A practical overview for businesses looking to address digital product passport requirements with future-ready infrastructure.
What is a Digital Product Passport? A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured digital record that shares key information about a product, such as where it came from, what it's made of, and how it meets regulatory or sustainability standards.
What is the UN Transparency Protocol? The UNTP is set of frameworks and specifications for issuing and verifying digital credentials across supply chains to ensure interoperable traceability and compliance in global trade. Think of it as the 'internet protocol' for supply chain traceability: flexible, extensible, and designed for broad adoption. UNTP includes a standard for Digital Product Passports as well as Digital Facility Records, Digital Traceability Events, Digital Conformity Credentials, and a number of other standards and protocols that enables it to help business solve many challenges in the supply chain.
Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are gaining traction in global supply chains, and not just because of evolving regulation like the European Union's Digital Product Passport requirement. Buyers want verifiable sourcing data. Tariff regimes require proof of origin. Financial institutions are rewarding transparency. Many businesses simply want a better way to share and manage information, especially where they have sustainability attributes or other such achievements to promote.
But not all DPPs are created equal. Some are tied to closed platforms or rigid formats that limit their utility. Many current implementations rely on proprietary platforms that control how data is accessed and shared. Interoperability is a huge challenge.
This is where UN Transparency Protocol (UNTP)-compliant DPPs stand apart. Built on open standards and decentralised infrastructure, they offer a practical way for businesses to share structured, verifiable data, without giving up control.
A UNTP-compliant DPP helps a business prove its claims, simplify compliance, and win buyers, without handing over sensitive data.
And crucially, UNTP-compliant DPPs are platform-agnostic. If you are already working with a product passport solution, it may be able to issue credentials that align with UNTP, as long as they conform to the protocol's schemas and verification standards. This could involve configuring your system to issue credentials in W3C Verifiable Credential format using JSON-LD, referencing the correct schema, and including key metadata such as issuer, subject, and credential type. In some cases, it may mean mapping existing data to the UNTP credential structure or working with your platform provider to ensure compliance with decentralised issuance and verification principles.
If you're a DPP platform provider, this is worth checking out. The UNTP isn't designed to replace commercial tools, but rather enable them to improve interoperability. Supporting UNTP-compliant issuance can open up new markets and future-proof your offering.
Here's what issuing a UNTP-compliant DPP can do for a business:
1. Win Buyers and Build Trust
- Buyers need credible data about product origin, materials, and sustainability.
- UNTP-compliant DPPs give them a way to verify claims without relying on PDFs or marketing copy.
- Suppliers who back claims with verifiable credentials are easier to onboard and retain.
2. Cut Compliance Overhead
- DPPs help avoid repetitive data requests from buyers, regulators, and auditors.
- Instead of filling out separate ESG questionnaires or supplier forms, issue a single credential that can be reused.
- With a UNTP-compliant DPP, you'd share only what's needed, not your entire data warehouse.
3. Maintain or Win Market Access (and Speed It Up)
- The EU is already rolling out DPP mandates for sectors like batteries, textiles, and electronics.
- Issuing structured credentials early helps you stay ahead of compliance risk.
- Verifiable credentials can also speed up customs clearance and due diligence.
4. Access Finance on Better Terms
- Investors, lenders and insurers are starting to reward supply chain transparency.
- A UNTP-compliant DPP could play a role in supporting access to sustainability-linked financing or lower premiums.
5. Compete on More Than Price
- DPPs let you compete on the quality of your operations, not just cost.
- Early adopters will prove they can meet higher standards, and verify them.
Why UNTP?
The UNTP is the infrastructure backbone that enables a trusted, decentralised ecosystem for product data. It reduces the need for brittle, high-cost system-to-system integrations by enabling data exchange through open verifiable credentials.
It's designed not just for businesses, but for solution providers too: platforms can align with the protocol to interoperate with others, avoiding vendor lock-in and enabling fair competition. Think of it as the 'internet protocol' for supply chain traceability: flexible, extensible, and designed for broad adoption.
UNTP also avoids the political and institutional pushback that often comes with platform mandates. It doesn't impose a single system or central authority. Instead, it empowers participants to operate on common standards, at their own pace, with their own tools.
Here's what sets UNTP apart:
- Open standards – UNTP provides an open, interoperable schema so your credentials can be validated across systems and jurisdictions.
- Verifiability by design – UNTP credentials are structured to support cryptographic proof of origin, authenticity, and data integrity.
- Modular and extensible – Start with product-level data, then expand to facility, transaction, or compliance credentials as needed.
- Avoid vendor lock-in – Use open tools and protocols rather than being tied to a single vendor's system.
- Client-controlled data – You decide what information is shared, when, and with whom.
- Compatible with existing systems – UNTP doesn't require rebuilding your tech stack. It can be adopted within existing product passport or traceability platforms by implementing the relevant standards and credential formats.
UNTP-compliant DPPs position your business for long-term trust infrastructure and ensure you're building with flexibility and future-readiness in mind.
Bottom line: A UNTP-compliant Digital Product Passport is a strategic asset, backed by verifiability, structured for reuse, and controlled by you.
Note: This article is shared by Pyx as an information resource for Trust Architects, developers, and organisations exploring decentralised data infrastructure. As an implementation accelerator for the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP), Pyx acts as a lead implementation partner, supporting the design of the technical backbone, aligning ecosystem processes with UNTP standards, and guiding stakeholders through practical credential deployment. Pyx contributes to the open tools, credential schemas, and implementation guidance that help organisations align with the protocol.
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