Global Standards

Open Standards (GS1 EPCIS/CBV and W3C integration)

The majority of global supply chains run on standards developed by the GS1 organization. After all, GS1 invented the Barcode. The first Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned on June 26th, 1974 in a Marsh Stores in Troy, Ohio and the checkout went “beep” for the first time.

Other systems to identify, capture, and share information among supply chain partners were all developed over the past 45 years by GS1. These standards allow for interoperability between different systems and supply chain architectures across the globe. Any blockchain-based solution to improve traceability should integrate with these legacy systems; and the OriginTrail protocol was designed, from the ground up, to do this.

The OriginTrail protocol fully supports the GS1 EPCIS 1.2, 2.0 and CBV standards in the protocol data structure. This ensures full compliance and integration with legacy systems. In July 2020, TraceLabs joined the 54 company working group to develop the next generation EPCIS/CBV 2.0 standards. This article explains the implications of going from EPCIS 1.2 to EPCIS 2.0 and the importance of staying updated with current global standards. Here is Brana Rakic, CTO and Founder of OT, commenting on this very upgrade (Slide 1, Slide 2 & Slide 3 from the tweet). The upgrade from EPCIS 1.2 to EPCIS 2.0 will allow companies to view, access, share, and even monetize their own data in ways that were not possible before – a game-changer in the world of business, coupled with OT’s DKG, EPCIS 2.0 will bring enormous value to companies. This puts OriginTrail in an incredible position to shape next-generation intelligent supply chain interactions. Currently, a real-life example would be Aidtrust using the GS1 and EPCIS 2.0 standards to provide supply chain visibility as noted here. More on that in part 3.

In August 2020, TraceLabs announced an integration of the ODN and the upcoming GS1 Digital Link standard. GS1 Digital Link is the latest creation by GS1, relying on the Decentralized Knowledge Graph, which is the ODN (OriginTrail Decentralized Network). Phil Archer, Web advocate at GS1, explain it in his presentation here (at 5:20, Phil points at the Decentralized Knowledge Graph).

OriginTrail/TraceLabs has been a member of GS1 since 2018, which gives them access to the development of supply chain standards and their implementation. OriginTrail/TraceLabs co-founder Žiga Drev was invited to speak at several local and global GS1 conferences, including the GS1 Global Forums in 2019 and 2020. OriginTrail was also featured in a 2018 GS1 position paper on blockchain technology. GS1 members are intimately aware of the protocol through these endeavors.

The OriginTrail protocol also supports the Web of Things (W3C) recommended standard. This will ensure wide compatibility with IoT devices and has already been utilized for a number of European Union-wide use cases and pilots.

OriginTrail’s standards-based approach also caught the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF), who detailed OriginTrail as one of the top blockchain-based supply chain solutions in their 2020 Blockchain Deployment Toolkit report. They also published an article on OriginTrail’s Essential COVID-19 Supplies Repository as an effective use of blockchain technology.

Lastly, the German Federal Office for Information Security praised OriginTrail as one of two future leaders in blockchain-assisted supply chain management.