A method for verifying the movement of materials between material owners and material recipients in a decentralized network.

Abstract

A method performed by a computer for verifying the movement of materials between a materials owner and a materials recipient in a decentralized network is disclosed, the network comprising a distributed ledger and a distributed ledger application including a plurality of member nodes. The method includes the step of sending, by a requester, a materials transaction request to the distributed ledger application, the materials transaction request including materials data associated with the materials and encrypted authentication information of the materials owner and optionally the materials recipient associated with the movement of the materials. The method further includes the step of receiving a confirmation or rejection of the commitment of the materials transaction request as a materials transaction to the distributed ledger. The distributed ledger application is configured to receive a materials transaction request from the requester and verify the movement of the materials associated with the request by verifying the encrypted authentication information of the materials owner and optionally the materials recipient included in the materials transaction request. The distributed ledger application is configured to commit the materials transaction request to the distributed ledger as a materials transaction and send a confirmation of the commitment of the materials transaction request if the movement of the materials is verified, or send a rejection of the commitment of the materials transaction request if the movement of the materials is not verified.

Description

Technical Field

[0006] ,

[0001] Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus implemented by a computer for verifying the movement of materials between a material owner and a material recipient in a decentralized network, the use of the verified material movement, and a computer element.

Background Art

[0002] Technical Background Generally speaking, the present disclosure relates to tracking and documenting the movement of materials (also referred to as material movement) in a distributed system. Generally used implementations of distributed systems are either more centralized systems with a central authority having supervisory rights or decentralized systems.

[0003] Both types of systems have problems. Centralized systems enable reliable tracking and documentation of material movement but are not applicable to all applications. As the number of decentralized solutions increases, it becomes more difficult to implement reliable tracking and documentation due to the absence of a central authority with supervisory rights.

[0004] <**********017>Therefore, there is a need to enable improved tracking and documentation of material movement in a decentralized material network, particularly to enable overall system performance evaluation and optionally performance tuning.

[0005] Even more specifically, it is necessary to enable such tracking and documentation of movement while also considering concerns about the privacy of participants in the movement.

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] <0**********027>Summary of the Invention In one embodiment, a computer method is disclosed for providing material datasets associated with the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient using a decentralized material network. The decentralized network comprises a distributed ledger including a plurality of member nodes, the distributed ledger including material movement transactions. At least one material movement transaction is associated with the movement of material and includes transaction metadata. The transaction metadata includes material production data. The transaction metadata also includes material identifiers associated with at least two different material datasets, one of which is associated with the movement of material. The method includes the steps of receiving transaction metadata associated with the movement of material from a distributed ledger and retrieving material datasets associated with the movement of material (based on the material identifiers and material production data included in the transaction metadata).

[0007] In another embodiment, a device is disclosed for providing material datasets associated with the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient, using a decentralized material network comprising a distributed ledger including multiple member nodes. The distributed ledger includes material movement transactions. At least one of the material movement transactions includes transaction metadata associated with the movement of material and including material production data and material identifiers associated with at least two different material datasets, one of which is associated with the movement of material. The device comprises one or more computing nodes and one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions configured, when executed by one or more computing nodes, to cause the device to perform steps in accordance with the method of this disclosure.

[0008] In yet another aspect, the use of a material dataset provided in accordance with the method of the Disclosure or by the apparatus of the Disclosure is disclosed for determining the quality of a moving product associated with a provided material dataset, or for further processing of a moving material associated with a provided material dataset.

[0009] In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for verifying the movement of material between a material owner and a material recipient in a decentralized network is disclosed, the network comprising a distributed ledger including a plurality of member nodes and a distributed ledger application. The method includes the step of a requester sending a material transaction request to the distributed ledger application, the material transaction request including material data associated with the material and encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the material recipient associated with the movement of the material. The method further includes the step of receiving confirmation or rejection of a commitment to the material transaction request as a material transaction to the distributed ledger. The distributed ledger application is configured to receive a material transaction request from a requester and to verify the movement of material associated with the material transaction request by verifying the encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the material recipient included in the material transaction request. The distributed ledger application is configured to commit the material transaction request to the distributed ledger as a material transaction and send confirmation of the commitment to the material transaction request (if the movement of the material has been verified), or to send rejection of the commitment to the material transaction request (if the movement of the material has not been verified).

[0010] In another embodiment, a device is disclosed for verifying the movement of materials between material owners and material recipients in a decentralized materials network, comprising a distributed ledger including a plurality of member nodes and a distributed ledger application. The device comprises one or more computing nodes and one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions configured, when executed by one or more computing nodes, to cause the device, in particular one or more of the computing nodes, to perform the steps of: sending a material transaction request to the distributed ledger application by a requester, wherein the material transaction request includes material data associated with the material and encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the material recipient associated with the movement of the material; and receiving confirmation or rejection of the commitment to the material transaction request as a material transaction associated with the material transaction request to the distributed ledger. The distributed ledger application is configured to receive a material transaction request from a requester and verify the movement of materials associated with the material transaction request by verifying the encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the material recipient included in the material transaction request. The distributed ledger application is configured to either commit a material transaction request to the distributed ledger as a material transaction (if the material movement is verified) and send confirmation of the commitment to the material transaction request, or send a rejection of the commitment to the material transaction request (if the material movement is not verified).

[0011] In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method is provided for verifying the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient in a decentralized material network comprising a distributed ledger including multiple member nodes. The distributed ledger includes material data associated with the material, and material transfer transactions including randomized encrypted credentials of the material owner and / or randomized encrypted credentials of the material recipient associated with the movement of the material. The method includes receiving the randomized encrypted credentials of the material owner and / or randomized encrypted credentials of the material recipient, as well as identification information of the material transfer transaction associated with the movement of the material. The method also includes the step of verifying the movement of the material by verifying the randomized encrypted credentials of the material owner and / or the randomized encrypted credentials of the material recipient in the material transfer transaction based on the received randomized encrypted credentials and the received identification information of the material transfer transaction. As an example, the randomized encrypted credentials may include a public key that is generated and used to sign only one transaction submitted to the distributed ledger, as described in detail below.

