In a world of globalised supply chains, we need to know where things come from. Not easy. Now one firm has developed a way to embed identity at the molecular level. Tim Green, MEF’s programme director for ID and Data, found out more…
Here’s an important identity question you might not have asked yourself.
Can I really trust that plastic bag?
Obviously, those of us who are fascinated by questions of identity are primarily focused on the human dimension. In other words, in an era of virtual transactions, how can we be sure that the person behind the screen is authentic and not a fake.
More recently, we have extended these concerns to cover the machine question too. More precisely: how can we be sure this non human entity/AI agent is ‘who’ it says it is.
Needless to say, we are still working on these questions. Not least because the fraudsters keep finding new ways to deceive us – whether that’s SIM swap, brute force attacks, face swapping, phishing etc etc.
“Adoption accelerates because verified materials outperform unverifiable ones, and layer by layer the operating system becomes fully dimensional until the entire material world operates on the same foundation of verified truth,” stated SMX.“
But there is a third dimension that it’s easy to overlook: the identity of ‘real’ suff.
So why should we care about where a plastic bag comes from? Well, for decades, we didn’t need to. But now we are in an era of eco-concern, and it matters to many that raw materials are responsibly mined, processed and shipped. The challenge is to embed a method of identification into a physical product that can give us the answers, but is also resilient and easily tracked.
Lots of companies are trying. One, SMX, just launched what it calls the first digital identity layer for physical goods. This appears to be a molecular marker which it embeds into the polymer . The result is a ‘plastic passport’ that provides detail of a material – its provenance, its purity, its integrity – and can be checked against a blockchain.
It works on metals too. What’s more, the ‘passport’ persists whatever you do to the substance. SMX says “gold and silver can carry a molecular ID that persists through melting, casting, vaulting, and resale, allowing the metals to behave like authenticated digital objects rather than static commodities.” I assume that, should a product be stolen, melted down and re-purposed, the owners simply flag that on the ledger.
The concept of physical product ID is not new. I can recall writing years ago about tags attached to goods that provided an immutable identity. What’s different here is the molecular component. It ensures that identity lives inside the materials themselves, not on servers or devices.
You don’t have to think too hard to see where this tech might prove useful. Yes, there’s the sustainability angle. For decades, fashion relied on labels, supplier declarations and marketing narratives to explain where materials came from. A molecular ‘passport’ is much simpler. But just as compelling is luxury goods. I assume big fashion labels are looking at this stuff.
SMX believes the tech can start a positive self-reinforcing future. It writes: “Adoption accelerates because verified materials outperform unverifiable ones… Layer by layer, the operating system becomes fully dimensional, spanning nations, factories, regulators, investors, and consumers until the entire material world begins operating on the same foundation of verified truth.
Pretty utopian. Still, multiple countries are trialling the tech. Singapore is even creating its own national plastics passport as it shifts to what it calls “circularity as infrastructure”.
Find out more about the themes discussed – Join the MEF ID & Data Interest Group.
