IOTA and Zebra have joined forces to introduce cutting-edge digital product passports (DPPs) that are built on trustworthy value chains, promoting a circular economy model that incorporates new product data management.
DPPs enable users to monitor products and access information such as their origin, composition, durability, and how they should be handled at the end of their life cycle. This technology is aimed at businesses, customs agencies, consumers, and more.
Blockchain technology has moved beyond the hype and is now focused on practical applications, and the IOTA ecosystem is leading the global revolution in this field. José Manuel Cantera, a senior ICT expert and consultant at the IOTA Foundation, discussed at Zebra DevCon 2023 how the partnership with Zebra is transforming commerce through digital product passports (DPPs), and how IOTA’s scalability is driving this revolution.
Cantera delved into how the partnership with Zebra provides DPPs based on transparent and trustworthy value chains. In his role, he focuses on strategic technical leadership, including the partnership with the European Commission under the EU Blockchain Services PCP.
For those who missed Zebra DevCon 2023, José M. Cantera’s presentation on Digital Product Passports can now be watched. Zebra Devs and IOTA are collaborating to create DPPs based on transparent and trustworthy value chains. Learn more about it!
DPPs are a project initiated by the European Commission to facilitate the sharing of crucial product information that is vital for sustainability and circularity. A circular economy is centered around recycling and reusing materials and products to promote sustainability.
As Cantera explained to the attendees of Zebra DevCon, DPPs provide data such as product information, manufacturing processes, and the environmental impact of products. They also include key tracking events, such as transportation conditions, as well as certificates like warranty and compliance.
The target audience for DPPs includes market surveillance authorities for compliance verification, consumers for safer purchases and authenticity, customs authorities for more efficient enforcement activities, and businesses.
The Circular Economy – IOTA and Zebra’s DPP Revolution
DPPs can only be implemented on decentralized ledger technology. However, blockchain-based distributed ledger technology (DLT) falls short as it relies on slow periodic block creation. Blockchain faces a tradeoff, where fast block creation compromises security and vice versa. Additionally, blockchain relies on sequential writing with one leader at a time, which leads to inefficient sequential processing. Blockchain networks also depend on miners, who are typically a small group of players.
IOTA’s Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG) DLT provides the ideal solution by offering a fast and continuous stream of messages. DAG’s parallel writing is faster than blockchain networks, and its parallel processing is more efficient. Unlike blockchain, DAG does not rely on miners, but instead, it utilizes many writers and a more flexible incentive structure.
IOTA and Zebra provide developers with a framework to create data commitments through audit trails. These commitments are data structures composed of a chain of data records that capture a sequence of states.
The two entities have successfully conducted experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of their solutions. One experiment focused on the use of DPPs for electronics, where they collaborated with Spain’s Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña and electronics giant HP. In the second experiment, they partnered with American software company Digimarc for plastic upcycling.
The partnership is gaining momentum in Europe, with the IOTA Foundation being selected as one of three finalists out of over 30 applicants to participate in the final phase of the EU blockchain services PCP process.