A new cloud-based system uses blockchain and tamper-proof 2D barcodes to let manufacturers, suppliers, and customers verify that a product and its company are genuine, without relying on a central database that can be hacked. Current email-based authentication is vulnerable to phishing and identity theft, which costs UK businesses an estimated £10,830 per medium or large firm per attack. New EU regulations on product transparency—such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation—require companies to share detailed supply-chain information, but existing security tools cannot handle this safely. The project builds on decentralised identifier (DID) technology, a standard that emerged only in 2022, to create a fraud-proof identity layer for products and organisations. A manufacturer could register a product’s digital token in a blockchain wallet, and any party—from a regulator to a customer—could scan the product’s 2D code to confirm its origin and environmental data. The system eliminates central data storage, which the team estimates could cut cyber-identity fraud by 50%, saving the UK economy close to £1.4 billion. If successful, the platform would quietly strengthen supply-chain security for everything from car parts to electronics, without the public ever noticing the infrastructure beneath the barcode.
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Companies face increasingly stringent information transparency and information exchange needs. Including manufacturing suppliers that need to provide production process environmental information to manufacturers, and manufacturers that need to provide transparency from their supply chain to the final customer. Needs underpinned by new legislation for UK companies to operate and export abroad, especially to the EU, such as the EU Ecodesign for Sustainale Products Regulation. Standard role and e-mail based authentication solutions are insufficient for these new information exchange needs. This approach is prone to hacking and as a result IP and product information theft. Improved digital trust is needed for information exchanges and transparency. Our project seeks to solve this by delivering a cyber fraud proof solution that delivers the digital trust for information sharing use cases for companies in the UK, EU and globally, based on a service portal for combined organisation & product identity, management and verification. Developed from decentralised identifier & blockchain technology & cybersecure 2D data-carriers. Our innovation focuses on a disruptive technology approach, by building a new globally accessible cloud infrastructure for identity verification. To allow public user queries, and automated API based querying, to validate the identity of an organisation in combination with a product. In addition to centralised lookup and verification options, companies will be offered a decentralised management solution for their organisation and product identities in the portal. We will deploy decentralised ledger-based stores of identifiers using W3C Decentralised Identifier (DID) ledger architecture, emerging only since 2022\. DID:eth system eliminates the DNS and URI based routing weaknesses and provides a secure and reputable framework. Once registered the DID:web or DID:eth wallet containing information is secure and cannot be changed. Manufacturers will be offered to store tokens from Singapore partner ECOQCODE data carriers in their DID wallet also, so that any party can verify their 2D product data carriers are authentic. Providing a combined integrated technological solution for decentralised identifier management for products. Decentralised authentication offerings based on decentralised identifiers eliminates the need for central data storage, reducing the risk by 50% cyber identity fraud that can result in IP and knowledge theft (Deloitte 2020; Indico 2022). At 85% of attacks being phishing attacks, with an average estimated cost of £510 for all businesses, and £10,830 pounds per medium and large business (UK DSIT 2024). A 50% reduction would provide total potential benefits close to £1.4 billion for the UK economy.
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