Trust has two enemies — bad character and bad data. Decentralization and blockchain seems to be a logical remedy to reconcile the trust gap in today’s supply chains which are growing in complexity and to do away with the bad character. Yet, existing decentralized solutions proved to lack certain properties should we want to use them to handle highly interconnected data in a scalable and cost effective way while protecting sensitive data. OriginTrail is a decentralized peer-to-peer network built on top of blockchain, made to address supply chain challenges in a scalable way. Bad data and poor interoperability is a paramount problem that impedes performance of any information system and for that reason standards are an integral part of the OriginTrail data layer.

Alpha Network is Up and Running

OriginTrail decentralised protocol is being built on several years of experience and work in the supply chains giving us a strong foundation in understanding as well as a codebase moving forward. As outlined in the roadmap, our current focus was on setting up the pilot that was using the alpha version of the protocol upon which a consumer-facing application for product journey will be created. The network at this stage consists of 5 nodes that are all managed by our tech team performing the following functionalities:

receiving independent datasets from two organisations,

connecting them based on the implemented GS1 standards,

storing the connected data in a graph database,

performing basic consensus checks on selected variables (timestamp and encrypted quantity)

The network used in the pilot will be at disposal for members of Trace Alliance for testing their use-cases. Over the next months we will be taking a good look at the analytics of the individual node performance as well as network performance to fine tune the system.

OriginTrail testnet and mainnet

The next development milestone is the launch of the testnet which will be utilizing test tokens. The main challenges of this stage will be perfecting the compensation mechanisms within the network nodes, as well as testing the first implementations of the zero knowledge tier in the data layer.

XML snippet showcasing the data structure following EPCIS standard

We are already exploring the nuances of incentivisation within the protocol for high availability Data Holder nodes, working on creating connectors to other blockchains within our protocol blockchain layer and getting the protocol up to speed with all the GS1 required specifications for EPCIS (which OriginTrail is a member of). The team is working hard on specifying the precise requirements and researching into new proof mechanisms such as Bulletproofs and STARKs.

Another purpose of the test network is to support the selected use-cases for Trace Alliance members in the context of running simulations on token economics. Based on this analysis and research, we will be able to define all details regarding node requirements and bidding mechanisms for compensations.

The third quarter of 2018 is reserved for launching the OriginTrail Main network which will operate with the incentivisation of the Trace token. We are aiming to create a smooth transition of the use cases tested within the test network and Trace Alliance to the main network.

Following the successful launch we will be revealing a roadmap of future updates which will include further standardization, focusing at first on IoT standards.

Growing the Team

The team behind OriginTrail has been a multinational (might I say decentralized? :) ) crew of friends since the beginning of our work in food supply chain transparency in 2013. We have been growing steadily in numbers and are proud to have a great team, an amazing advisory board and support by a great community of contributors.

In order to continue building upon our vision, we are working on growing our development team in Belgrade with great talent skilled in working with decentralized systems, databases, efficient APIs and open source development. If you would like to explore options of joining us, head over to our careers page or get in touch directly via careers@origin-trail.com.

Looking forward to updating the community on our progress as soon as possible with further development milestones, research results and some hard numbers.

Trace on!