The May 2025 UNTP meetings focused on critical developments in release governance, interoperability, supply chain modelling, and trust validation. Here are the highlights:
Version 0.6: Laying the Groundwork for Scalable Participation
Progress continued toward the 0.6 release of the specification. A new snapshot-driven validation pipeline was introduced to strengthen release governance. The new workflow allows contributors to catch and fix issues earlier, which will help the specification scale to support a larger contributor base.
Tier 3 Testing: Building a Trust Graph
A proof-of-concept for Tier 3 testing was presented, focusing on verifying the relationships between credentials, rather than evaluating each in isolation.
- Verifiable credentials are now tested in graph form, using JSON-LD linking to validate claim provenance and issuer trust chains.
- The process distinguishes claims that are attested by third-party conformity credentials from those that are not.
This approach enables implementers to verify claim validity based on the credibility of their supporting credentials, without requiring centralised infrastructure. It is not yet available in the Playground.
Chain of Custody and Commodity Supply Chains
Traceability challenges in bulk materials supply chains, particularly copper, were discussed, with emphasis on:
- The use of mass balance models to track inputs and outputs through smelters, refiners, and traders, even when blending occurs.
- The quota manager concept, which supports allocation tracking either internally or via external registries.
- The reality that traders often redact or repackage DPPs, which complicates downstream traceability.
Book and Claim vs. Traceability
An overview of book and claim systems clarified how they differ from traceability-based approaches:
- Book and claim systems allow organisations to purchase sustainability outcomes (e.g. emissions reductions) without directly linking those outcomes to physical material flows.
- They are increasingly common in sectors where traceability is impractical or commercially sensitive.
- Mass balance and book and claim systems can coexist, depending on the policy framework, incentive design, and supply chain constraints.
UNTP was acknowledged as able to support both approaches through data transport and credential structuring, while not taking on the role of governing incentive design or registry management.
Notable Update
- New working groups have been spun off to focus on conformity credentials and adoption.
Interested in contributing?
If you have relevant expertise or would like to participate in pilots, working groups, or sector extensions, you’re welcome to join the conversation on UNTP Slack or GitHub. Contributions—whether technical, operational, or business-focused—are useful as the project scales up. More on the UNTP site.
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