Certificates in the blockchain

People do business with companies they have confidence in, and trust is an important asset for companies. How can you demonstrate that you operate sustainably and provide safe and reliable products and services?

DNV GL has been in the business of building trust for more than 150 years. Using blockchain technology, we are the first in the certification industry taking a step further to provide digital assurance, allowing our customers to be more transparent in their efforts to show compliance and adherence to rules and standards.

About the blockchain solution

Blockchain technology is revolutionizing how data is stored and shared. Using cryptography to keep information secure, a blockchain provides a decentralized database or “digital ledger” of information. Based on a network of computers that must all approve an update before it can be verified and recorded, it reduces the dependency on and vulnerability of centralized data storage.

DNV GL stores the certificates in a private blockchain, so that the right to create new certificates and update information is restricted to us, while at the same time we utilize the benefits of the technology such as authentication, decentralization and encryption. Although updates can only be performed by us, anyone can access the blockchain to check the validity of certificates.

How it works

When a certificate is issued, the data is digitized and a digital identity is assigned to each certificate. All certificates are tagged and traceable, and the original is safely stored in the network of computers in the blockchain, commonly referred to as nodes.

The certificate data is in parallel managed in our production system. In total, this creates an immutable transaction, secure and highly transparent, making it easy to uncover fraud as the technology will expose any outdated or forged certificates.

Checking a certificate’s validity

From September 2017, all new and re-issued certificates will have a QR code embedded that can be scanned by a device with a QR scanner. A lookup will be performed on the blockchain and certificate details will be presented. Anyone can at any time check and verify a company's claims and certification scope and validity. The validity of the certificates can also be checked through a lookup on our public certificate checker.