Under the new arrangement, Digitary has signed onto Evernym’s Early Access Plan, to scale up its operations and allow students to curate and manage their credentials, rather than through a website hosted by a third-party, such as a university, as is currently the case.

“We’re excited to work with Digitary to bring verified digital credentials to universities, students, and employers”

“The whole SSI digital credentialing landscape is really taking that learner-centricity a step further and not only giving them access to their credentials but enabling them to independently consolidate, store, share, and verify them,” said Digitary founder and chief executive Andy Dowling.

He added Digitary, which has issued over 4 million credentials to 1.5 million learners worldwide, had been considering how best to enter into SSI and blockchain and took a philosophy of using “the right technology at the right time”.

“When you’re diving into new technology, you’ve always got the option of ploughing the road yourself and learning the hard way, or work with someone who is already familiar with the path,” Dowling told The PIE News.

“The latter made sense to us, and that’s why we’re working with Evernym, and they have an accelerator program to help companies embrace Self-Sovereign Identity and blockchain technology more quickly.”

Evernym currently works with other large organisations around the world to assist them in building secure digital relationships and created the Sovrin Network, a decentralised identity network which governs SSI.

Andy Tobin, Evernym’s vice president deliver, said the partnership could potentially help thousands of students manage their digital lives.

“We’re excited to work with Digitary to bring verified digital credentials to universities, students, and employers,” he said.

“[Digitary] has shown a true passion for putting students at the centre of their data and digital relationships, and self-sovereign identity enables just that.”

In September, Digitary announced it would partner with DreamApply to boost institution’s applications processes.