[0012] More specifically, as an example, it may be possible to implement verifiable anonymous authentication for material movement transactions. Generally, transactions on a distributed ledger are transparent to all participants. If the user ID associated with a transaction is transparent, this means that the transaction can be analyzed for, for example, time patterns, and as a result, participants can derive confidential information from the transaction, even though the data associated with the material movement itself is kept private. The present invention makes it possible to keep the user ID associated with a transaction anonymous, while also making the transaction verifiable in all its aspects.

[0013] Specifically, by using randomized encrypted credentials, particularly those specific to the transaction, it is possible to verify the transaction while protecting the identities of the parties involved. This method of disclosure can even enable third-party audits.

[0014] For example, when creating a new transaction, randomized cryptographic credentials, such as a public / private key pair, may be uniquely created for that transaction. Both the material owner and the material recipient may create such randomized cryptographic credentials. The material owner and / or material recipient may store their respective credentials, along with the transaction ID, in a private database, for example. The credentials may be used, in particular, to sign and / or verify this particular transaction. An example of obtaining randomized cryptographic credentials may be creating a key pair, which may be a key derive or a randomizable signature. The above may be repeated for multiple transactions. Therefore, multiple keys and associated transaction IDs may be stored.

[0015] In yet another embodiment, the use of material transfer verified according to the method of this disclosure is disclosed to control the introduction of material into a production process.

[0016] In yet another aspect, the Disclosure provides an arithmetic unit having instructions, which is configured to cause a device to perform a step of the method of the Disclosure, or to be performed by the device of the Disclosure, when an instruction is executed on one or more computing nodes.

[0017] The disclosure may also, in yet another aspect, provide a data processing system, in particular a distributed data processing system comprising multiple computing nodes, wherein one or more of the data processing system, in particular the multiple computing nodes, are configured to perform the method of the disclosure, especially in a distributed manner.

[0018] In yet another aspect, the disclosure may also provide a computer program product that, when the program is executed by a data processing system, includes instructions causing the data processing system to perform the method of the disclosure. The data processing system may be a distributed data processing system comprising multiple computing nodes.

[0019] In yet another aspect, the disclosure may also provide a computer-readable medium containing instructions causing the data processing system to perform the method of the disclosure once the program is executed by the data processing system. The data processing system may be a distributed data processing system comprising multiple computing nodes.

[0020] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure enable improved tracking and / or documentation of material movement in decentralized material networks, and in particular can help overcome the challenges posed by decentralization.

[0021] Specifically, the methods and apparatus of this disclosure use, in a particular manner, encryption methods and distributed ledger applications such as blockchain applications to represent the actual movement of materials from a material owner to a material recipient as transactions stored on a distributed ledger, and to enable and optionally store such transaction commitments only under specific conditions.

[0022] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure utilize, in a specific manner, encryption methods and distributed ledger applications such as blockchain applications to represent the actual movement of materials as transactions stored on a distributed ledger, and to enable multi-level access to the data.

[0023] More specifically, as an example, it may be possible to perform data separation that allows for the identification of the flow of materials, such as chemicals, for mass equilibrium and tracking purposes, while maintaining privacy regarding specific data, such as carbon footprint or sustainability profiles or origin data of materials moved in the course of movement corresponding to trade.

[0024] For example, material mass flows can therefore be equalized based on material identifiers, while monitoring and / or equalization of carbon footprints, etc., can be carried out in a separate process.

[0025] Many existing systems, such as smart contract-based systems, cannot reliably provide such separation.

[0026] Furthermore, the method enables a reliable and uncomplicated way to access the correct material dataset associated with a transaction. That is, if a transaction directly refers to a material dataset, this is error-prone because it is necessary to ensure that the correct, potentially unique, material dataset is pointed to or linked for each individual transaction. Instead, out of all the material datasets of interest, the correct one can be retrieved based on production data of a particular material, such as a batch ID, etc.

[0027] This application enables the use of information stored in the transaction itself for mass balancing purposes. Furthermore, it can be enabled by selectively providing access to metadata to parties that are enabled to obtain additional information.

[0028] A transaction can be related to exactly one material identifier, and the relationship between the material identifier related to several material datasets and the material dataset associated with the transaction can be resolved using additional transaction metadata such as timestamps, production sites, countries of production, etc.

[0029] The material dataset does not have to be stored as part of a distributed ledger, but may be stored, for example, in one or more databases.

[0030] Such material datasets can be retrieved using metadata from mobile transactions. They can be shared among parties in a private channel.

[0031] As an example, the present disclosure can be used in the context where material flows occur among multiple parties (also called participants) of a decentralized material network where tracking and / or documentation of movement is reliably difficult without centralized supervision.

[0032] The most commonly used implementations of distributed systems are either hub-and-spoke systems or peer-to-peer systems. Hub-and-spoke systems suffer from strong centralization, which can lead to unwieldy and inappropriate bureaucracy ("shareholder democracy"), either because the hub owner monopolizes all participating production and consumption nodes, or because all participants share ownership of a central hub.

[0033] For example, in a distributed system, production and / or consumption nodes need to be forecasted, planned, and managed to achieve system-wide verifiable key performance indicators (KPIs). System-wide KPIs may include, for example, annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and emissions, and annual increases in recycling quotas.

[0034] These system-wide KPIs are in contrast to local indicators, which are only valid for a single node pair. Local indicators increase the risk of generating displacement or rebound effects while achieving local success, resulting in improved local performance but decreased overall system performance. An example of a displacement effect is the so-called "carbon leak," where GHG emissions increase in other producing countries, i.e., other parts of the network. An example of a rebound effect is local production improvements that are overcompensated by an increase in overall consumption.

[0035] Decentralized systems in this field, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, are suitable for managing local KPIs, for example, between material owners and material recipients, but they face challenges when it comes to system-wide KPIs. For example, P2P networks generally lack the means to guarantee a complete and uninterrupted supply chain without missing links, let alone a verifiable quality balance of the supply chain.

[0036] Examples of system-wide KPIs that should be improved through forecasting, planning, and management include the following: -Total emissions of the system (including GHG emissions and / or air, water, and / or land pollution), - The total recycling allocation of the system, and - System environmental impact profile (e.g., product carbon footprint (PCF) or aggregated PEF (product environmental impact)). - From the above perspective, there is a need to provide a method to support improved tracking and / or documentation of material movement in decentralized material networks, in particular, to enable performance evaluation of the entire system and optional performance tuning.

