eDocuments

eDocuments
Moving towards a paperless world

Problem
We have moved to an information and technology age. Most of the transactions in our day to day life are done on the net. There are many transactions which people never imagined could be done on net safely and in secure way. Still there are so many transactions which are done on paper. For example,

1) Certified Documents: These are copy of original documents which are certified by a notary as genuine. To have a document certified, a person should make a photocopy of the original document and take the original and the copy to an authorised person. This authorised person then verifies the document and puts a “seal” or “stamp” on the document.
2) Degrees/ Transcripts: Even in today’s world Schools/Universities continue to issue the degrees transcripts on paper based materials.
3) Other certificates : Every day there are tons of paper/ certificates printed and distributed all across world (in corporate , government organizations , tickets , passes etc)

Solution
There are millions of papers which get printed/photocopied and distributed everyday. eDocuments is a way in which the paper expenditure can be reduced and distribution of documents becomes easy, safe, secure and fast. The key to this solution is public key encryption mechanism. Each and every document issuing agency has a set of public and private key. This key set is issued to them by eDocuments.org in collaboration with governmental and other non governmental authorised agencies. The private key is confidential to the document issuing agency and public key is available to every one using a central website (eDocuments.org). All the documents would be encrypted and can be transferred and be decrypted and viewed only by using public key.
The rule is simple, “Any document which is not encrypted is not valid or true”

Scenarios
Lets take few scenarios to explain how this solution works

1) Scenario 1: Certified Documents

Present Situation
-----------------------------
Gary photocopies a document and takes the original and the photocopies to Sue the Notary. Sue the Notary, validates the documents and puts a seal or stamp on the copy. This seal was given to Sue by “The Law Association”.
Gary takes the certified copy and mails to the organization which requires it. This document reaches the destination in 4 days.
It is a valid document since it has a seal or stamp on it.

Future
---------------
Gary scans the documents and takes soft copy and originals to Sue the Notary. Sue the Notary, validates the documents and encrypts them using his private key. This private key was issued to Sue by “The Law Association” in collaboration with eDocuments.org.
Gary takes the certified copy and emails them to the organization which requires it. This document reaches the destination immediately
It is a valid document since it can be decrypted only by public key of Sue which is available on eDocuments.org website.

2) Scenario 2: Certificates / Transcripts

Present Situation
-----------------------

Gary graduated from the university today. He got a degree certificate, he also got the transcripts of all semester and other school leaving certificates. All these documents carry university seal and logo. Gary has to keep this certificates safely and carry them with him whenever he moves or changes his job.

Future
-----------------

Gary graduated from the university today. He got a degree certificate, he also got the transcripts of all semester and other school leaving certificates. All this documents are given to him on DVD and are encrypted using university private key. It can be decrypted using public key of university which is available on eDocuments.org website. Gary is very happy since he can always keep his documents with him without worrying about wear and tear.


Summary
It is a brand new concept and all the financial details needs to be worked out, revenue can be generated using different ways ranging from , charging for each and every documents , issuing the license of encryption, monthly fees to maintain the public key. The concept of eDocuments is not only environment friendly but could also save money and time of organizations.