Product codes (SKU) are a necessary part of any inventory management (IM) system. When a code is needed to transact outside of an organization (ISBN, EAN, UPC, etc), they can be expensive, take valuable time and effort, and can be complex to create. Central distribution of codes can cause issues with counterparty risk, such as; code information loss due to database failures, or in some cases, older code formats no longer being accessible.
What if there was a new way to code products that solved all the current problems we have today?
Provenance X is a quick and simple universal code network that can work with existing IM systems. Cost to create product codes, which can be verified where there is Internet access, is a fraction of a penny, requires no support personnel, or infrastructure outlay, beyond initial creation cost.
A provenance code is a 64 character code that can be represented as a string of letters, QR code or barcode, and it identifies a specific set of data regarding a particular product on the provenance worldwide distributed ledger network.
This provenance code can be used anywhere in the world to retrieve the data associated with a product. Any Unicode compliant text (so any language or symbol can be represented) up to 1000 bytes can be applied.
There is no fee to access the provenance information stored relating to the created product code. Every code can have all the information needed associated with it online. This associated data is secured through a vast network of distributed servers which can be accessed to retrieve the contents of provenance information from a scanned product code.
This can all be done cheaply and robustly with blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). Allowing free access at any time to view code provenance information with proven 100% error-free DLT network uptime over the last decade or so.
Provenance X uses the open source XRP ledger network to provide a robust public DLT backbone of 1000+ servers (and growing) to secure data associated with product codes.
Data is validated and replicated between all hosts on the network using a publicly auditable algorithm that has stood up to any attempt to add invalid transactions to its network for almost a decade.
When a user scans a QR Code using either a publicly accessible generic open source implementation of Provenance X Reader, or a company branded solution, their request ultimately ends up on the XRP ledger network where several servers are queried and results verified before sending the provenance data to the end user.
As long as a user has access to; the code (in written, QR code or barcode form), a webpage enabled with Provenance X Reader, Internet access, and optionally when dealing with QR codes/barcode, a smartphone or web camera, they can have immediate access to the associated provenance data.
Because provenance data is distributed all over the world, only a full scale extinction event would be able to destroy the data (and even then some servers might be left intact). This is to say that the code data is about as safe as humanly possible.
Once a code is created on the network, it will be accessible, and in existence, effectively forever.
Any entity that deals with products; manufacturing companies, retail, industrial processors, small business inventory managers, code provision organizations, and anyone who is looking for the following:
... and anything else that may be relevant to a particular product.
Provenance X product code worldwide network is an open source project. All associated code files and standards information is free to use for any purpose under the MIT license.
This project was donated to the community by a small independent Canadian company (Thorgrid), and can be freely audited for security and robustness purposes. So you don’t have to take our word for it when we say Provenance X is safe, secure and a best-in-class use case for a digital asset.
To provide a standard future-proof means to allow for, and to keep the provenance data associated with, a product code, so it is cheaper, faster, more robustly available and with a huge untapped address space, for now and into the future.
A world where provenance information is universally accessible in any amount, anywhere, with one code system, that is future-proof for use with a society destined to become interplanetary.
100% of all funds collected from the creation of product codes will go to supporting new validators, full history and sharded history nodes on the XRP ledger network. The success of Provenance X is synonymous with a healthy and sustainable XRP ecosystem.
If you'd like to use this product, or are currently using this product, let us know on twitter @provenance_x. If your company or organization is using Provenance X let us know and we'll add them to our growing public directory.
Creation of automated signing servers and template formats to remove reliance on intermediaries such as GS1 and DNB (DUNS) for organizations like the FDA, etc. Useful when businesses must create product codes with specific provenance data fields due to regulatory requirements.
Start immediately by using Provenance X live site (menu at top of this page) or brand your own pages with the open source files on Github (MIT license).
Github repository: https://github.com/Thorgrid/ProvenanceX