A Secure and Efficient Sharing Framework for Student Electronic Academic Records: Integrating Zero-Knowledge Proof and Proxy Re-Encryption

A sharing framework based on Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) and Proxy Re-encryption (PRE) technologies offers a promising solution for sharing Student Electronic Academic Records (SEARs). As core credentials in the education sector, student records are characterized by strong identity binding, the need for long-term retention, frequent cross-institutional verification, and sensitive information. Compared with electronic health records and government archives, they face more complex security, privacy protection, and storage scalability challenges during sharing. These records not only contain sensitive data such as personal identity and academic performance but also serve as crucial evidence in key scenarios such as further education, employment, and professional title evaluation. Leakage or tampering could have irreversible impacts on a student’s career development. Furthermore, traditional blockchain technology faces storage capacity limitations when storing massive academic records, and existing general electronic record sharing solutions struggle to meet the high-frequency verification demands of educational authorities, universities, and employers for academic data. This study proposes a dedicated sharing framework for students’ electronic academic records, leveraging PRE technology and the distributed ledger characteristics of blockchain to ensure transparency and immutability during sharing. By integrating the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) with Ethereum Smart Contract (SC), it addresses blockchain storage bottlenecks, enabling secure storage and efficient sharing of academic records. Relying on optimized ZKP technology, it supports verifying the authenticity and integrity of records without revealing sensitive content. Furthermore, the introduction of gate circuit merging, constant folding techniques, Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware acceleration, and the efficient Bulletproofs algorithm alleviates the high computational complexity of ZKP, significantly reducing proof generation time. The experimental results demonstrate that the framework, while ensuring strong privacy protection, can meet the cross-scenario sharing needs of student records and significantly improve sharing efficiency and security. Therefore, this method exhibits superior security and performance in privacy-preserving scenarios. This framework can be applied to scenarios such as cross-institutional academic certification, employer background checks, and long-term management of academic records by educational authorities, providing secure and efficient technical support for the sharing of electronic academic credentials in the digital education ecosystem.