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2025-10-16 1755 AEDT

Oct 16, 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 opened the meeting by introducing the UN/CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project, which aims to develop a Global Registrar Information Directory (GRID) to provide a directory of authoritative national registers. Alina Nica Gales discussed the eligibility criteria for authoritative national registers to be included in the GRID, while Jo Spencer outlined the technical design process and capabilities of the GRID. Key discussions included the challenges in document preparation, ensuring document accessibility for all participants, and the relationship between the GRID and other UN projects.

Details​

Notes Length: Standard

  • Project Overview and Goals John Phillips opened the meeting by welcoming attendees to the UN/CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project, noting its focus on European time zones and mentioning a separate session for North America (00:00:00). The project operates under UN/CEFACT's royalty-free open standard, with participants either already experts or observers (00:00:47). The core objective is to develop a "Global Registrar Information Directory" (GRID) rather than a comprehensive global trust registry, aiming to provide a directory of authoritative national registers for various entities like companies, land, and trademarks (00:03:19) (00:08:49).

  • Previous Meeting Recap and Progress John Phillips recapped previous meetings, highlighting discussions on governance requirements led by Alina Nica Gales and work on a digital identity anchor specification by Alex Tweedell (00:01:36). Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay presented a readiness checklist with added context for clarity and maintainability (00:02:24) (00:06:02). John Phillips also mentioned ongoing work on a project glossary and the importance of tracking substantive actions using a shared spreadsheet (00:04:18).

  • Challenges in Document Preparation Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay discussed the challenge of writing a preamble for their document in the required format, differing from their academic writing style (00:06:02). John Phillips acknowledged this effort as a valuable addition to the document (00:07:04).

  • Document Accessibility Hans J. Huber expressed difficulty accessing project documents, prompting John Phillips to share a Google Drive folder link in the chat (00:07:54). This initiative aimed to ensure all participants, particularly new ones, could access the materials.

  • Eligibility Criteria for Authoritative Registrars Alina Nica Gales elaborated on her work regarding the eligibility criteria for authoritative national registrars to be included in the GTR (00:08:49). She emphasized that the GTR is a directory, not a database that grants access to national databases, clarifying a common misconception (00:10:05).

  • Collaboration and Guiding Principles for Registries Alina Nica Gales highlighted collaboration with international land registry associations (Cinder and ELRA) and adherence to principles from the 2003 Declaration of La Antigua to establish registry requirements (00:10:05). She noted the importance of being inclusive of diverse UN member states' legal frameworks while ensuring only proper authoritative registers are included (00:16:46).

  • Concept of the Global Registrar Information Directory (GRID) John Phillips further explained the GRID concept, illustrating how it would enable supply chain participants to identify and verify whether a fellow participant is registered by a legitimate authoritative registrar (00:12:34). The GRID would not replicate existing national registers' data but provide metadata to aid verification (00:42:34).

  • Future Development of GRID John Phillips discussed the long-term vision, which includes making the verification process machine-readable and automated, potentially incorporating cryptography (00:14:36). Alina Nica Gales added that pilot programs are planned with Spain, Canada, Australia, and India to develop and implement the GRID (00:15:35).

  • Relationship with Other UN Projects John Phillips explained that the GTR project aims to be synergistic with other UN projects like Glyfe and Verifiable Trade, providing a source of truth for cross-checking and verification without disrupting existing business models (00:17:51). Hans J. Huber affirmed the alignment of the GTR project with Verifiable Trade's goal of authentic data exchange (00:18:46).

  • Project Timeline and Recommendations John Phillips acknowledged the challenges of delivering results within UN timeframes, stating that the project aims to write recommendations for review by July 2026 (00:19:59). Alina Nica Gales emphasized that these recommendations must be general and global to apply to all UN member states, avoiding overly detailed impositions (00:21:02).

  • Legal Requirements for Digital Identity Anchors Alina Nica Gales outlined the legal requirements for digital identity anchors, emphasizing that an authoritative register must issue them (00:22:24). She also discussed the need for a designated UN body, likely UN/CEFACTT, to oversee governance and admission of registers, which would require member state approval (00:23:44).

  • Document Rationalization Alina Nica Gales recognized that the governance requirements document is extensive and suggested moving some sections to an annex to meet potential page limits for recommendations (00:25:05). John Phillips agreed to work with Alina to rationalize the document structure (00:26:26).

  • Inclusivity of Feedback Alina Nica Gales encouraged Hans J. Huber and other participants to provide comments and suggestions, highlighting that the project is a collaborative team effort (00:26:26).

