First Scalable Enterprise Solutions Leveraging the Value of Public Blockchain

- British Standards Institution and Trace Labs Launch Blockchain-based Solutions for Integrity of Digital Records

HONG KONG, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In early 2019, the business standards company BSI partnered up exclusively with Trace Labs, the core developers of OriginTrail, to deliver blockchain-enabled solutions. With such solutions, the British Standards Institution (BSI) seeks to enhance its global assurance, certification, and supply chain services by ensuring the integrity of digital records. In collaboration with Trace Labs, BSI is now launching a series of blockchain-based solutions catering to both organizations and individuals aiming to build resilience in their supply chains, a need becoming even more apparent in light of the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Solutions described in the recently released BSI white paper - titled "Instruments of Trust: BSI's Blockchain-Based Solutions" - enable a secure and trusted way of verifying the authenticity of claimed personal credentials as well as company and product certifications. BSI has also introduced the SCAN Trusted Factory Blockchain Program designed for US importers to ensure the authenticity of a factory's certification and factory credentials.

False assertions are prevalent in society leaving people uncertain of whom and what to trust. Counterfeit products and false claims are far too commonplace and perpetually flood the market. Examples include counterfeit drugs/fentanyl-laced prescriptions, false or misleading food labels, and the range of credentials provided to others as part of our daily lives – passports, qualifications and so on. Challenges remain within legacy trust systems, as businesses and consumers demand an immutable source of truth and verification.

"In today's global, interconnected economy, there is a growing trust deficit felt by businesses and consumers," said, Dan Purtell, BSI Group Innovation Director

To help combat false claims, BSI partnered with Trace Labs in early 2019 and has since used technology based on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network (ODN) in three pilot projects. This allowed BSI to provide a suite of solutions that serve as instruments of trust for its clients, enhancing the resilience of its brands. Using DLT technology as a single source of truth, they aim to provide clients with the ability to demonstrate to their customers the authenticity of their claims, be it certifications, product authenticity, or traceability. BSI and Trace Labs are continuing to develop new solutions beyond the three pilot projects.

The aim of the partnership is to help clients:

• Comply with regulation and standards;
• Meet client expectations concerning products features and claims (safety, quality, and other attributes);
• Manage business risk and product quality and reduce the cost of non-conformity;
• Be able to effectively manage product recalls with near-real-time corrective action; and
• Extract more value out of data already generated in global supply chains.

As per the announcement made in January 2019, Howard Kerr, Chief Executive of BSI, stated: "In today's increasingly interconnected world, transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain is vital. This strategic partnership aims to provide our clients with the ability to demonstrate the authenticity of their compliance through the digital records of the assessments and certifications they have achieved from BSI. Ultimately building trust and confidence as consumers and business partners can easily verify the provenance of the goods and/or services they are buying."

The BSI has now launched a series of blockchain-based solutions developed together with Trace Labs and published a white paper detailing three applications designed to provide organizations and individuals with secure and trusted means of verifying the authenticity of claimed personal credentials as well as company and product certifications.

Jurij Skornik, General Manager of Trace Labs, said: "We have been working closely with our partners at BSI for the past year to enhance their world-class assurance services with our state-of-the-art trust-enhancing technology. The results are three applications that help individuals and companies demonstrate and verify the authenticity of issued credentials, the importance of which has been made indisputably clear in the COVID-19 world. We are looking forward to continuing our cooperation with BSI and developing new solutions that infuse trust into businesses around the world."

One of the introduced solutions is the Supplier Compliance Audit Network (SCAN) Trusted Factory Blockchain Program designed for US importers to ensure the authenticity of a factory's certification and factory credentials. SCAN is an association of importers that was formed to eliminate foreign factory audit fatigue associated with supply chain security importing criteria within the US Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program (CTPAT). SCAN importing members have combined annual sales of USD 1.25 trillion and source from factories around the world. More than 50 percent of these factories are shared by multiple SCAN members, which, prior to SCAN, would have resulted in the facilities having regular audits by independent importers. Today, SCAN has more than 18,000 factories in the SCAN database and the program's popularity has grown internationally, with several hundred audits conducted monthly. The solution secures permissioned audit data and factory credentials on the ODN, based on the public Ethereum blockchain, and makes them accessible to SCAN members and interested government agencies such as CTPAT for viewing. The implementation utilizes the global W3C Verifiable Credentials data model to ensure interoperability and compatibility with novel frameworks such as the Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework.

