Purpose, schedule and name
Purpose
The project in the original project brief1 states:
Aligning with the commitments enshrined in the UN Global Digital Compact (https://www.un.org/global-digital-compact/en), this project is aimed at uplifting trust and integrity as well as > equitable inclusion within the global digital and sustainable trade ecosystem.
Identifiers managed by authoritative registers are ubiquitous throughout the global supply chain.
For example:
National (or state level in many cases) government run business registers.
Land registers that define ownership of a geolocated boundary. Usually state level.
Trademark registers that manage ownership of brands.
All kinds of international domain specific registers such as the IMO register of ships or the BIC register of containers.
An even larger number of national industry specific registers such as the Australian National Livestock Identification System (NLIS).
A characteristic of all these registers is that they generally have robust processes for managing the identity and status of registered members. They are the trusted authority. However, most registers issue paper or PDF registration certificates that are easily forged. There is often no easy and digitally verifiable way for a registry member (e.g. an Australian business with an Australian Business Number - ABN) to prove that they are the genuine owner of a given identifier.
The risk of forgery and fakes have been significantly heightened by the mis-use of AI. We can no longer believe what we see and hear at ‘face value’. However, and no matter how powerful the AI, cryptographically verifiable identity and digital signatures provide a strategic and urgent needed counter to that threat. An AI cannot simply “generate” or guess the private/public key pair of another party. This means that it cannot digitally sign the fakes it generates as that party. And that means that we can still prove the provenance of genuine articles.
This approach to verifiable data extends to all elements of data that are valuable for supply chain integrity and transparency. This means that claims about all supply chain relevant data (such as trademarks for brands, patents, compliance certificates, digital product passports, organisation identity etc.) can be made by the organisation issuing them and verified by the organisation(s) who rely upon them.
Deliverables and Deadlines
Project Name and System Name
When the call to participation was published it became clear that the title “Global Trust Registry” caused some confusion.
The project will not seek to create a central registry of all registry content, it will not (cannot) dictate to nation states how they should do what they do. It will not "score" registries against a "trustworthiness" scale.
Rather it will seek to recognise the nation state authoritative registries that exist, understand their authority and governance and what and how they issue registrations, and recommend how these registries could issue their registry identifiers in a way that enables their use for supply chain transparency at scale.
The project will be recommending that a system is produced that supports the idea of a directory of global authoritative registrars. It will also be providing the supporting evidence and recommendations on why this would be of benefit to UN Member States and how this could be created and run.