[0037] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure are particularly advantageous in that they enable verifiable and transparent tracking of material movement, and reduce the risk of fraudulent recycling and sustainability claims or demands regarding material origin.

[0038] When providing reliable, verifiable tracking and / or documentation of material movement, particularly mass flow and / or mass balance, there is concern that this could lead to complete transparency of material flow. However, for reasons such as privacy protection, it may be advantageous to make information available based on the need to know, for example, by selectively providing information only to selected parties. Generally, data that should be more readily available may be data that enables verifiable tracking of system-wide KPIs, such as for deriving recycling quotas, GHG emissions, throughput or flow rate in the material loop, consumption of unused material compared to throughput, and / or flow rate of irrecoverably lost material. This method may allow for a significant degree of anonymization without hindering reliable and verifiable tracking. For example, the use of cryptographic authentication information, such as signatures and public / private keys, is advantageous for this purpose. Such authentication information may be enabled to verify material movement.

[0039] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure may be used for these purposes and may help overcome the problems outlined above.

[0040] The methods and apparatus of this disclosure may be used for these purposes and may help overcome the challenges outlined above. In particular, the methods and apparatus of this disclosure may be used in cyclic processes represented in decentralized material networks, especially in closed material loops. Specifically, the methods and apparatus may be used to track mass transfers and perform mass equilibration. Mass equilibration may involve tracking that the mass of the material being moved is consistent across all consecutive material transfers. In particular, it may be used to ensure that material does not simply appear in a production process unless it is verified and committed to a distributed ledger as a transaction, e.g., a creation transaction. This is similar to the disappearance of material from a production process.

[0041] The use of cryptographic authentication information of material owners specified in this disclosure makes it possible to restrict the eligibility of material owners who have transactions committed to a distributed ledger, particularly those who have certain types of transactions.

[0042] For example, a material transfer transaction may be a crafting transaction. A crafting transaction may be a type of transaction that represents the introduction of materials (e.g., raw materials or unprocessed materials) into a production process. The methods of this disclosure may impose restrictions on which participants are qualified material owners for a crafting transaction. Thus, any point of entry into the production process can be strictly controlled. This may be important because otherwise materials with uncertain properties or origins may be introduced, or the materials associated with the transaction may be fully composed. By controlling the points of entry, only trusted parties may introduce materials. Optionally, additional checks (in addition to owner eligibility) may be performed to commit a crafting transaction.

[0043] Another type of transaction may be a transaction in transit, which may be any transaction that does not involve the introduction of materials. Such a transaction may also be called an owner-recipient transaction. Such a transaction may require a potentially lower level of trust than that of a creation transaction. For example, a material owner may be entitled to commit such a transaction to a distributed ledger, provided that, in principle, their cryptographic credentials are verified and, optionally, additional checks are successfully performed. For example, authorization of a transfer transaction to be committed to the ledger may be granted in accordance with validation checks such as mass equilibration to ensure that there are no undocumented appearances or disappearances of materials. Some such additional validation checks may also apply to the creation of a transaction, although some validation checks may not be applicable, particularly with respect to mass flows, because a creation transaction does not have a (documented) prior transaction.

[0044] According to this disclosure, the material may be a discrete material or a non-discrete material. According to this disclosure, the material may be a chemical raw material.

[0045] According to this disclosure, materials may be moved in a linear production process or a circular process. The method can then be used, for example, to track mass transfer, specifically mass balance. As an example, whether or not material transfer is committed as a transaction may be determined based on the permission of the material owner and / or boundary conditions related to the mass flow.

[0046] According to this disclosure, material data may include transaction metadata and, optionally, the quantity of material moved from the material owner to the material recipient. Transaction metadata may be used, for example, from a database, such as a MongoDB database, to retrieve more information about the transaction, specifically the material moved in connection with the transaction.

[0047] The quantity of material may be used for the purpose of determining mass flow, for example, to perform mass equilibrium. This information may be less sensitive than information related to the material being moved, as well as the identification information of the material owner and material recipient. As a result, for the purpose of transparency, for example, mass equilibrium, it may be advantageous to make the quantity of material being moved directly accessible as part of the transaction data. With respect to other information, access may be improved by making it accessible not as part of the transaction, but for example, for retrieval from a database. In particular, this allows sensitive data that is considered trustworthy and / or subject to audit to be managed by trusted parties and ensures reliable and continuous access to the information. Furthermore, this makes it possible to use a public, distributed ledger because sensitive information such as material data and the identification information of material owners and material recipients cannot be derived from the transaction data. However, knowing the identification information of material owners and / or material recipients allows trusted parties to monitor material flows, such as waste material flows.

[0048] According to this disclosure, transaction metadata may include a material identifier, at least one material classification, material production data, or a combination thereof.

[0049] For example, material production data may include one or more of the following: timestamp, production site, country of origin, and batch ID. This can enable efficient information access and retrieval in a database, for example, that holds information about materials being moved, and may allow participants in the movement (not necessarily other parties) to access more information than is stored in the actual transaction.

[0050] Such metadata makes it possible to efficiently retrieve information associated with a transaction, particularly information specific to the movement of materials associated with that transaction, from a database, for example.

[0051] Therefore, it is possible to accurately track specific units of material across multiple transfer and processing steps without having to pass on the entire history of previous transactions. Thus, transactions can still provide reliable tracking while remaining manageable in size and without requiring specific measures to protect sensitive data.

[0052] According to this disclosure, a material identifier may include a digital representation that refers to a material dataset, such as a material passport, or a portion thereof.

[0053] For example, a digital representation of a materials dataset may include the materials dataset, in particular a materials passport associated with the materials, in particular a pointer to identify the properties of the materials, in particular a hash pointer.

[0054] According to this disclosure, material datasets may be received from a data provision service. Specifically, the data provision service can ensure that the material datasets have an appropriate structure and content, and in particular, that they have reliable and secure storage and / or secure access to the material datasets.

[0055] According to this disclosure, a material dataset may further include decentralized identifiers and material-related data. Decentralized identifiers may include unique identifiers uniquely associated with the data owner and / or material data. Through decentralized identifiers, particularly their unique association with the data owner and material data, access to the material data may be controlled by the data owner rather than by a central authority.

