multiPass

Multi-chain product passports (MultiPass) provides a bridge allowing for verifiable data associated with a Digital Product Passport to be stored in multiple ledgers. The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital identity card for products linked to verifiable data about their entire value chains. In the absence of standards, different, uninteroperable verifiable data storage solutions have emerged. MultiPass will provide a bridge allowing for verifiable data associated with a DPP to be stored in multiple ledgers. MultiPass’ ambition is to prevent DPP-provider lock-in and to enable semantics interoperability and portability of verifiable data.
MultiPass will consider use cases where the custody of a product can be modified, and each custodian may have its own business relationships with specific verifiable data storage providers. Custodians will be enabled to store new verifiable data and define access control policies using the storage provider of their choice. A framework, inspired by “The Update Framework”, will allow a product creator and trusted delegees to maintain a distributed list of “pointers” to the current verifiable data location of a product. A MultiPass client application, configured only with the product creator as the root of trust, will be able to retrieve the current custodian of a product and locate the verifiable data associated with the corresponding DPP in a trusted and secure manner.
At the same time, a semantics interoperability module will prevent unambiguity about the retrieved data and will allow cross-domain access control policies. MultiPass will integrate a fine-grained access control solution that implements Relationship-Based Access Control, which can efficiently capture both business relationships, as well as relationships between products. MultiPass will engage end-users in the design and validation of a proof-of-concept that will demonstrate multi-chain support for verifiable data storage in the manufacturing domain.
- Motivation for the project: MultiPass is well-aligned with TrustChain vision for “a portfolio of Next Generation Internet protocols and an ecosystem of decentralized software solutions that reach the highest standards of humanity such as […] sustainability, energy efficiency, our care for the environment. MultiPass will contribute to the creation of “resilient, secure and reliable data pathways in line with the European regulatory framework and taking into account European values while ensuring Trusted Data Ecosystems”. MultiPass enables interoperability, promotes decentralization, increases data sovereignty, and improves data security.
- Generic use case description: Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are very popular in the welding industry to promote more informed and sustainable processes. A DPP acts as a documentation tool, offering information about a product's lifecycle, including materials, manufacturing processes and sustainability attributes.
- Essential functionalities: MultiPass will enable verifiable data associated with a DPP to be stored in multiple locations in a controlled and sovereign way. The current custodian of a product will be defined through a trust delegation procedure rooted at the product creator. Product users will be able to retrieve verifiable data associated with a DPP in a secure, trustworthy, and user-friendly way. A user client application will be able to traverse the trust delegation “tree” and retrieve all required information (for which the user is authorized to access), independently of where it is stored.
- How these functionalities can be integrated within the software ecosystem: The MultiPass trust management module is inspired from “The Update Framework” (TUF), an open-source solution for managing software updates, maintained by the Linux foundation. MultiPass will use TUF to maintain a list of “approved” product custodians and “pointers” to the current location of the verifiable data associated with a DPP.
- Gap being addressed: DPP is envisioned to enable consumers to search for and compare the sustainability information provided for each product. Nevertheless, it has not yet been decided how and where (meta-)data about each product will be stored.
- Expected benefits achieved with the novel technology building blocks: MultiPass’ ambition is to prevent DPP-provider lock-in and to enable semantics interoperability and portability of verifiable data. The MultiPass client application module will enable product custodians to update the verifiable data associated with a DPP and product users to retrieve the verifiable data associated with a DPP in a secure, trusted, and user-friendly way.
- Potential demonstration scenario: Our solution will be validated and evaluated through the implementation of a use case aiming to support manufacturing processes, especially ones including welding processes, with a DPP to promote more informed and sustainable processes.
Team

Savvas Argyropoulos
PhD in electrical and computer engineering, 20 years of experience in academia and industry
Entity

StreamOwl
SME involved in R&D projects in computer-vision based inspection tasks, manufacturing, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence.
Website: http://sstreamowl.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/streamowl/