Our generation has made great strides
in the advancements of technology and digitization. We are now a seamlessly
connected world regardless of geographical locations via our phones and
computers. Digitization has come to make processes easier to execute in an
efficient manner. In a blink of an eye, information can be shared between individuals
in opposite corners of the world. Media, such as voice, videos and pictures can
be transmitted faster and cheaply via various channels including email, Whatsapp,
Twitter, Facebook, etc. Unfortunately, these advancements have a come at a
price as we have seen the benefits of digitization being used for unlawful
activities.
On Monday 22nd October,
2018, the Minister responsible for General Education in Zambia, Mr. David
Mabumba, announced to the country that due to exam papers being leaked, grade
seven, nine and twelve examinations had been suspended. This followed the
publication of a story by a local social media tabloid exposing the existence
of the leaked exam papers. According to another tabloid, the Grade nine
Mathematics exam paper was leaked and had been circulating long before the scheduled
examination date. This is not new to Zambia, considering that in 2011, a
similar case was reported, where Grade 12 exam papers in various subjects had
been leaked. It was alleged that the papers were sneaked out of the examination
questions bank as soft (digital) copies using a flash disk. In both instances
the leaked papers quickly went into circulation at an unstoppable rate mainly
by way of social media.
Obviously the question is “who done
it?” Well, we may never know. However, in this article I argue that we should not
have to reach the point of asking who did it. Rather, we should have systems in
place that will ensure that exam papers are not stolen in the first place.
Systems that ensure accountability, trust and data integrity, among other
things. Fortunately, there exists a technology which makes such a system
possible. It is called BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY.
Blockchain Technology is a consensus-driven
digital system in which transactions and their details are recorded in multiple
places at the same time, without a central database or administrator.
Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT). The ledger can be
either public or private/permissible.
In its simplest of implementations the
proposed blockchain system can work in a manner such as this: Each and every
Ministry in the government has a dedicated number of computers which keep a
copy of the examination papers. The Minister responsible for each Ministry,
together with their Permanent Secretary (PS) and deputy Permanent Secretary
will each have a private key or password which can be used to authorize any
activity on the ledger. Other interested parties such as unions and supporting
agencies can also be granted voting rights. A
pre-determined combination and number of authorizations must be achieved before
the state of the document can be altered in any way. In essence, this would
imply that, before any amendments can be made to the original document, before
it can be downloaded or printed or deleted, a required combination of passwords
must be attained.
To make the system even more efficient
for this purpose we can introduce smart contracts. A smart contract is a computer protocol
that can digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce a contract.
Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third
parties or without active involvement of participants. Once a smart contract
has been deployed it cannot be terminated. These
transactions are trackable and irreversible. Smart contracts can be pre-coded
with instructions to execute or not execute depending on which stage the contract
is at. This grants advanced levels of control over how, where and when the data
can be accessed.
In our scenario of the exam papers, a
smart contract can be used to allow the papers to be submitted only up to an
agreed date and time, after which, no more papers can be submitted. The next
stage would allow the papers to be edited only up to a pre-determined date and
time. Beyond this date, the papers will not be accessible for any action i.e. viewing,
editing or printing, until such a date and time as agreed by all stakeholders when
they will become accessible for downloading and printing.
Keeping in mind that no action can be
taken without the prerequisite consensus, it then becomes possible to answer
the question “who done it” because the system will keep an unalterable ledger
(or record) of who granted authorization and who accessed the exam questions
bank. The ledger will be available for viewing to all stakeholders thereby
making it transparent.
The benefits of blockchain technology
are plentiful. Therefore, this article is by no means exhaustive. The important
concept to take away is that blockchain technology allows for improved
accountability, transparency, trust and control. It would be known exactly who
granted access to a piece of data and who actually accessed it. Furthermore,
the use of smart contracts ensures data integrity as no single entity can
unilaterally alter the state of data because this would be hard-coded into the
smart contract. Some key benefits of blockchain technology are listed below:
1. There
is no single point of failure. A distributed ledger has no single point of
failure. In this case, even if one of the computers that keep a copy of the
data had to crash it would not result in the loss or corruption of that piece
of data.
2. It
is trusted. Stakeholders do not have to trust the Minister concerned for
them to have confidence that the information about the state of the data is
accurate. They
trust that all participants will act honestly in order to keep ecosystem
healthy and functional.
3. Unalterable
information. The information in a blockchain system cannot be easily
modified without other participants knowing and consenting to the change. To unilaterally
change the information one would have to delete ALL the previous states before
the point at which they wish to make changes. Such an act however, would simply
render the data corrupted as the states would not agree. The only way to make changes is when the majority of participants
agree, or meet a consensus.
4. Realtime
tracking. Changes to the state of the data can be tracked as soon as they happen.
This makes the entire system transparent to all participants. I should mention, however, that
blockchain technology is not a panacea. It
is not a magic wand which can be waved over any problem and it will provide a
solution. A lot of research must therefore go into deciding whether
blockchain-based solution is the answer for a given problem..
There are a lot of possible uses of
blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrencies. The technology can be applied to
increase efficiency in a wide scope of industries such as health, finance,
identity and more. It is encouraging to hear reports that the Ministry of Lands
in Zambia has adopted a blockchain-based system in the issuance of title deeds.
Hopefully, the government will begin to roll out this technology to other
ministries sooner rather than later, in order to achieve e-government more
efficiently and effectively.
Japhet Kapambwe Mesa is a Certified Blockchain Expert, cryptocurrency and blockchain
enthusiast and co-founder of Crypto Tamanga community.
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