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Meeting 2025-12-11 1857 AEDT – Notes

Dec 11, 2025

UN CEFACT GTR Project - AUS / EU​

Invited John Phillips Jo Spencer Steve Capell Alina Nica Gales

Attachments UN CEFACT GTR Project - AUS / EU

Meeting records Transcript Recording

Summary​

John Phillips welcomed participants and summarized the previous meeting's discussion of FIDES’ work with KvK and the Senegal symposium. Alex Tweeddale presented and demoed Cheqd Studio, proposing it as a suitable tool to establish the Global Trust Registry (GTR) and Global Registrar Information Directory (GRID) design decisions, including creating a DID for the GRID, defining a "meta-registry," and accrediting Registrars with the role of "issuer" using the UNTP specification's Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) schema.

The participants discussed the sovereignty of registrars, with John Phillips suggesting that national identifiers could be included within a signed DIA data packet, and they agreed that Cheqd Studio functions as an "ecosystem factory" that complements the FIDES KvK work. Key topics included the importance of simplicity in the project's design compared to Europe's e-justice system, concerns raised by Alina Nica Gales about the European identifier needing to be considered in the project's work, and the need for legal opinions, emphasized by Hans J. Huber, to address the relationship between the EUID and the verifiable trade work, which John Phillips suggested could be solved by using the DIA as a non-controlling container for other identifiers.

Details​

Notes Length: Standard

  • Meeting Logistics and Agenda John Phillips welcomed participants to the UN/CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project, confirming the meeting is being recorded with the transcript and recording available shortly after the event. They reminded attendees about the royalty-free, open development process and the linked Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy. The main agenda item for the day was Alex Tweeddale's presentation on their work with the Cheqd product and its relevance to the Global Trust Registry (GTR) and Global Registrar Information Directory (GRID) projects [00:00:00].

  • Review of Previous Meeting John Phillips provided a brief summary of the previous meeting, which featured Harmen van er Kooij presenting the FIDES work with KvK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce [00:00:59]. This presentation covered a harvesting process for published, verifiable documents that mirrored some of the GRID's thinking. They also mentioned the successful Senegal symposium where Alina Nica Gales and John presented, and confirmed the interest of HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs) post the meeting. [00:01:51].

  • Introduction to Cheqd Studio and DID Creation Alex Tweeddale began their demo of Cheqd Studio, proposing that its design strongly complements the GRID and GTR project goals [00:02:48]. They demonstrated creating a new decentralized identifier (DID) for the GRID on a test net, calling it the "global registrar information directory". This process established an identifier for GRID, intended to later list identifiers for associated registrars within a trust registry tied to the GRID DID [00:03:56].

  • Clarification on DID Entity Type and Validation Hans J. Huber inquired whether the DID was created for a legal entity or an object, to which Alex Tweeddale confirmed it was for a legal entity, predominantly an organization [00:06:37]. John Phillips questioned the validation process for the DID's URL, and Alex Tweeddale clarified that the trust registry validation includes an optional step to add the DID as a text record in the organization's DNS record for verification, though this was skipped for the demo's brevity [00:07:48].

  • Cheqd Studio for Setting up a Meta-Registry Alex Tweeddale summarized the goal of the demo for Alina Nica Gales, explaining that Cheqd Studio could help the UN/CEFACT and GRID establish a registrar of registrars using DIDs and verifiable credentials (VCs) [00:09:06]. Hans J. Huber affirmed this, noting that Alex Tweeddale was creating the root of a meta-register of registries, the "root of trust". Alex Tweeddale suggested linking this root DID to a DNS record for ideal trust establishment [00:11:27].

  • Creating and Managing an Ecosystem Alex Tweeddale created a second DID for Registradores de España and then established an "ecosystem" named "global registrar directory grid," designating the GRID DID as the root [00:12:40]. This ecosystem included a status list for revocation/suspension and incorporated the Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) schema from the UNTP specification as an authoritative schema. The ecosystem setup allows GRID to accredit members to issue VCs using that specific schema [00:14:58].

  • Accrediting a Member Registrar Alex Tweeddale demonstrated adding Registradores de España's DID as a member of the GRID ecosystem with the role of an "issuer," accrediting them to issue the digital identity anchor schema [00:16:10]. They showed that this action generates an on-chain verifiable accreditation from the GRID DID to Registradores de España's DID, which can be revoked or suspended. This means that any DIA published by Registradores de España can be traced back to GRID's approval [00:20:50].

  • Governance and Schema Development John Phillips clarified that the project intends to use the UNTP Digital Identity Anchor spec, and if improvements are needed, they will submit pull requests to the UNTP specification. John Phillips noted that UN/CEFACT's governance processes manage standards, and the UNTP spec includes a core specification with extensions to address unique qualities of particular supply chains [00:18:51].

  • Sovereignty and Linking National Identifiers with DIAs Alina Nica Gales raised concerns about the proliferation of identifiers, noting that registrars already have national identifiers [00:25:41]. John Phillips stressed the importance of registrar sovereignty, agreeing that they should not be required to change how they issue identifiers [00:24:54]. John Phillips suggested that the business identifier declared by the registrar could be "shrink-wrapped" inside a signed DIA data packet, prefixing it with the registrar's identity to ensure global uniqueness [00:26:37].

