In education, certificates confirm the achievement of certain learning outcomes and continue to be mostly issued on paper or other physical formats. Paper certificates with built-in security features are difficult to forge. In addition, recipients can easily store paper certificates or can show them to any person and for any purpose.  
However, there are some disadvantages, such as the manual activity for third parties to verify the certificate, or the need for certification authorities to maintain a registry or database for certificates for a long period of time.