these data, an encryption algorithm was performed before sending it to other participants. Furthermore, the education field can greatly benefit from using the blockchain to reduce the costs. The cost includes storage cost, associated transaction costs, and the cost of managing and maintaining the educational records. Using a public/private distributed network that can be accessed from anywhere, dramatically diminishes the cost of the traditional cloud-based storage [10]. Generally, verifying and processing academic certificates requires additional costs whereas the blockchain helps reduce such costs [34]. In addition, applying the blockchain technology can enhance students' assessment. In Reference [24], the blockchain was implemented to measure the learning performance based on the achieved learning outcomes. Each block contains quantitative and qualitative information such as grades, course name, learning outcome name, course weight, and the graduation requirement indicator. After assessing the learning outcome achievements, other universities or institutions can freely and inclusively access this information and communicate accordingly. One of the great features and benefits of blockchain is restricting/controlling the access of the stored records. Educational records include transcripts, diploma, or personal students/teachers records. One good example was presented in Reference [11], where a permissioned blockchain platform was used to restrict access to academic credentials and limit it to the intended participants only. The blockchain platform allows only certified institutions under specific rules to access and modify the stored data [10]. Moreover, enhancing accountability and transparency are two advantages achieved when using blockchain technology. Storing all educational or school records in one place, where it can be easily accessible, will increase the accountability and transparency of using such records. In Reference [31], the School Information Hub (SIH) system, which is based on blockchain, was implemented to collect and store school reports and records. This system helped improve the transparency of the shared data as well as the flexibility of analyzing, correlating, or distributing such data. Additionally, the blockchain assures the authenticity of the digital certificates as well as the identity of users. In Reference [14], a digital syllabus was stored in a blockchain. Once blocks have been created, the authorized university will sign it using a private key. After that, a cryptographic hash of the course syllabus will be issued to ensure that no one can tamper with the content. In order to validate the authenticity of these data, the university verifies it by the hash and the key that belongs to the original institution.