The first blockchain diplomas in the Leonardo da Vinci Engineering School (ESILV) are to be issued in April 2016. The school’s management believes blockchain is the only solution that can protect diplomas from counterfeiting. 

To enable the new feature, the school partnered with the French start-up Paymium, says Blockchain France. According to Cyril Grunspan, a representative of the school, 

“Nothing special is needed to go on blockchain. The technology is there, and the rest is only a matter of will on the part of schools. The blockchain will be used just for certificates, because nowadays Photoshop allows to counterfeit certificates easily.”

ESILV will be the second educational institution in the world to go on blockchain. The first was the San-Francisco-based Holberton School of Software Engineering, founded by three Frenchmen who went to live in the Silicon Valley. It announced its decision in October 2015. 

ESILV was created in 1995 in order to train IT professionals. It is currently one of the top French engineering schools. In September 2015 it was the first French educational institution to offer a course on bitcoin and blockchain. In September 2016 it plans to add a FinTech option for students, including security, web cryptography, web protocols, payment systems, blockchain, web development and history of currency from antiquity to bitcoins. 

The school also encourages six-month projects with practical focus. A group of students, in partnership with Maison du Bitcoin de Paris, is currently working on a bitcoin-powered drink dispenser.

Alexey Tereshchenko