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2025-07-10 1646 AEST

Jul 10, 2025

UN CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project - AUS / EU​

Invited John Phillips Jo Spencer Steve Capell Alina Nica Gales

Attachments UN CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project - AUS / EU

Meeting records Transcript Recording

Summary​

John Phillips welcomed new attendees, including Teresa Toan, SurendraSingh Sucharia (Suren), Alex Tweeddale, Tony Lenko, Manuel Lorenzo, Carmen Miquel, and Jo Spencer, to the UNCEFACT Global Trust Registry Project meeting. Alina Nica Gales debriefed on the Geneva meetings, explaining the project's dual purpose: creating a global trust registry and a digital identity anchor as a cryptographically verifiable credential. John Phillips and Alina Nica Gales discussed Recommendation 49 and its approval, while Alex Tweeddale and Manuel Lorenzo raised concerns about scalability and architecture. John Phillips also outlined the project's deliverables, including eligibility requirements for registries, data type definitions, digital identity anchor specifications, a governance framework, and implementation pilots.

Details​

  • Meeting Introduction and Code of Conduct John Phillips welcomed attendees to the UNCEFACT Global Trust Registry Project meeting, noting it as the third in a series and that it was being recorded for public release (00:00:00). John Phillips outlined the project's adherence to UNC Fact codes of conduct, emphasizing open standards, open development processes, and global input while avoiding proprietary software requirements (00:00:55).

  • Introductions of New Attendees John Phillips initiated introductions for new participants. Teresa Toan from the public corporation of Spanish Land and Commercial Registries expressed interest in the project, particularly from a European regulation perspective. SurendraSingh Sucharia (Suren), leading product and technology for Dway in Bangalore, India, shared their experience in DPI initiatives and decentralized open networks (00:02:06). Alex Tweeddale from Checked and Trust Over IP, specializing in trust registries, also introduced themself. Tony Lenko from Anonyomy Labs on the Gold Coast, Australia, shared their work in decentralized identity, and Manuel Lorenzo, managing director of international projects for the public corporation of land and commercial registries of Spain, also introduced themself (00:03:22). Carmen Miquel, deputy secretary of Ira Cinder, and Jo Spencer from Suzu also introduced themselves (00:05:20).

  • Geneva Meetings Debrief Alina Nica Gales reported on their participation in the Global Digital Conference and the UNC Fact plenary in Geneva, where they represented the Spanish head of delegation (00:06:32). Alina Nica Gales presented the project's dual purpose: creating a global trust registry (a register of national registries, not a global database) and a digital identity anchor (a cryptographically verifiable credential issued by authoritative national registers) (00:07:36). John Phillips clarified that the project's role is to provide recommendations, not to dictate national legal frameworks (00:09:00). Alina Nica Gales reaffirmed that these recommendations would not interfere with national legal frameworks and should be developed within them (00:10:11).

  • Project Objectives and Scope Alina Nica Gales detailed the project's objectives, which include recognizing existing government registries, understanding their legal and governance frameworks, and proposing a governance framework for UNC Fact. The project also aims to define a data model and verification process for registry identifiers and develop implementation pilots, with Spain planning one in business and asset registries (00:10:11). Alina Nica Gales specified the types of registries of interest, such as business, land, facility, product, trademark, and asset registers, emphasizing that any sovereign authoritative register meeting minimum requirements can register in the Global Trust Registry (00:11:33).

  • Global Trust Registry Functionality Alina Nica Gales explained that the Global Trust Registry functions as a directory of registries, establishing jurisdiction, legal mandate, governance, operational integrity, authoritative status, and technical verification endpoints for each registered entity (00:12:50). This enables various public and private sector entities to perform due diligence and verify legal identity using trusted, cryptographically verifiable data sources (00:14:13).

  • Digital Identity Anchor Alina Nica Gales clarified that the digital identity anchor is not intended to replace existing national or European identifiers like the LEI but rather to build on them, functioning in parallel as a cryptographically verifiable credential. This anchor maps business IDs to decentralized identifiers, certifying that a company, property, asset, product, or trademark is legally registered, and is intended for embedding into trade documents for verification (00:15:45). Alina Nica Gales emphasized that trust is conferred by public authorities, not by digitalization or credentials (00:17:33).

