Digital Product Passport on Blockchain: A Digital Identity for Every Product

Imagine buying an electric vehicle battery and within seconds - by scanning a QR code - you can check where the cobalt used in its production came from, what carbon footprint the factory left, how many times it was repaired, and when it should be recycled. Sounds like a distant future? This is exactly the standard the European Union is beginning to enforce.

Digital Product Passport (DPP) is not another RegTech buzzword. It is a fundamental shift in how a product is understood - not as a physical object, but as an entity with its own verifiable history.

DPP is a structured set of digital data linked to a physical product through a unique identifier - most commonly a QR code, NFC chip, or RFID. This data describes the entire product lifecycle: from raw materials and production, through logistics and use, to recycling. In practice, DPP answers questions that no one could fully address in complex global supply chains: where does this product come from, what is it made of, is the composition data reliable, and what to do with it when it wears out?

This is the question we hear most often in conversations with clients. The answer is simple: trust in multi-party systems does not come from a central database - it comes from the impossibility of falsifying it. In a classic database, a manufacturer can change a date, overwrite a value, delete an entry. In a blockchain system, every record is cryptographically linked to the previous block. Changing one entry means breaking the entire chain - which is immediately visible to all network participants.

Digital Product Passport is not an academic concept - it is enforceable law entering into force in stages over the coming years. The legal foundation is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which came into force in July 2024 under the European Green Deal. ESPR gives the European Commission a mandate to define detailed DPP requirements for specific product categories through delegated acts.

Pioneers are primarily industries that will be first under regulation. Aura Blockchain Consortium - a joint venture of LVMH, Prada, and Cartier - uses DPP to fight counterfeiting of luxury goods and verify raw material origins. Battery Pass Consortium, funded by the German Ministry of Economy, is building a reference battery passport implementation compliant with the Battery Regulation. In the open-source world, the CIRPASS project (European Commission) is developing data standards and technical architecture to ensure interoperability between different DPP platforms in the EU market.

Companies that approach DPP solely as another regulatory obligation are missing the bigger picture. A credible product passport is a new vector of competitiveness. In B2B markets, access to real-time ESG data is becoming a supplier selection criterion - especially when large companies must report scope-level carbon footprints under CSRD. In B2C markets, consumers, especially younger generations, are increasingly willing to pay a premium for verifiable transparency. An additional dimension is the secondary market and circular economy. A product with a complete, credible repair and service history achieves higher prices on the used goods market. DPP on blockchain enables transferring record ownership together with the product - opening entirely new business models for manufacturers, remarketing platforms, and recycling facilities.