Position Paper: Trusted Digital Product Passports

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Regen Studio took the lead in creating a groundbreaking position paper on Trusted Digital Product Passports (tDPPs) for FIDES, partly commissioned by the Dutch Blockchain Coalition.

This paper brought together a collaboration of TNO, GS1, Eindhoven University of Technology, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Quintessence Research, Warren Brandeis, Sphereon, Credenco, CMS lawyers, and Wipro.

The paper describes an approach to a new policy concept defined by the European Union through the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). Standardisation of DPPs is underway, and the insights in this paper assist in designing them in a way that consumers can trust the information they are being presented. Moreover, it attempts to unite DPP system providers towards a future of adopted interoperability specifications.

What the Paper Covers

The paper begins by defining a number of implicit drivers: Complexity of Supply Chains, Increase of Digital Data, Disruptions and Resilience, Preventing and Detecting Fraud, Responsibility and Sustainability, Improved Business Cases, and the Need for Standardisation.

The next chapter examines the explicit drivers rooted in European legislation. The ESPR — which resulted from the Green Deal — provides the legal framework for DPPs, with its delegated acts forming the basis for implementation across specific product groups. Reporting regulations such as the CSRD give further incentive for DPP use, while data and privacy regulations including eIDAS2 provide additional guidance.

A Vision on Trusted Digital Product Passports

A Trusted DPP (tDPP) is typically an open ecosystem with decentralized and permissionless structures for technology, data, and processes.

Where trust at scale is essential, where there is no complete overview of the supply chain, where stakeholders involved in the future are hard to predict, where these parties have both shared and conflicting interests, and where no clear centre of trust justifies centralization — tDPPs provide a solid foundation for DPP design. This is generally the case for the complex network of supply chains.

It is essential to integrate building blocks of self-sovereign digital identities for individuals, organisations, and objects to facilitate trust networks around the DPP. Additionally, the tDPP focuses on extensive interoperability within and beyond its own chain. The DPP must also have a certain degree of digital autonomy built in, to allow the self-organisation of complex trust networks. Finally, the tDPP looks beyond compliance, addressing the subjective aspects of trust by focusing on added value for end-users. This makes the system more resilient to abuse of power, more democratic, reliable, and easier to adopt in complex ecosystems.

Designing with this vision in mind today can bring that future closer to reality.

What Comes Next

The position paper further sketches strategic horizons, draws up important criteria for developing tDPPs, discusses practical use cases, and argues for certain architectural elements to serve as the foundation of DPP design — so that true trust ecosystems might emerge.

At Regen Studio, within our work on DPPs, we try to make this vision a reality. Reach out through info@regenstudio.world if you are also building trust ecosystems around products and want to apply DPPs in your own context.