[0056] According to this disclosure, a material dataset may further include data associated with one or more authentication mechanisms linked to a decentralized identifier. Through the authentication mechanisms, data access by data consumption services can be securely controlled, and the integrity of data provision services can be ensured. This enables more reliable, controlled, and secure data exchange or sharing, as can also be understood from the following glossary section.

[0057] According to this disclosure, a materials dataset may be associated with one or more authorization mechanisms linked to a decentralized identifier. Through these authorization mechanisms, data access and use by data consumption services can be securely controlled, as can also be understood from the following Terminology section.

[0058] According to this disclosure, data related to materials may include one or more digital representations of a material dataset, also known as material property data.

[0059] According to this disclosure, a material dataset (material property data) may include the name of the material, the ID of the material, the composition of the material, the chemical and / or physical properties of the material, material emission data, the recycled content of the material, the bio-based content of the material, further material production data, material declaration data, chemical material safety data, certificates of analytical data associated with the material, or a combination thereof.

[0060] Specifically, material datasets (material property data) may include data representing the carbon footprint of the material.

[0061] According to this disclosure, the material owner's cryptographic authentication information may include a public key and, optionally, the material owner's private key and / or cryptographic signature.

[0062] As an example, with respect to cryptographic signatures, material transaction requests may be signed by the material owners using their private keys. Signature verification may then be performed, for example, using the URI content.

[0063] According to this disclosure, the material recipient's encrypted authentication information may include a public key and, optionally, the material recipient's private key and / or encrypted signature. This enables reliable verification.

[0064] According to this disclosure, confirmation of commitment or rejection of commitment in a material transaction request may be received by the requester. Alternatively or additionally, confirmation of commitment or rejection of commitment in a material transaction request may be received by the material owner and / or any other designated party. This may enable the parties to document, independently of the distributed ledger, whether the movement of the material has been successfully verified and committed, in particular, to the distributed ledger.

[0065] According to this disclosure, verifying the encrypted credentials of a material owner may include searching a list containing encrypted credentials and comparing the encrypted credentials of the material owner with the encrypted credentials contained in the searched list.

[0066] A list containing cryptographic authentication information could be, for example, a whitelist or blacklist of public keys.

[0067] For example, a user attempting to participate in material transfer may be required to store their ID along with their public key in a database. The database may then be used to create and / or update lists, such as a blacklist or whitelist of public keys.

[0068] According to this disclosure, if the encrypted credentials included in a materials transaction request do not match the encrypted credentials included in a searched list, the movement of materials will be verified. This could, for example, be the case if the searched list is a blacklist.

[0069] For completeness, please note that material transfers can only be verified under the condition that the encrypted credentials included in the material transaction request do not match the encrypted credentials included in the searched list. In other words, if the encrypted credentials included in the material transaction request match the encrypted credentials included in the searched list, the transfer may not be verified.

[0070] The above example illustrates a case where the searched list is a blacklist of public keys. Alternatively, cryptographic credentials may only be validated if, in particular, the cryptographic credentials included in a material transaction request match those included in the searched list or another list. This illustrates the case where the searched list or other list is a public key whitelist.

[0071] As will be further explained below, there may be alternative or additional conditions that must be met in order to validate a materials transaction.

[0072] According to this disclosure, a distributed ledger may include material transactions, each material transaction being associated with the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient, and such material transactions include transaction identification information and material data associated with the material. Each material transaction included in the distributed ledger may be a material transaction stored in the distributed ledger in accordance with the commitment of the material transaction to the ledger, as outlined above.

[0073] According to this disclosure, verifying the encrypted authentication information of a material owner may, in addition to searching a list containing encrypted authentication information, include searching a list containing transaction identification information for material transactions and comparing the transaction identification information associated with an received material transaction request with the transaction identification information contained in the searched list.

[0074] A list containing transaction identification information for material transactions could be, for example, a whitelist or blacklist of transaction identification information, similar to a whitelist or blacklist of encryption authentication information.

[0075] The above, in particular, enables retroactive sanctions. For example, a transaction that should not be committed to a distributed ledger but was not prevented by a safeguard, such as the use of cryptographic credentials, may be blocked because it is the origin of subsequent moving transactions. Such transactions may be detected by the aforementioned list of transaction identification information and transaction materials. Thus, additional safeguards against attacks and fraud may be provided, enabling retroactive measures.

[0076] According to this disclosure, if the transaction identification information associated with a received material transaction request does not match the transaction identification information included in the searched list, the movement of the material may be verified.

[0077] For completeness, please note that material movement can only be verified under the condition that the transaction identifier associated with the received material transaction request does not match any transaction identifier included in the searched list. In other words, if the transaction identifier associated with the received material transaction request matches any transaction identifier included in the searched list, the material movement may not be verified.

[0078] This illustrates a case where the searched list is a blacklist of transaction identifiers. Alternatively, a whitelist of transaction identifiers could be used for verification, similar to the public key whitelist described above.

[0079] According to this disclosure, verifying the encrypted authentication information of a material owner may include verifying the encrypted signature of the material owner. Verifying the encrypted authentication information of an optional material recipient may include verifying the encrypted signature of the material recipient.

[0080] In other words, in order to qualify for a commitment, a material transaction request may be required to include the encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the encrypted authentication information of the material recipient, in particular the encrypted signature of the material owner and optionally the encrypted signature of the material recipient, and verification of the encrypted authentication information may be performed on the encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the encrypted authentication information of the material recipient.

[0081] Verifying encrypted credentials can be performed, for example, as outlined above. In particular, both the encrypted credentials of the material owner, especially the encrypted signature, and the encrypted credentials of the material recipient, especially the encrypted signature, may be verified.

[0082] According to this disclosure, a material transfer transaction may contain strictly one material identifier. Therefore, each transaction can uniquely refer to only one material and its associated material dataset. This makes information resolution easier and keeps transactions efficient.

[0083] According to this disclosure, searching for material datasets associated with the movement of a material (based on material identifiers and material production data included in transaction metadata) may include determining the chemical substances associated with the material based on the material identifiers included in the metadata, and searching for material datasets associated with the movement of the material based on the determined substances and material production data.

