Cross-sector group considers blockchain technology for SiA standard

The Proactive Alliance industry group will discuss how the information technology known as blockchain could help collect and share material data for articles – including their chemical composition – across sectors.

The cross-sector alliance of industry representatives is working to develop a global standard for material data, which would be interoperable with the IT systems used by different sectors.

Blockchain is a digital record-keeping system that enables the creation and maintenance of a growing number of records, allowing fast tracking of information. It was originally created to manage transactions through the crypto-currency Bitcoin, but has since shown potential for sharing and retrieving many other forms of data.

Martin Führ, a professor at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, is coordinating the initiative with his research group Sofia. Speaking at a Chemical Watch webinar this week, Professor Führ said the group will be "taking blockchain into account".

"It might help to solve some issues and if it does the standard should [consider its use]".

Professor Führ is not an IT expert, so he said he could not provide further insight into how blockchain may fit with the Alliance’s work. The group is holding its second technical meeting next week, with blockchain an item on the agenda.

The technology’s capabilities have been linked to the tracking of chemicals in products. In June, US retail giant Walmart told Chemical Watch that it is assessing whether blockchain can be used to trace chemicals across some of its products and packaging.

CBI solution?

Presenting alongside Professor Führ, Aidan Turnbull, who is the director of the industry-led substances declarations web database, BOMCheck, and a member of the Proactive Alliance, said the technology could solve some CBI issues.

"Ledgers, for providing Confidential Business Information, can be very useful and it could be a tool to cryptographically sign CBI and not display it to other users until that particular substance becomes declarable under the EU’s REACH candidate list, for example," Dr Turnbull said.

However, he said he isn’t yet clear if blockchain is a technology that fits with a standard or something a company would deploy as part of a tool.