Radworks Grant Application
- Project Name: EduCreds — Open Web3 Academic Credential Infrastructure for Africa
- Team Name: EduCreds Labs
- Payment Address: 0x55bd60ea66658a360297d1dcdf11b570c8e5dcf2
- Category: Web3 & FOSS
Project Overview 
Overview
EduCreds is an open-source enterprise academic credentialing platform that issues, verifies, and governs tamper-proof digital certificates using W3C Verifiable Credentials (VCs), Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), and blockchain-anchored trust scoring — built to solve Africa’s credential fraud crisis.
Tagline: One platform, six workspaces, one trust engine.
The problem we are solving:
Africa has one of the world’s worst credential fraud epidemics. Universities issue paper certificates. Employers have no reliable way to verify them. Governments operate no national digital registry. The result: fraudulent degrees circulate freely, trust breaks down at every hiring decision, and students with genuine qualifications cannot prove them digitally across borders.
EduCreds is the infrastructure layer that fixes this — a fully open-source platform that lets any university issue W3C-standard Verifiable Credentials anchored to Base Sepolia blockchain, with an independent AI-powered verification framework that any employer or government portal can query.
Why this is a Web3 project:
EduCreds is built on core Web3 primitives from the ground up:
- Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Every institution, student, employer, and accreditation body gets a sovereign DID (
did:educreds:{type}:{id}), fully W3C-compliant, encrypted at rest, portable across systems - Verifiable Credentials (W3C VC 1.1): Every certificate is a cryptographically signed, machine-verifiable VC — not a PDF, not a database record
- Smart contracts: Institution Identity NFTs (IIN) on Base Sepolia (Solidity, Hardhat) anchor institutional trust on-chain; credential hashes are blockchain-anchored for tamper-proof audit trails
- AI Trust Scoring (PoIC): Proof of Institutional Credibility — an AI microservice that scores institutional legitimacy before credentials can be issued, preventing fraudulent institutions from issuing fake degrees on-chain
- Open protocol:
did:educredsis a published DID method specification;@educreds/verify-sdkis an open TypeScript client for the EduCreds Verification Framework
Why this is a FOSS project:
The entire platform is open-source under the EDUCREDS-LABS GitHub organisation. Every line of the credentialing backend (NestJS), verification framework (Fastify), OID4VC adapter, SD-JWT adapter, connector agent, smart contracts, and infrastructure-as-code (Azure Bicep) is publicly available. This is intentional — credential infrastructure for Africa should not be locked behind a proprietary SaaS.
Why we are applying:
EduCreds is production-ready and in active pilot with universities in Uganda. We are applying to Radworks because the Web3 & FOSS grant category is exactly what we are: a real-world, open-source application of Web3 technology that solves a genuine problem — not DeFi, not speculation, but verifiable trust infrastructure for 1.4 billion Africans who need it most.
Team 
Team members
- Kyotoyinze Abdulmajid — Co-Founder & CEO (Team Lead)
- Mudebo Samusi — Lead Engineer / CTO
- Edyelu Andrew — Senior Full-Stack & Commercial Engineer
- Paul Sekiziyivu — Backend & DevOps Engineer
- Nabasirye Seanice — Head of Growth & Ecosystem
- Katongole Adam — Head of Operations & Governance
- Balamaga Experito — Operations & Partnerships Lead
Contact
- Contact Name: Kyotoyinze Abdulmajid
- Contact Email: abdulmajid.kyotoyinze@educreds.xyz
- Website: https://educreds.xyz
Legal Structure
- Registered Address: National Innovation Hub, Kampala, Uganda (incorporation in progress; name reserved with Uganda Registration Services Bureau — URSB)
- Registered Legal Entity: EduCreds Labs Ltd. (pending registration)
Team’s experience
Kyotoyinze Abdulmajid (CEO) has led EduCreds from concept through to a production-ready platform, handling all cross-functional responsibilities across engineering, growth, and operations. He drove acceptance into the National Innovation Hub incubator (Kampala), active engagement with PwC advisory on fundraising, and onboarding to Microsoft for Startups (active member, 2026). He has managed all investor, grant, and partnership workstreams end-to-end as the sole cross-functional owner of a lean, high-output team.