[0084] A chemical substance can be any material having a distinct chemical composition and characteristic properties. For example, the material may be at least one of ethanol, urea, sulfonic acid, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, styrene, acrylic acid, hydrogen, propanol, butanol, butyl acetate, butyl acrylate, or ethyl acrylate.

[0085] Therefore, at least two material datasets may, for example, each contain data for different specific batches of a chemical substance. Based on the material identifier in the transaction, material movements associated with a specific chemical substance for a batch of the substance can be identified, although this is not necessarily required. The material dataset associated with a material movement, for example, a specific batch of the substance being moved, can be retrieved based on material production data as outlined above and may be used, for example, to identify a specific batch and / or the material dataset associated with it.

[0086] According to this disclosure, chemical substances can be associated with materials via chemical registry numbers, particularly CAS numbers.

[0087] A CAS number (also known as a CAS Registry Number) is a unique identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) to chemical substances, including organic compounds, inorganic compounds, minerals, isotopes, alloys, mixtures, and unstructured materials.

[0088] According to this disclosure, a distributed ledger application may be stored on each member node of the distributed ledger.

[0089] According to this disclosure, a distributed ledger application may be a smart contract. According to this disclosure, a material identifier may include a pointer to a digital representation of a chemical substance.

[0090] A pointer to the digital representation of a chemical substance can be a pointer to the identifier of the chemical substance, such as a registration number, and in particular, a hash pointer.

[0091] Any disclosures, embodiments, features, technical effects, and advantages described herein in the context of the Method also apply to the apparatus, use, and arithmetic units of the Disclosure, and vice versa. Any advantages provided by any of the multiple embodiments and examples apply equally to all other embodiments and examples, and vice versa.

[0092] term Hereafter, terms used herein and / or the technical field of this disclosure will be outlined by definitions and / or examples. Where examples are given, it should be understood that this disclosure is not limited to such examples.

[0093] In this disclosure, "material" should be broadly understood to refer to one or more physical entities. A material may be individual or non-individual; for example, a non-individual material may be a continuous volume of a solid or liquid material, or an individual material may comprise multiple fragments, such as parts or components. A chemical material may be, for example, a chemical raw material, a chemically processed material, or a recycled material.

[0094] According to this disclosure, the materials can be classified into at least the following material categories: Raw materials, in this disclosure, may include materials that are derived sources or starting materials in the production process. These may be unused or reused materials, for example, materials that have already gone through a production and use cycle.

[0095] According to this disclosure, unused materials may include newly extracted raw materials, in particular materials that have not gone through production and use cycles, in particular materials that have not been processed and / or used. For example, it may not have gone through any of steps 2 through 6 of a production process as described below.

[0096] According to this disclosure, reused material may be material that has already gone through a manufacturing and use cycle. For example, reused material may be material that has undergone processing after use to prepare it for reuse. This may involve processing steps, such as recycling and / or other processing steps, such as cleaning.

[0097] Recycled materials are an example of reused materials. They may be materials that have undergone one or more processing steps after use. These processing steps may be steps that make the material usable as a raw material.

[0098] This disclosure relates to the movement of materials. The material may be moved during the production process, which, according to this disclosure, may include a manufacturing stage and a use stage, such as use by the end consumer. The production process may include the material being processed for reuse after use and entering another processing stage. Alternatively or additionally, the production process may include the material being discarded.

[0099] More specifically, for example, the production process according to this disclosure may include at least a first step in which materials are introduced into the production process (also called a supply step or material introduction step), a second step in which the materials introduced into the production process are processed to obtain, for example, a product (also called a processing step), and a third step in which use by, for example, an end customer is included (also called a use step).

[0100] Generally, materials can be moved in a linear process, such as a linear production process, or in a circular process that may include a production process.

[0101] The cyclic process described herein is a process that includes a reuse step in addition to the manufacturing and use steps. Therefore, it may also include processing the material for reuse. In particular, the cyclic process may include one or more, in particular all, of the first step, the second step, the third step (also called the use step), the fourth step (also called processing for reuse, which may include, for example, a recycling step and / or a cleaning step), and the fifth step (also called the reuse step, which may be another processing step). Optionally, the cyclic process may include a sixth step, also called a disposal step. Furthermore, different cycles of the cyclic process may include different subsets of the steps described above.

[0102] The steps can be performed in this order, at will. Optionally, steps 4 and 5 may be repeated before performing step 6. Each of steps 1 through 6 may include multiple substeps.

[0103] In the circulating process, one or more materials may be involved, in particular, one or more of the first to sixth steps, especially all of them.

[0104] In the course of a cyclical process, materials may be divided and / or merged with other materials. Merging with other materials may be considered as processing one material and processing another.

[0105] Alternatively or additionally, in the course of a circular process, one or more materials may be moved between the parties.

[0106] The circulating process may be implemented in particular as a closed material loop. The closed material loop according to this disclosure may be a circulating process, more specifically a circular material flow, in which only unused material is supplied to the circulating process to replace unusable material, e.g., discarded material, and diffusive or accidental material losses into the environment, such as wear, abrasion, or irreversible losses. Otherwise, unused material is not supplied / introduced into the closed material loop. The unused material flow supplied to the circulating process to replace discarded material, and / or diffusive or accidental material losses, may be referred to as the unused material makeup stream.

[0107] A linear process may consist only of the manufacturing, use, and disposal stages. In particular, it may not involve the reuse of materials, and especially may not involve recycling and / or other processing steps to prepare materials for reuse. In other words, the raw materials may not include the materials of the process itself, such as recycled or otherwise reintroduced materials. As an example, a linear process may include steps 1 through 3 and 6 outlined above, but may not include steps 4 and 5 outlined above.

[0108] In this disclosure, "movement of materials" may mean materials moved between one or more first parties (each also called a material owner) and one or more second parties (each also called a material recipient), in particular from one or more first parties to one or more second parties. "Movement of materials" may mean materials that have already been made, as well as anticipated or planned movements of materials from one or more first parties to one or more second parties. In particular, "movement of materials" may include materials moved strictly between one first party and strictly one second party.

