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2025-07-24 1656 AEST

Jul 24, 2025

UN CEFACT GTR Project - AUS / EU​

Invited Alina Nica Gales John Phillips Jo Spencer Steve Capell

Attachments UN CEFACT GTR Project - AUS / EU

Meeting records Transcript Recording

Summary​

John Phillips welcomed participants to the UN/CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project, which aims to provide recommendations to UN/CEFACT on how existing authoritative registrars can be recognized and listed. The project focuses on defining a "digital identity anchor" that links business IDs to claimed holdings, issued by authorities for organizations or things, and does not issue new credentials but makes existing national identifiers verifiable. New participants included Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay, Ann Dao, Dima Postnikov, and Harley Thomas. The project's deliverables include a document defining necessary data elements for registry information and recommendations for authoritative registers, with Spain offering to develop an implementation pilot. Participants can register as experts to contribute to the project via an email group list and Slack channel.

Details​

  • Meeting Overview and Automation John Phillips welcomed participants to the UN/CEFACT Global Trust Registry Project, noting that the meeting is being recorded and that a transcript and minutes are automatically generated. He clarified that all materials, including recordings, minutes, transcripts, and chat messages, are accessible to participants. The meeting aims to cover introductions, review the code of conduct, discuss project scope and deliverables, explore involvement opportunities, and facilitate questions (00:00:00).

  • New Participant Introductions Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay introduced themself as an expert in decentralized identifiers and digital trust from India, expressing enthusiasm for the project and its necessity (00:00:57). Ann Dao, currently in Asia, shared their background in digital product passports and their desire to support the group (00:02:00). Dima Postnikov, from Australia, mentioned their interest in trust registries and digital trust, highlighting their work with Australia’s Connect ID and the OpenID Foundation (00:02:55). Harley Thomas, also from Australia, expressed interest in the project and its potential for practical pilot demonstrations, despite being at Sydney airport (00:04:01).

  • Project Code of Conduct and IPR John Phillips reminded everyone about the UN/CEFACT's code of conduct and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) rules, emphasizing the importance of being welcoming to all participants and ensuring that all project outputs are open-source and royalty-free (00:04:48). He advised participants to review the detailed links if they have concerns (00:05:32).

  • Global Trust Registry Project Scope John Phillips clarified that the "Global Trust Registry" is an inherited title, and the project's fundamental outcome will be recommendations to UN/CEFACT, not a system that issues credentials (00:07:02). He explained that the project aims to define how existing authoritative registrars, such as those registering businesses, land assets, or trademarks, can be recognized and listed (00:07:58). Alina Nica Gales further emphasized that the project will not interfere with national legal frameworks by issuing new credentials, but rather will build on existing national identifiers to make them verifiable (00:27:18) (00:30:29).

  • Project Principles and Use Cases The project is rooted in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on achieving transparency at scale for supply chains and removing risks like greenwashing and false claims (00:09:00). John Phillips outlined three frames of thinking for the project: understanding existing systems, defining how to recognize them, and conducting pilots to test recommendations (00:10:05). He provided a use case of a buyer verifying a supplier's claims through verifiable credentials, such as digital product passports and conformance credentials, within the UNP specification (00:11:08).

  • Digital Identity Anchor Concept The project will focus on the concept of a "digital identity anchor," which maps a business ID to the business's claimed holdings and is issued by an authority, typically for organizations or things rather than individuals (00:13:12). This anchor would bind digital identifiers (DIDs) to official business registration processes, ensuring that a supplier's business ID and data are genuinely registered with an authoritative source (00:15:17). Alina Nica Gales noted that the project will not issue new identifiers, but rather use existing national identifiers and add a layer to make them verifiable, as Spain plans to do with its "iris" identifier (00:29:05).

  • Authoritative Registries and Legal Jurisdictions John Phillips highlighted the importance of legal jurisdiction in which registries operate, stating that the project is interested in registries based within UN member countries. He acknowledged the complexity of multiple registries within nation-states, such as in Germany or Australia, and emphasized the need to understand how existing systems like the Global Legal Entity Identifier (GLEIF) and Verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) fit into the framework (00:17:10). The project will focus on registries relevant to supply chains, including business, land, products, and trademarks (00:19:10).

  • Deliverables and Project Structure John Phillips introduced five deliverables for the project, indicating that a document will define the necessary data elements for registry information, such as name, registered items, and legal basis (00:19:10) (00:22:23). Alina Nica Gales detailed the structure of the UN recommendations being drafted, including eligibility criteria for authoritative registers, qualities of registered data, digital identity anchor data structures, governance procedures, and implementation pilots (00:31:55). Spain has offered to develop an implementation pilot, likely starting with its business register (00:30:29) (00:33:16).

  • Collaboration and Communication Channels Participants were invited to register as experts to actively contribute to the project by making comments and suggestions on draft documents (00:33:16). John Phillips mentioned that communication channels include an email group list on groups.io and a Slack channel, with email being the default mechanism (00:34:42). He demonstrated how participants can comment on and edit project documents, which are hosted in a Google Docs environment and will eventually migrate to GitLab (00:36:56) (00:40:00). Alina Nica Gales clarified that only project deliverables are open for editing, and only after registering as an expert (00:46:09).

Suggested next steps​

No suggested next steps were found for this meeting.