Speaking about the BSI white paper, Ken McElroy, Mgr. Global Trade Risk Home Depot noted: "As a Tier III CTPAT business partner The Home Depot continually strives for improvements in its supply chain security platform. Membership in SCAN has delivered both an effective platform as well as cost savings through the use of shared audits. Adding a secured blockchain element over the top of the SCAN audit only increases the security and integrity of these audits! With the intention of this level of integrity and security leading to a "trusted factory" program with the various regulatory agencies further costs should be driven out of the supply chain."

About BSI

BSI is the business improvement company that enables organizations to turn standards of best practice into habits of excellence. For over a century, BSI has championed what good looks like and driven best practices in organizations around the world. Working with over 86,000 clients across 193 countries, it is a truly international business with skills and experience across a number of sectors including aerospace, automotive, built environment, food, and healthcare. Through its expertise in standards development and knowledge solutions, assurance, and professional services, BSI improves business performance to help clients grow sustainably, manage risk, and ultimately be more resilient.

To learn more, please visit: www.bsigroup.com

About Trace Labs

Trace Labs is a blockchain company developing enterprise solutions for trusted data exchange across the supply chain. Their solutions enable forward-thinking organizations to gain the most knowledge and make better decisions based on interconnected data from their supply chains. Trace Labs is also the core development company of the open-source OriginTrail protocol for blockchain-based data exchange.

Founded in 2013, Trace Labs has built award-winning enterprise solutions for supply chains, including those for traceability and verifiable claims. In 2017, Trace Labs received an award from the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center. Trace Labs believes sustainable supply chains are only possible when all organizations, big or small, are allowed to benefit from trusted data exchanges.

For more information about Trace Labs, please visit: tracelabs.io

For more information about OriginTrail, please visit: origintrail.io

About SCAN

SCAN is an industry trade association that provides a systematic approach whereby mutually acceptable global compliance standards are achieved in reducing audit and operational redundancy for common supply chain stakeholders while maintaining confidentiality. This collaboration led to the creation of a single agreed-upon security audit and sharing platform that would allow importers to conduct and evaluate shared CTPAT compliant supplier and factory security audits. Both US Customs and the CTPAT organization have been introduced to SCAN and have acknowledged the potential benefits of the program.

For more information about SCAN, please visit: https://www.scanassociation.com

About CTPAT

CTPAT is but one layer in the US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) multi-layered cargo enforcement strategy. Through this program, CBP works with the trade community to strengthen international supply chains and improve United States border security. CTPAT is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program which recognizes that CBP can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close cooperation with the principal stakeholders of the international supply chain such as importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers. From its inception in November 2001, CTPAT has continued to grow. Today, more than 11,400 certified partners spanning the gamut of the trade community have been accepted into the program. The partners include US importers/exporters; US/Canada highway carriers; US/Mexico highway carriers; rail and sea carriers; licensed US Customs brokers; US marine port authority/terminal operators; US freight consolidators; ocean transportation intermediaries and non–operating common carriers; Mexican and Canadian manufacturers; and Mexican long–haul carriers. All of whom account for more than 52 percent (by value) of cargo imported into the US.

For more information about CTPAT, please visit: https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/ports-entry/cargo-security/ctpat

Sources

BSI Innovations insight, Issue one (June 2020) – Instruments of Trust: BSI's Blockchain-Based Solutions:
https://content.yudu.com/web/43fqt/0A43yjx/InnovatInsightsMay20/html/index.html 

https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/Innovation/innovation-insights/

OriginTrail partners with BSI to develop blockchain-enabled solutions (January 2019): https://medium.com/origintrail/origintrail-partners-with-bsi-to-develop-blockchain-enabled-solutions-d955a54d3371

BSI partners with OriginTrail to develop blockchain-enabled solutions (January 2019):
https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/media-centre/press-releases/2019/january/bsi-partners-with-origintrail-to-develop-blockchain-enabled-solutions/

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