  • Recommendation 49: Transparency at Scale Alina Nica Gales and John Phillips discussed Recommendation 49, "Transparency at scale fostering sustainable value chains," which addresses greenwashing (00:18:55). Alina Nica Gales noted strong support from the European Commission and Nigeria, with Spain also endorsing it for its alignment with business registry principles. The plenary approved Recommendation 49 with the removal of references to the UNTP protocol and its annex, indicating further implementation work might require additional funding (00:20:39).

  • Challenges of Decentralized Registries Alina Nica Gales brought up a question from Germany regarding the technical feasibility of registering many decentralized business registries within the Global Trust Registry (00:24:40). Alina Nica Gales stated that if some member states find it difficult, others can still proceed, and those with challenges can join and register later when they are ready (00:26:13). John Phillips added that the project aims to recognize existing systems and does not seek to resolve underlying trust problems within a country's decentralized framework, but rather to reflect them (00:27:00).

  • Scalability and Architecture of Trust Registries Alex Tweeddale raised concerns about the scalability and uptime of existing European trusted lists, suggesting that the Global Trust Registry should examine their architecture to improve upon these challenges (00:28:31). Manuel Lorenzo discussed Spain's experience with decentralized commercial registers and the need for a single point of entry, citing the example of Kleio for LEI issuance, suggesting a similar layer would be necessary for decentralized systems to engage with the Global Trust Registry (00:29:49). Alina Nica Gales asked for technical clarification on how decentralized organizations could be integrated.

  • Technical Considerations and Legal Framework John Phillips responded to the technical question about decentralized organizations by emphasizing that technical solutions must faithfully echo the legal framework of a country, especially concerning duplication of registrations. John Phillips clarified that the project cannot solve underlying governance problems within jurisdictions but can promote self-issuance by registrars for verifiable credentials (00:33:16).

  • Project Deliverables and Logical Approach John Phillips presented a diagram illustrating the project's logical approach, showing how entities in a supply chain would register with their local authoritative registrars, which could then register with the UNCEFACT registry (00:35:19). This system would enable downstream and upstream verification for purposes like sustainability and compliance (00:37:27). John Phillips outlined five key deliverables for the project: eligibility requirements for registries, definition of data types for registry information, specification of the digital identity anchor, governance framework for the system, and implementation pilots (00:38:20).

  • Document Management and Collaboration John Phillips detailed the project's document management, currently using Google documents for collaborative editing (00:41:01). He mentioned considering a GitHub-based repository but expressed caution due to potential usability issues for non-coders. John Phillips showed an example document structure and noted the use of a shared glossary for consistency across all documents (00:41:56). Alina Nica Gales encouraged all participants, including those who are not yet registered experts, to provide comments and suggestions on the draft documents (00:44:41).

  • Expert Registration and Participation John Phillips acknowledged that the process for experts to register with UNC Fact was slow and expressed a desire to find a way to fast-track participation while adhering to rules, possibly by accepting observer comments from non-registered experts (00:44:41). Alina Nica Gales mentioned several individuals who participated in panels in Geneva, noting some had applied for expert status (00:46:39). John Phillips confirmed that several people had applied and that efforts would be made to unblock the registration process (00:47:40).

  • Implementation and Funding SurendraSingh Sucharia inquired about the implementation and usage phase, specifically whether UN infrastructure would power identity anchoring (00:48:30). Alina Nica Gales clarified that UNC Fact provides recommendations and standards, but implementation and development of pilot projects are the responsibility of member states within their national legal frameworks (00:50:03). John Phillips added that product and service companies could build solutions based on these recommendations, and UNC Fact would need to consider the sustainability and funding for its own directory if approved (00:51:00).

  • Digital Identity Anchor Standards Alex Tweeddale asked if the project's scope included creating a standard or data model for recommended approaches to digital identity anchors to ensure interoperability (00:52:20). John Phillips confirmed this was the project's spirit, emphasizing that they would leverage existing open standards where possible and address gaps by developing new specifications (00:53:20). SurendraSingh Sucharia supported the need for a recommended identity data model specific to the purpose of identity, given various national and emerging standards. John Phillips noted that the initial focus is on supply chain participants like businesses and assets, rather than individuals (00:55:40).

Suggested next steps​

  • John Phillips will seek to unblock the process for people who have applied to be UN/CEFACT experts.