Mudebo Samusi (Lead Engineer / CTO) architected and delivered the full EduCreds identity platform: W3C DID implementation, DID key rotation policy, institution key management, the EduCreds Verification Framework (EVF), and the full P0–P2 security audit remediation cycle (completed Aug 2026). Stack: NestJS, TypeScript, Hardhat/Solidity, Azure Bicep, OpenTelemetry.
Edyelu Andrew (Senior Engineer) built the complete commercial layer — Stripe + Flutterwave billing, usage-based metering, plan catalog, and provisioning orchestrator — 79 files, production-quality, ready for first paying pilot.
Paul Sekiziyivu (Backend/DevOps) manages CI/CD pipelines, Dependabot security updates, Azure Container Apps deployments, and GitHub Actions workflows.
Collective team delivery (as of Aug 2026):
- Q1–Q4 platform roadmap: 100% complete
- W3C VC 1.1 issuance and verification pipeline: live on Azure dev
- OID4VC (OpenID for Verifiable Credentials) adapter: deployed
- SD-JWT selective disclosure adapter: deployed
- AI-powered PoIC trust scoring engine: live
- On-premises connector agent with SIS/ERP integration, offline queue, and circuit breaker: complete
did:educredsDID method specification: authored and implemented- 296/296 unit tests passing
- E2E pipeline verified against live Azure dev environment (Aug 2026)
- Accepted: National Innovation Hub incubator, Kampala
- Active: Microsoft for Startups membership
No prior Radworks grants. No other external grants to date.
Team Code Repos
- educreds labs · GitHub
- https://github.com/EDUCREDS-LABS/educreds-enterprise
- edyeluandrew (Edyelu Andrew) · GitHub
- shabantiger (shaban.dev) · GitHub
Team LinkedIn Profiles (if available)
Project Description
We are applying for this grant to fund the next phase of EduCreds’ open-source development: launching the first paid university pilot, open-sourcing the @educreds/verify-sdk as a standalone public package, deploying the student credential wallet, and incorporating EduCreds Labs as a legal entity.
Why now:
The platform is fully production-ready. The code is written, audited, and tested. What we need is runway to move from “dev environment on Azure” to “live with paying institutions” — and the resources to legally incorporate so we can sign contracts, receive payments, and operate as a formal entity.
What makes EduCreds genuinely Web3:
Most EdTech “blockchain” projects are marketing exercises that stamp a PDF hash on a chain. EduCreds is different:
- Every institution has a sovereign DID and an on-chain Identity NFT (IIN) that gates their ability to issue credentials — no IIN, no issuance
- Every credential is a W3C VC 1.1 Verifiable Credential with a cryptographic proof, not a flat file
- The AI Trust Engine (PoIC) scores institutional credibility before allowing credential issuance — the first AI-gated institutional trust layer on any credentialing platform
- The verification framework (EVF) is independent of the issuer — any third party can verify a credential without calling back to EduCreds’ servers
- OID4VC and SD-JWT adapters make EduCreds credentials interoperable with any W3C-compliant wallet or verifier globally
What makes EduCreds genuinely FOSS:
The entire platform — backend API, verification framework, smart contracts, OID4VC adapter, SD-JWT adapter, connector agent, verifier agent, infrastructure-as-code — is open-source on GitHub under EDUCREDS-LABS. Our did:educreds method specification is a public document. Our verify SDK will be published as an open npm package. Any developer, university, or government can fork, self-host, and extend EduCreds without a commercial license.