[0109] One or more first parties and one or more second parties, in particular material owners and material recipients, may each include at least one of the following: a legal entity, such as a company, a natural person, and a group of legal entities and / or natural persons.

[0110] A material owner may be a party that has ownership of the material, in particular physical control over the material and / or economic ownership of the material. A material owner who is a party to the transfer of material is also referred to in this disclosure as the material owner associated with the transfer of material, and vice versa.

[0111] A material recipient may be a party that receives ownership of the material, in particular physical control over the material and / or economic ownership of the material. A material recipient who is a party to the transfer of material is also referred to in this disclosure as a material recipient associated with the transfer of material, and vice versa.

[0112] The movement of materials may include the transfer of ownership from the material owner to the material recipient, and may include at least one of the following: the transfer of physical control over the material (also called the physical movement of the material) and the economic ownership of the material. The material being moved in the process of the movement of materials is also called the material associated with the movement of materials, and vice versa.

[0113] One or more first parties and one or more second parties are collectively referred to as the parties involved in the movement in this specification.

[0114] According to this disclosure, material data (or simply data) associated with or related to a material may include, for example, transaction metadata and / or the quantity of material moved during the process of material movement. Optionally, material data may include production data, such as timestamps, production site, country of origin, serial number (IBC), QR code (registered trademark), and / or batch ID. Alternatively or additionally, material data may optionally include material datasets (also known as data representing one or more properties of a material) and / or one or more digital representations pointing to or from a material dataset.

[0115] A material dataset may include the material name, material ID, material composition, material chemical and / or physical properties, material release data, material recycling percentage, material bio-based percentage, further material production data, material declaration data, chemical material safety data, certificates of analytical data associated with the material, or a combination thereof. A material dataset associated with material movement may be a dataset containing material data specifically associated with the material being moved, for example, with a particular batch related to the material movement.

[0116] In particular, it may not include material data that is not associated with the material being moved; in other words, it may only include such material data that is associated with the material being moved.

[0117] The term "material dataset" should be understood broadly in this context and may include data related to the properties of a material and / or data related to the use of a material. Such properties may be static or dynamic properties. Static properties may be properties that remain constant over time, such as melting point, boiling point, density, hardness, and flammability. Dynamic properties may be properties that change over time, such as shelf life, pH value, color, and reactivity. Material properties may include performance properties, chemical properties such as flammability, toxicity, acidity, reactivity, and heat of combustion, and / or physical properties such as density, color, hardness, melting point, and boiling point, and conductivity. Data related to the use of a material may include, for example, data related to further processing of the material by using the material as a reactant in further chemical reactions, and / or data related to the use of the material, such as data related to the use of the material in processing processes and / or within manufacturing processes. A material dataset may include chemical data, emission data, recyclable content, biobase content, and / or production data.

[0118] Transaction metadata can be considered data representing the material being moved. Transaction metadata may include one or more of the following: a material identifier, at least one material classification, and material production data. A material identifier may include, for example, a digital representation that points to a material dataset or part thereof, in this disclosure, to at least two different material datasets. For example, according to this disclosure, a transaction itself may not include any specific details about the material associated with the material movement. This ensures that a transaction can be made public, for example, while keeping details about the material being moved and the parties involved confidential. As a more specific example, a transaction may include transaction data that includes a digital representation that points to a material dataset or part thereof. In addition, transaction data may include one or more of the following: the type of transaction, e.g., creation or movement of the transaction, one or more public keys such as the public keys of the material owner and material recipient, an ID, and the quantity of material being moved.

[0119] The term "digital representation of material data or a portion thereof" should be understood in a broad sense in this case and may include at least one interface to a data provision service.

[0120] Furthermore, it may include at least one interface to data consumption services. A digital representation of product data or a portion thereof may include a data exchange or sharing endpoint (resource endpoint) or a service interaction endpoint (service endpoint) that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. Thus, a digital representation of material data or a portion thereof may be uniquely associated with a decentralized identifier.

[0121] According to this disclosure, material datasets may be received from data provision services. The term “data provision services” should be understood broadly in this context and includes computer executable instructions that provide and / or process data, such as material data associated with a data owner, for access and / or processing by data consumption services.

[0122] The material dataset provided in this disclosure may include a decentralized identifier and data related to the material. Optionally, the material dataset may include data related to an authentication mechanism associated with the decentralized identifier. Alternatively or additionally, the material dataset may be associated with and / or include data related to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier.

[0123] The term "decentralized identifier" may be understood broadly in this context and may include any unique identifier uniquely associated with the data owner and the material data. Decentralized identifiers may include universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) or digital identifiers (DIDs). Decentralized identifiers may be issued by centralized or decentralized identity information issuers. Decentralized identifiers may include authentication information. Through the decentralized identifier and its unique association with the data owner and the material data, access to the material data may be controlled by the data owner. This is in contrast to a centralized authority scheme, in which identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority.

[0124] In this context, decentralized may refer to the use of identifiers in embodiments controlled by the data owner.

[0125] In this disclosure, a materials dataset may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier, and data related to the materials data.

[0126] Authentication mechanisms may include tokens such as private and public key infrastructures, certificate mechanisms, or biometric mechanisms such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voice recognition. A common public key certificate is, for example, an X.509 certificate. Through authentication mechanisms, data access by data consumption services can be securely controlled, and the integrity of data provision services can be ensured. This enables more reliable, controlled, and secure data exchange or sharing.

[0127] One or more authentication mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier generated by one centralized node or by one or more decentralized nodes may be provided to at least one decentralized authentication data registry accessible to the node generating the material dataset, and preferably by data provisioning and / or data consumption services. The authentication data registry may be a centralized registry such as a centralized file system, a centrally managed distributed database, and / or a centrally managed peer-to-peer network. A centralized configuration allows for greater control and standardization via centralized nodes. The authentication data registry may be a decentralized registry such as a distributed ledger, a decentralized file system, a distributed database, and / or a peer-to-peer network. A decentralized configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and enhances data owners' control over the material dataset.

[0128] In this disclosure, a material dataset may be associated with or include one or more authorization mechanisms associated with decentralized identifiers and data related to the material data. The authorization mechanisms may include authorization rules, such as data usage policies, smart data contracts, or more complex data processing instructions related to data provision and / or data consumption services, including data transaction orders or data transaction protocols. Through the authorization mechanisms, data access and use by data consumption services can be securely controlled.

