Blockchain technology and NFTs have been identified by the European Union (EU) as a means to mitigate counterfeiting and forgery attacks.
The European body has held several meetings exploring the possibilities, even holding blockchain hackathons to help initiate a proposal that will create digital twins of products that can be tracked and traced through supply lines.
This was initially offered by the European Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) after five years of deliberation. The EU has begun this process by selecting a “high-level architecture” to oversee the operation, outlined in a document released last month.
The ‘digital twinning’ process will allow intellectual property owners to create a digital token grouped with the original product as a mechanism to identify if the good(s) is authentic, along with IP holders, including their signatures, which can then be tracked through a blockchain.
Supply chain trackers will then be afforded the opportunity to track through varying checkpoints, which in turn allows IP holders to be confident that goods are authentic once they arrive at the store.
The EIPO aims to have the system working by the end of 2023 before it has successfully created a registry system for all IP holders, logistic operators and retailers within the EU.
The governing body states that it will seek out existing supply chain tracking solutions to share information and work alongside one another.
The proposed plans will become the first applications of blockchain technology for forgery and counterfeit checks if implemented at this scale by its intended date.
During discussions, the EU also outlined its plans for MiCA– a new regulatory framework to collect data from crypto transactions across Europe.
