TE-FOOD, a publicly farm-to-table food traceability blockchain platform, announced today the launch of BlockSeal, a new product for certificate issuers to create secure, authentic, and easy-to-share certificates on the blockchain.
In the supply chain, the suppliers provide certifications about their company (ISO, GlobalG.A.P, etc.), their products (Organic, Halal, Kosher, etc.), or their batches (test lab results). As consumer behaviors force food producers and retailers to chase cheaper product options, they often source their products from companies (often intermediaries) they don’t know if they get better deals. In these cases, they often face problems with fake certifications.
Vulnerability of Paper-Based Certifications
“As we have been working with supply chains, we learned that they face several hurdles regarding certificates. Both the unified management, and the authenticity of the certificates are constant problems for food producers and retailers. We solved the unified certificate management within TE-FOOD, but when we analyzed the authenticity problem, we learned that it affects a lot of different industries as well. The authenticity problem exists in the area of university degrees, accreditations, professional certifications, etc.”
– The TE-FOOD Team
There are several certificate mills around the world, which create fake documents to anyone for a fee. One of the most well-known examples is the Pakistan based scandal, where a company sold $140M of fake university degrees.
New technologies have a significant role to solve certificate counterfeiting, and modernizing the issuance of certifications. Just like any paper-based document, certificates are vulnerable to counterfeiting, damage, and loss. Besides this, they are difficult to share in a digital world.
The BlockSeal Solution
Blockchain is an excellent technology for use cases, where the trust problem exists. When a supplier provides an ISO certification, or someone posts a degree when applying to a job, you can’t be sure if the certificate is genuine or fake.
Certificates stored on blockchain are immutable, and can prove the authenticity of a paper-based document, while they are easy to share online. Check out a sample BlockSeal certificate here.
BlockSeal provides issuers with authentic, easy to share certificates…
BlockSeal provides an easy way for certificate issuers to upload certificate data, get back a QR code and a blockchain hash, and generate an electronic version of the certificate with the blockchain-based data. The QR code can be printed on the paper-based certificate to serve as a reference to the landing page for validation reasons.
While TE-FOOD focuses on food supply chains, and their relevant certifications, BlockSeal can provide a solution for a wider customer base as well. Educational organizations, certification organizations, or test labs can differentiate themselves by providing an authentic electronic copy of their certificates.
Through TE-FOOD’s partner, Jura Security Printing, customers can print copy protected QR codes on the certificates which refers to the data stored on the blockchain.