  • GitLab Hosting Environment John Phillips detailed the project's transition to a UNIC GitLab instance for document hosting and version control (00:27:26). He explained that while GitLab is code-friendly, the project primarily uses markdown documents, which are then published as websites for broader accessibility (00:29:27). Due to the complexity of using GitLab, the project will continue to primarily use Google Drive for collaborative document editing until documents are mature (00:31:27).

  • Pilot Program Engagement John Phillips encouraged participation in pilot programs, mentioning interested countries like the Netherlands, Canada, India, and Spain. He also highlighted available forms for individuals to express interest in helping with pilots or proposing use cases (00:32:26).

  • Terminology Clarification Jo Spencer raised a question about the preferred terminology, "card" or "grid," with John Phillips confirming that "grid" is the newer and preferred term, requiring a global change to update documentation (00:33:25).

  • Technical Design Considerations Jo Spencer outlined the technical design process, including concept, logical, and implementation phases. This involves defining major components and capabilities based on requirements established by John Phillips and Alina Nica Gales (00:34:16).

  • Core and Extension Capabilities of the GRID Jo Spencer detailed the GRID's primary function as providing directory services for trust registries, including onboarding, recognition, registration, and maintenance of the directory (00:35:45). This involves accessible services for self-registration, data curation, and external querying through web-based or API mechanisms (00:36:47).

  • GTR's Intermediary Role and Real-time Queries Jo Spencer suggested that the GRID could act as an intermediary, potentially providing standard query protocols to facilitate real-time queries into national registries, especially for those that are not easily accessible (00:43:22). John Phillips clarified that these are ideas for consideration, not final decisions (00:44:24).

  • Incentives for Registry Participation Hans J. Huber questioned the incentives for registries to participate in the GRID (00:44:24). John Phillips responded that benefits include managing reputational risk, enhancing trustworthiness, and potentially driving traffic to revenue-earning services (00:49:26). Alina Nica Gales, representing the Spanish land registry, confirmed that benefits for Spain include combating fake domains and making existing identifiers verifiable and global without compromising data access (00:51:25).

  • DIA Verification Process Jo Spencer explained the GRID's role in the Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) verification process, which involves access to a whitelist of registers defined in the DIA specification. The GRID could evolve to provide discovery, resolution, and verification of DIAs for supply chain implementations, though the final platform design will depend on who owns the solution (00:53:59).

  • Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) Issuance and Verification Jo Spencer explained that the "grid" or multiple service providers will play a role in providing Digital Identity Anchors (DIAs) for entities unable to issue them, emphasizing the need to identify whitelisted issuers and registers. Harmen van der Kooij suggested this involves a trust list of business registries globally that are authorized to issue DIAs, which Jo Spencer confirmed would be part of the metadata within the grid (00:57:54). John Phillips noted that even countries without digital capabilities to issue verifiable certificates can have their legally authoritative paper-based registrars listed in the directory, as the system does not require complete digitization to function effectively (00:59:52).

  • Verification of Digital Identity Anchors Alina Nica Gales inquired about the data accessible when verifying a DIA and whether it would function similarly to "Bris," providing minimum data on companies (01:02:12). Jo Spencer clarified that the accessible data depends on who issued the DIA and that the verification service confirms the DIA's cryptographic proof, similar to how relying parties verify credentials (01:03:16). John Phillips added that DIAs are typically self-standing, cryptographically protected, and signed data, meaning the information within the DIA itself reveals its contents and verifies its integrity without needing to access external databases (01:04:35).

  • Data Provenance and Future Evolution Hans J. Huber emphasized that the work focuses on enhancing the programmability of supply chain logic, meaning machines verify registry entries rather than humans. Jo Spencer and John Phillips agreed that while this is the future, recommendations must be framed to support countries at various stages of digital capability, managing an evolution from physical to more digital processes over time rather than imposing an immediate, high-level digital requirement (01:00:57). Jo Spencer reiterated that the service's sole function is to verify that the presented credential was issued by the claimed registry, focusing on data provenance rather than accessing the data itself (01:06:01).

  • Meeting Wrap-up and Future Discussions John Phillips concluded the meeting, noting the time and the animated discussion, and announced that minutes would be circulated. He also informed participants about another call scheduled in approximately 17 hours due to time zone shifts for daylight savings, and another meeting in two weeks. Participants were encouraged to continue discussions asynchronously via email, chat, or by commenting on documents (00:59:52) (01:06:58).

Suggested next steps​

  • John Phillips and Alina Nica Gales will work out how best to accommodate the proposed set of changes to rationalize the document structure over the next few days before the next meeting in two weeks.