Press ReleaseSpherity will build Supply Chain Provenance in EBSI TRACE4EU project together with world-leading partners

Spherity, is part of the consortium that won the EBSI project: Traceability Reference Architecture Conformant EBSI for the European Union (TRACE4EU). The project which is funded by the European Union aims to build a common technical ground for the traceability of documents and physical goods using the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). Within this project, Spherity will lead the work package on Products & Materials Traceability that deals with Seafood, Agrifood, Halloumi, and Battery Traceability. The Products & Materials Traceability addresses the tracking requirements of physical products. This process includes the physical (pre-) products and materials that will be shipped and further processed in factories or manufacturing plants as well as the arrival of products to consumers. TRACE4EU is led by Slovenia with the participation of more than 50 organizations and companies from 15 EU countries with the aim to design and implement holistic solutions for trustworthy products and data traceability. The general objective of this project is to create an “umbrella architecture” based on existing EBSI services. The architecture builds the basis for the implementation of traceability application scenarios.

TRACE4EU promotes recommendations for developing the EBSI ecosystem through engagement with pan-European stakeholders and has the potential to significantly influence traditional industries, assisting them in becoming more efficient, productive, competitive, and resilient. Upcoming traceability implementations will also improve transparency in the European area for citizens, who will be able to track commodities and documents more effectively and proactively.

Our objectives for work package 4 are:

• Testing interoperability by applying the EBSI-umbrella architecture in various EU use cases
• Demonstrating the technological interoperability of the developed umbrella architecture between the Product & Materials Traceability pillar and the Document/Data Traceability pillar
• Incentives for European public authorities, research institutions, universities, and private sector actors to use EBSI
• Showcase best practices definition for the transfer of the EBSI-based umbrella architecture to other EU countries
• Defining the cooperation methods with other use case-related and EBSI-related projects, may it be past or future projects

“Spherity is very proud to lead the work package on ‘Products and Materials traceability‘. Our biggest aim is to build an ecosystem with a common technical basis and low barriers for participants to achieve a large industry adoption.” — Dr. Susanne Guth-Orlowski, Chief Innovation & Solutions Officer of Spherity.

“With the emergence of digital verifiable credentials, much more impactful compliance technology is possible and digital certificates are starting to be at the core of the policy life cycle from policy endorsement to ecosystem-wide enforcement at scale. Material traceability will be a critical success factor for sustainability-related regulation. This is why the TRACE4EU ecosystem can bring policy enforcement to the next level.” — Dr. Carsten Stöcker, CEO of Spherity.

To participate in the ecosystem, actors in the supply chain need to apply for an identity credential from a trusted identity provider such as the Global Legal Entity Identity Foundation (GLEIF). Identity credentials are stored in the company wallet as verifiable credentials. Audits determine whether various supply chain actors are in compliance. As auditors, they issue certificates as proof of compliance with a regulation or as proof of origin for the end customer. Depending on the product category, these certifications must be preserved for a specific period of time.

About Spherity

Spherity is a German decentralized digital identity software provider that brings secure identities to enterprises, machines, products, data, and even algorithms. We provide the enabling technology to digitize and automate compliance processes in highly-regulated technical sectors. Our offered products empower cyber security, efficiency, and data interoperability among digital value chains. Spherity is an implementation partner of Gaia-X and a thought leader in the area of digital product passports. Spherity holds a certification according to the information security standard ISO 27001.

About EBSI

The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) aims to leverage the power of blockchain for the public good. EBSI is an initiative of the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP). EBSI was born in 2018 when 29 countries (all EU member states, Norway, and Liechtenstein) and the EU Commission joined forces to create the EBP. EBP’s vision is to leverage blockchain to create cross-border services for public administrations, businesses, citizens, and their ecosystems to verify the information and make services trustworthy.

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