  • The Role of Grid and Registrars in Issuing DIAs Alex Tweeddale and John Phillips discussed the potential for the GRID to issue DIAs to registrars that are part of the grid, or for registrars to issue their own DIAs to their members and link to the GRID's authorization [00:30:19]. Alex Tweeddale demonstrated how a registrar, upon issuing a DIA to a company, could embed a pointer to the GRID's accreditation [00:33:24]. This allows verification that the registrar is authorized by the GRID to issue that specific type of DIA [00:34:48].

  • Cheqd Studio as an Ecosystem Factory John Phillips summarized that Cheqd Studio functions as an "ecosystem factory," providing a general engine for setting up and managing ecosystems, defining schemas, and onboarding organizations with recognized status. Alex Tweeddale agreed, emphasizing that the design decisions, such as including a pointer to GRID's accreditation within the DIA, allow for multiple checks upon verification: that the credential is valid, has not been revoked, and was authorized by GRID [00:39:00].

  • Comparison of Cheqd Studio and FIDES / KvK Work Alex Tweeddale viewed the work on Cheqd Studio and the FIDES / KvK discovery tool as complementary. They explained that FIDES' tool could serve as a discovery mechanism for various DID-based ecosystems, including Cheqd Studio's [00:41:10]. The primary distinction is that Cheqd Studio provides an optional ledger-based approach for registrars to ensure immutability, persistence, and version history of digital identity anchors, which helps with record-keeping and auditability [00:42:20].

  • Discussion on Future Meetings and Economic Arguments John Phillips noted that the next project meeting would likely be in January and asked Hans J. Huber if they would like to present their work on Verifiable Trade, with Hans J. Huber tentatively suggesting the end of February [00:43:31]. John Phillips then presented two key documents published on the project's public website: an economic argument summary and an in-depth document detailing the economic case for GRID and DIAs, encouraging critique from the group [00:45:06].

  • Pilot Implementation and Design Questions John Phillips shared the development of a simple simulation environment for the GRID using GitLab repositories to mirror the logical model [00:46:04]. This environment allows playing with concepts and design requirements, such as harvesting and checking the GPG/SSH signatures of metadata to simulate DID processes [00:47:09]. John Phillips emphasized that the simulation, featuring fictional countries, is intended to flush out requirements for the actual operational system, accommodating registrars with varying technological capabilities [00:49:19] [00:53:27].

  • Pilot Model and Sovereignty Alex Tweeddale questioned if DIA issuance was out of scope for the GitLab model, and John Phillips clarified that while the project focuses on nailing down the GRID's functionality, DIAs could be issued to show recognition of registrars, maintaining the principle that registrars remain the sovereign issuers for their registered organizations [00:53:27]. John Phillips also emphasized that the GRID model does not store registry data (e.g., company names), maintaining the UN's clear delineation of liability by focusing only on the authenticity of the data provided by the registrars [00:54:20].

  • E-Justice Comparison and Simplicity Alina Nica Gales mentioned that colleagues asked if the project would work similarly to Europe's e-justice system, which Alina Nica Gales noted was not working well [00:55:26]. John Phillips argued that the project must prioritize simplicity, add value to global supply chain transparency, and avoid getting pulled into the unique qualities of European law too much, aiming to serve all nations [00:56:19] [00:57:57].

  • European Identifier and Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) Concerns Alina Nica Gales explained that some parties were concerned that their work would interfere with the European Commission's requirement to use the European identifier, making them "frightened" about potential problems. John Phillips suggested that if the term "digital identity anchor" causes issues, they might consider finding another way to describe the concept, but Alina Nica Gales cautioned against constantly changing names [00:57:57]. Hans J. Huber emphasized the need for legal opinions to address how the EUID can be related to the verifiable trade work [00:58:57].

  • Legal and Technical Interoperability of Identifiers John Phillips proposed that the DIA could serve as a container, allowing an EU ID or a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) code to be included without the DIA being the parent or controller, which would not change the legal significance of the contained identifiers. Hans J. Huber expressed concern that the legal world often reacts late, potentially creating problems after solutions are established [01:00:00] [01:01:57]. Alina Nica Gales confirmed that any identifier involves both technical and legal requirements, supporting Hans J. Huber's point [01:00:55].

  • Review of Legal Documentation and Meeting Schedule John Phillips highlighted Alina Nica Gales' work on the legal implications of the DIA, urging them to share this content to get early legal opinions, which they deemed invaluable [01:00:00]. Alina Nica Gales confirmed they had granted access to the documents, including the digital identity anchor data structure, to the new board members who need to read them from scratch [01:01:57]. The speakers then reviewed the location of the eligibility requirements document, which John Phillips confirmed was merged into "document number four," and John Phillips asked Alina Nica Gales to double-check that the document merge into markdown had not broken anything. The meeting concluded, with John Phillips noting it would likely be the last meeting before the next year, though channels would remain open [01:03:29].

Suggested next steps​

  • Hans J. Huber will share what verifiable trade has been building in an upcoming meeting, likely at the end of February.

  • John Phillips will make sure that the economic argument document is critiqued and improved.

  • Alex Tweeddale will help John Phillips with the design decisions and questions that arise from the demonstration and the work on the pilot environment.

  • Alina Nica Gales will check the digital identical minion data structure document to ensure that John Phillips has not broken anything by pulling it into markdown and putting it onto the site.