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MIT Issued Blockchain Diplomas, But Doesn't Know If Employers Actually Use Them (techtarget.com)
dcblogs writes:
Last summer, MIT ran a pilot program creating verifiable, tamper-proof "digital diplomas" for a small number of graduates. But they don't know how the pilot turned out, and there's a lot of experimentation underway. Eventually, all your credentials -- resume, employment history, occupational licenses, diplomas -- may be in a blockchain. The use of blockchain enabled digital credentials is growing. This could speed employment verification, and make lying on resumes harder.
The article points out that while a number of universities are exploring blockchain, MIT "has not heard of a case where a student's digital diploma was either consumed or accepted by an employer," although "Many certificates were verified..."
"MIT's pilot illustrates the state of blockchain in HR. It is in a beta, proof-of-concept, experimental phase. Blockchain verification is currently not a practical option for employers and recruiters."
The article points out that while a number of universities are exploring blockchain, MIT "has not heard of a case where a student's digital diploma was either consumed or accepted by an employer," although "Many certificates were verified..."
"MIT's pilot illustrates the state of blockchain in HR. It is in a beta, proof-of-concept, experimental phase. Blockchain verification is currently not a practical option for employers and recruiters."
This will have a great amount of blowback. Employers--if they actually use this--will see the one and only resume that a person has, never be able to find employees, and then make even more of a case for H-1B visa workers. The big thing about being able to get a job today is to rewrite your resume to satisfy the HR goons that have no idea what they are hiring for as well as to appear as a "turnkey solution" that can check off every single one of the requirements.
Training employees is a foreign concept these days. You have to know the tricks to get hired especially if you aren't well-connected. And if you are well-connected, the resume isn't going to matter all that much anyway.
Blockchain is about a distributed ledger. There's no fucking point for education or employment bona fides to be recorded that way. MIT is the central authority for granting MIT diplomas. Employer X is the central authority for validating job history at Employer X. Each organization has its own private key, signs a digital diploma or job history object, and publishes the public key so those signatures can be validated.
Why not issue a blockchain SSN and then use that to update your schooling, your jobs, your run ins with the law... After years of threats we can finally have a permanent record that follows you around.
Some mid-level bursar bureaucrat is now responsible for the encryption key to certifying someone as an MIT graduate... yeah, that person isn't going to be spear phished or anything...
These days, only people with ASIC rigs living next to a hydroelectric power station have any chance of mining an Ivy League-class degree. The rest of us with GPU cards and PCs have little hope of scratching out much more than an associate's degree from the local community college.
Very few people lie to employers about having gone to MIT or any other prestigious US school. Very few of those who do go through the trouble of faking any sort of transcript or diploma, because no one ever checks those except maybe for a first job. If the employer (or their background check agency) does check, they do it by contacting the school.
I suspect more lying about international schools, since employers might find it harder to check. (Maybe more lying outside the US about US schools, for similar reasons)
The hosting of the blockchain decides its too expensive to run the service any longer and someone else has put up a much cheaper database version so why use expensive, slow, still corruptible (someone double sold my diploma) blockchain.
There are some famous cases of people making shit up on their employment applications, but it seems to be exceedingly rare. How many people here know firsthand of a case of someone getting a job - or even an interview - when they applied with credentials they did not actually have?
This sounds more like another excuse for HR people to not do their actual jobs. If we want to move towards intelligent systems for job screening - and what we currently have even at very high tech employers is most certainly not an example of intelligent systems - that's great but this in't a step in that direction as best I can tell.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
MIT could just publish a public key and sign its diplomas with it, you could stamp them all with QR codes that embed the signature, and be done with it
We do not need an Recertification Treadmill for college it costs to much as it is now.
also mom and pop shops are not going to buy in to resume block change system.
The reason people are issuing blockchain diplomas is so that they get a press release. The community college here issues them too, also in an attempt to get press releases, and draw attention to themselves as being blockchain-friendly.
If you have a degree from MIT, it doesn't really matter if it's "printed" on BlockChain, a piece of paper, or human flesh, as long as MIT actually issues it. I'd call up MIT to verify the degree, not process their entire blockchain. I'm happy when I get people with ANY degree in New Mexico, my state.
No one checks diplomas. A few will call former institutions for verification, but even that's rare. Diplomas generally are only for putting on the wall at a professional's office.
HR departments will never, ever, be able to use blockchain anything. They all like to use proprietary systems for getting resumes, CVs, cover letters, job history, etc, and they'll never settle on anything standard. You start the application process. You are given the option of uploading a CV (which of course contains your job history). The very next page in the application process asks you to enter your job history. And every single company's application pages are completely different. Nothing standard. And then when you filled out everything and are ready to hit SUBMIT... wait, what's this? You are told that you first have to fix the field marked with an "*" except THERE ARE NO FIELDS MARKED WITH A FUCKING ASTERISK. And don't hit SAVE and then SUBMIT because you have to hit SUBMIT before SAVE or it wipes everything out and you have to start over, which is going to be hard since you just put your foot through the monitor.
And if you guys think the system for applying for tech jobs is bad, god help you if you ever apply for an academic job where you have to submit transcripts and teaching statements and research statements and three references from people who are scattered all over the fucking world or on sabbatical or doing research in New Guinea.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Nothing will be in a block chain.
I've been working in IT full time for around 25 years. I have never once had an employer ask me for proof of my education or a diploma. Literally, never. I've worked for every sort of employer -- development shop, two telecom fortune 50s, healthcare, startups, you name it. None has ever asked for proof.
I can tell you that verification of diplomas digitally isnt a real thing. Now, rolling a joint out of your diploma, that's for real. Acid free paper makes a great roach. It's the best use aside from the name itself.
They just f***ing call up the school. Why use some weird complicated stuff? The recruiters and people who manage this boring part of the process aren't saavy like that.
How is this better than Traditional PKI?
MIT could issue diplomas signed by their PKI Certificate and employers can verify it without involving MIT.
How exactly does blockchain help here?
i don't want to live in a world where "digital diplomas" are "consumed"