[0129] One or more authorization mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier generated by one centralized node or one or more decentralized nodes may be provided to nodes that generate or process material datasets or nodes that access data related to material data. Additionally or alternatively, one or more authorization mechanisms may be provided to at least one centralized or decentralized authorization data registry, preferably accessible by data provisioning services and / or data consumption services. In one embodiment, one or more authorization mechanisms associated with a decentralized identifier generated by one or more decentralized nodes may be provided to nodes that generate or process material datasets and preferably accessible by data provisioning services and / or data consumption services, to at least one of the following: a centralized file system, a centrally managed distributed database, a centrally managed peer-to-peer network, a distributed ledger, a decentralized file system, a distributed database, and / or a peer-to-peer network.

[0130] In this disclosure, a material transfer transaction (also referred to as a material transaction) should be understood as a digital representation, in particular an intrinsic digital representation, of a transfer of material from a first party to one or more second parties, and more specifically, from strictly one first party to strictly one second party. A material transfer transaction is also referred to in this disclosure as a material transfer transaction associated with a transfer of material, and vice versa. Thus, material associated with a transfer of material may also be referred to as material associated with a material transfer transaction, and vice versa. More specifically, a material transfer transaction may be a transaction stored on a distributed ledger.

[0131] A material transfer transaction request (also referred to as a material transfer request) under this disclosure may include an instruction to commit the material transfer transaction request to a distributed ledger as a material transfer transaction. The request may, in particular, be an instruction to commit the material transfer request to a distributed ledger as a material transfer transaction, and optionally the material transfer transaction may be stored in the distributed ledger. This material transfer transaction may also be said to be associated with a material transfer transaction request, and vice versa.

[0132] A material transfer transaction request may be created and / or transmitted by the requesting party, also called the requester, to, for example, a distributed ledger application. A material transfer transaction and / or material transfer transaction request under this disclosure may be referred to as associated with a material, and vice versa.

[0133] A material transfer transaction request may include material data; that is, material data may be stored within the material transfer transaction associated with the material transfer transaction request.

[0134] A material transfer transaction request may, alternatively or additionally, include data indicating a material transfer transaction. For example, data indicating a material transfer transaction may include data representing the identification information of the transfer transaction, also known as transaction identification information. Such data may be any data, including identifiers that uniquely identify a material transfer transaction in a given context, for example, in a given distributed network.

[0135] In this disclosure, a commitment of a material transfer transaction request as a transaction to a distributed ledger may include, for example, an instruction to store the transaction in the distributed ledger. For example, a material transfer transaction is received and verified by a member node, also called a receiving node of the distributed ledger. The receiving node may store the verified request in a database and assign the verified request to one or more other nodes that run a consensus algorithm, such as the BTF (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus protocol. These one or more other nodes may process the assigned request by creating an ordered list of transactions from the assigned request, creating a block for the transactions, and storing the block in a database. Each block created has a reference to a parent block so that a blockchain is obtained. The other member nodes running the consensus algorithm vote whether to consider a block valid or invalid by checking the validity of all transactions in the block. If such a node finds invalid transactions, it votes that the block is invalid; otherwise, it votes that the block is valid. Once a block receives a majority of positive (valid) votes, voting on the block stops, and the block is committed to the blockchain. Otherwise, the block is rejected and not committed to the blockchain.

[0136] In this disclosure, for example, storing or remembering a move transaction may include storing the move transaction in a distributed ledger and adding it to the distributed ledger, for example, as a block. For example, the decision to add a move transaction to the distributed ledger is made by consensus, i.e., the majority of the member nodes of the distributed ledger must agree that the transaction is valid as described above.

[0137] The storage of a transaction in a distributed ledger can be triggered by a commitment to a transfer transaction request as a transaction to a distributed ledger. Therefore, unless an error occurs, the storage of the transaction can be performed in accordance with the commitment. Confirmation of a commitment to a request, such as a materials transaction request, may include an indication that the commitment has been approved, which may mean that the commitment has been or will be performed. In particular, confirmation of a commitment may include an indication that the commitment has been successfully performed.

[0138] Sending or receiving confirmation of a request commitment as a transaction to a distributed ledger may involve sending or receiving information, particularly contained in the message, indicating that the request is and / or will be committed as a transaction to a distributed ledger.

[0139] For example, sending or receiving a rejection of a request commitment as a transaction to a distributed ledger may involve sending or receiving information, particularly contained in the message, indicating that the request is not and will not be committed as, for example, a transaction to a distributed ledger.

[0140] Verifying the movement of materials may include determining whether a movement of materials that should be recorded in a distributed ledger is taking place between the parties, or has already taken place, based on data associated with the movement of materials, such as materials, material owners, and / or material recipients, and / or data associated with material transaction requests, and based on predetermined rules or sets of rules.

[0141] Verifying the movement of materials may include verifying the encrypted authentication information of the material owner associated with the movement of materials and / or the encrypted authentication information of the material recipient associated with the movement of materials. For example, encrypted authentication information may be included in the material transaction request associated with the movement of materials.

[0142] Encryption credentials may include data that establishes the identification of the parties to a communication. Encryption credentials may take the form of machine-readable encryption keys, such as a public key and / or a private key, and / or an encryption signature and / or a password and / or a passphrase. Encryption credentials may be self-issued or issued by a trusted third party. Encryption credentials may be configured to establish a clear association between the credentials and a specific actual individual or other entity. Encryption credentials may optionally be configured to expire after a certain period of time, but this is not required. An X.509 public key certificate is an example of encryption credentials.

[0143] Verifying encrypted credentials may involve comparing them against a list of credentials, particularly a curated list. Such lists may include blacklists and / or whitelists of credentials. Verification of encrypted credentials may be successful if the encrypted credentials match or do not match any credentials on the list of credentials (for example, if they match a credential on the whitelist or do not match a credential on the blacklist).

