NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS: ITS POTENTIAL ROLE IN COMBATTING CERTIFICATE FRAUDULENCE IN MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

Abstract

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are blockchain-based tokens that individually stand for a particular asset, such as a piece of media or digital data. A digital or physical asset can have an NFT as an irrevocable certificate of ownership and authenticity (Wang et al., 2021). Digital forms of certifications can consider using NFT and blockchain technology (Franceschet, 2021). Technological advancement made it possible for people to create fraud certificates, such as university degrees that the buyers do not actually possess. This is unethical and alarming. The current credentials from certificates are difficult to verify as legitimate, which encourages educational fraud. Blockchain technology with NFTs empowers a solution to certificate fraudulence. In this study, the demand of a handful of Malaysians towards buying fraud certificates and the ideas behind those that supply such certificates are scrutinized. Potential use cases and challenges on how NFTs can be used to combat certificate fraudulence and enhance education systems are studied by gathering information from past literatures and conducting interviews with people involved in certification fraud. The ethnography approach applied focuses on the occurrence of fake certificates in society that involves using certificates to seek employment or permit for incomes. Convenience sampling is applied to access the perspectives of respondents, who are also aware of NFT technology. The lack of coordination in Malaysia between multiple parties such as certificate issuers, companies hiring employees and government authorities allows certification fraud to occur. An increase of NFT public penetration and blockchain technology can counter this issue.