Deliverables 
- Total Estimated Duration: 4 months
- Full-time equivalent (FTE): 3.0 FTE
- Total Costs: $35,000 USD
Milestone 1 — First Paid Pilot: University Onboarding
- Estimated Duration: 6 weeks
- FTE: 2.5
- Costs: $14,000 USD
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | University pilot deployment | Onboard first paying institution onto the live EduCreds platform. Issue first real W3C VC credentials to real students. End-to-end: institution DID registration → IIN NFT minting → credential issuance → EVF verification. |
| 2. | Connector agent deployment | Deploy on-premises SIS connector at pilot institution, integrating with their existing student records system. Offline queue and circuit breaker tested under real conditions. |
| 3. | Pilot documentation | Full deployment runbook, institution onboarding guide, and admin dashboard walkthrough published openly on docs.educreds.xyz. |
| 4. | Pilot outcome report | Public write-up of pilot results: credentials issued, verification requests handled, institution feedback, issues encountered and resolved. |
Milestone 2 — Open SDK & Student Wallet
- Estimated Duration: 5 weeks
- FTE: 3.0
- Costs: $13,000 USD
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | @educreds/verify-sdk public release |
Open-source the EduCreds verify SDK as a standalone npm package with full TypeScript typings, documentation, and usage examples. Any developer can verify EduCreds credentials without running a full node. |
| 2. | Student credential wallet | Launch the student-facing wallet: claim credentials issued by institutions, store in browser/mobile wallet, share via QR code or verifiable link. W3C VC 1.1 compliant. Embedded wallet (no MetaMask required). |
| 3. | Mobile QR verification | Production deployment of the GET /verify/qr?id= endpoint on the verifier agent — enabling any employer to scan a QR code and get instant on-chain credential verification. |
| 4. | Developer portal | Public developer portal with API reference, sandbox environment, and @educreds/verify-sdk integration examples live at developers.educreds.xyz. |
Milestone 3 — Legal Incorporation & Sustainability
- Estimated Duration: 3 weeks
- FTE: 1.5
- Costs: $8,000 USD
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Legal incorporation | Complete EduCreds Labs Ltd. incorporation with URSB (Uganda Registration Services Bureau). MOA, AOA, and company certificate filed. |
| 2. | Commercial billing live | Activate Stripe + Flutterwave billing for institutional subscriptions. First invoice issued to pilot institution. |
| 3. | Data Protection compliance | Complete Uganda Data Protection and Privacy Act (DPPA) registration. DPA templates for university contracts finalized. |
| 4. | Open governance model | Publish EduCreds’ open-source governance policy: contribution guidelines, DID method spec versioning process, security disclosure policy. Establishes EduCreds as a long-term maintained FOSS project. |
Future Plans
Short term (0–6 months):
- Scale from 1 to 5 university pilots across Uganda and East Africa
- Open-source the connector agent and verifier agent as standalone packages
- Submit
did:educredsDID method for W3C registration - Publish the PoIC (Proof of Institutional Credibility) AI trust scoring model as an open specification
Long term (6–24 months):
- EduCreds becomes the reference open-source credential infrastructure for East Africa — deployable by any government or university without a commercial dependency
- Government integrations: national academic registry in Uganda and Kenya
- OID4VC interoperability with European EUDI wallet ecosystem — East African credentials verifiable by any European employer
- Self-sustaining revenue model: institutional SaaS subscriptions + connector agent licensing fund ongoing open-source development; no permanent grant dependency
Why this will be sustainable:
EduCreds has a working commercial layer (Stripe + Flutterwave billing, usage metering, plan catalog — already built). Revenue from paying institutions funds continued open-source development. The grant is seed funding to reach the first paying pilot — not permanent life support.
Additional Information 
How did you hear about the Grants Program? Community research into Web3 grant programs aligned with open-source infrastructure work; recommendation via Radicle Discord.
Work already done:
- Full platform: Q1–Q4 2025/2026 roadmap 100% complete
- W3C VC 1.1 issuance and verification pipeline: live on Azure dev
did:educredsDID method specification: authored and implemented- OID4VC and SD-JWT adapters: deployed and tested
- AI-powered PoIC trust scoring engine: live
- On-premises connector agent: complete (offline queue, circuit breaker, SIS integration)
- Commercial billing layer: complete (Stripe, Flutterwave, usage metering)
- Security audit: full P0–P2 remediation completed (Aug 2026)
- 296/296 unit tests passing
- E2E pipeline verified against live Azure dev environment (Aug 2026)
- Accepted: National Innovation Hub incubator, Kampala
- Active: Microsoft for Startups (Azure credits + technical advisory)
Other funding:
- Microsoft for Startups: active (Azure credits + support)
- No other grants received or applied for
What makes this different from other “blockchain credentials” projects:
Most credentialing projects anchor a PDF hash on-chain and call it Web3. EduCreds issues native W3C Verifiable Credentials with sovereign DIDs, AI-gated institutional trust scoring, and an independent verification framework — the complete stack, open-source, production-ready, and solving a real problem for 400 million students across Africa who currently have no portable, verifiable proof of their qualifications.