[ivansavz]

This could be good, but I don't think we need to imitate the "granularity" of the existing system. Currently, the "accreditation" is very chunky: a piece of 11"x17" paper certifying you know how to read and write, and can produce a sustained effort of three years in a row.

A more interesting option would be to issue certificates for each course taken. Specifically, it shouldn't be necessary to sit through all the lectures and do all the exercises, but simply pass an "I know my stuff" exam, as per @amorphid's suggestion.

The test could be a 30 minutes skype interview + problem solving session over skype with an professional accreditator. Of course, this only pushes the reputation question to the problem of who accredidates the accreditators, but that might be easier to solve, at least for certain niches.