[0144] In the context of this disclosure, verifying encrypted credentials may also include, for example, comparing the transaction identification information of a material transfer transaction that includes or is associated with the encrypted credentials against a list of transaction identification information, as an alternative or additional step to matching the encrypted credentials against a list of credentials. Verification of encrypted credentials may be successful if the transaction identification information matches or does not match any transaction identification information on the list of transaction identification information (for example, if it matches any transaction identification information on the whitelist or does not match any transaction identification information on the blacklist).

[0145] The methods implemented by computers may relate to decentralized material networks with distributed ledgers, for example, as in the present application. A distributed ledger can be thought of as a database shared, replicated, and synchronized among member nodes of a decentralized network, such as a P2P network. Generally, a distributed ledger can record transactions between network participants and thus provide an immutable history of transactions.

[0146] Distributed ledger updates can be performed based on a consensus algorithm. When an update occurs, all nodes update themselves with the appropriate updated copy of the ledger. Blockchain applications are a concrete example of distributed ledger applications. The nature of distributed ledgers is that they do not have centralized authority such as a clearinghouse.

[0147] A distributed ledger, more specifically its transactions, may represent material flows in a material network such as production or a supply chain, e.g., the introduction of materials into the material network or the movement of materials within the material network. In this case, the distributed ledger may enable the retrieval of transactions, and subsequently, lookups across multiple intermediate steps in the material network, e.g., a supply chain, thereby ensuring the traceability of material flows and the accountability of each material owner and recipient.

[0148] As in the present disclosure, a distributed ledger may include a distributed ledger application. The distributed ledger application performs the computing steps associated with the distributed ledger.

[0149] A distributed ledger application can be stored on each member node of the distributed ledger. As an example, a distributed ledger application can be a smart contract. A smart contract can be a computer program or transaction protocol that automatically executes and / or controls and / or documents events and / or actions in accordance with an agreement, such as a contract.

[0150] For example, a computer program or trading protocol may automatically execute steps in response to the agreement and / or the fulfillment of predetermined conditions.

[0151] As used herein, “determine” also includes “initiate or bring about determination,” “generate” also includes “initiate and / or bring about generation,” and “provide” also includes “initiate or bring about determination, generation, selection, transmission, and / or reception.” “Initiate or bring about the execution of an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action.

[0152] In the claims and specification, the term “including” does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude plurality. A single element or other unit may perform the functions of multiple entities or items described in the claims. The mere fact that certain means are described in different dependent claims does not imply that combinations of these means cannot be used in a favorable implementation.

[0153] Brief explanation of the drawing The present disclosure will be further explained below with reference to the attached drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0154] [Figure 1A] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of a centralized computing environment having computing nodes. [Figure 1B] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of a decentralized computing environment having computing nodes. [Figure 1C] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment. [Figure 2] This figure shows an example of a distributed ledger. [Figure 3A] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3B] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 5A] This figure shows the potential applications of the method disclosed herein. [Figure 5B] This figure shows the potential applications of the method disclosed herein. [Figure 5C] This figure shows the potential applications of the method disclosed herein. [Figure 5D] This figure shows the potential applications of the method disclosed herein. [Figure 5E] This figure shows the potential applications of the method disclosed herein. [Figure 6] This figure shows an example of a materials dataset that includes DID owner data, DID document data, and a decentralized identification information infrastructure. [Figure 7] This figure shows an example of a materials dataset that includes ID-based data, materials dataset data, and a decentralized identification information infrastructure. [Figure 8] This figure shows an example of a production facility that produces chemical products associated with a materials dataset. [Figure 9] This figure shows another example of a production facility that produces chemical products associated with a materials dataset. [Figure 10] This figure shows an example of a production system that produces chemical products associated with one or more material datasets. [Figure 11] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 12A] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 12B] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 13] This figure shows an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 14A] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 14B] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 14C] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Figure 14D] This flowchart shows an exemplary embodiment of the method described herein. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0155] Detailed description of the embodiment The following embodiments are merely examples of, and should not be considered as limiting, implementations of the methods, systems, or application devices disclosed herein.

[0156] To provide context for the methods and apparatuses described herein, different computing environments, including centralized, decentralized, and decentralized and distributed configurations, are shown in Figures 1a to 1c and described below herein.

[0157] The methods, apparatus, and computing units of this disclosure are implemented in a decentralized, or at least partially decentralized, computing environment, specifically, a decentralized network that can reflect the decentralized nature of material transfer between multiple independent parties.

[0158] Figure 1a shows an exemplary embodiment of a centralized computing system 100, comprising a centralized computing node 101 (a solid circle in the center) and several peripheral computing nodes 101.1 to 101.n (shown as surrounding solid circles).

[0159] In this specification, the term “computing system” is broadly defined to include one or more computing nodes, a system of nodes, or a combination thereof. In this specification, the term “computing node” is broadly defined to refer to any device or system comprising at least one physical, tangible processor and physical, tangible memory capable of having computer-executable instructions executed by the processor. Computing nodes are now increasingly taking on diverse forms. Computing nodes may be, for example, handheld devices, production facilities, sensors, monitoring systems, control systems, consumer electronics, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes, data centers, or even devices that have not traditionally been considered computing nodes, such as wearables (e.g., eyeglasses, watches, etc.). Memory can take any form and depends on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0160] In this example, peripheral computing nodes 101.1 to 101.n may be connected to a single centralized computing system (or server). In another example, peripheral computing nodes 101.1 to 101.n may be attached to the centralized computing node via, for example, a terminal server (not shown). Most of the functionality may be performed by or obtained from the centralized computing node (also called a remote centralized management location). One peripheral computing node 101.n is expanded to provide an overview of the components present in the peripheral computing nodes.

[0161] The centralized computing node 101 may have the same components as those described in relation to the peripheral computing node 101.n.

[0162] Each computing node 101, 101.1 to 101.n may have at least one hardware processor 102 and memory 104. The term “processor” can mean any logic circuit and / or generally any device configured to perform calculations or logical operations, configured to perform basic operations of a computer or system. In particular, a processor or computer processor may be configured to process basic instructions that drive a computer or system. A processor may be a semiconductor-based processor, a quantum processor, or any other type of processor configured to process instructions. As an example, a processor may include at least one arithmetic logic unit (“ALU”), at least one floating-point unit (“FPU”) such as a numerical coprocessor or numerical coprocessor, a number of registers, in particular registers configured to supply operands to the ALU and store the results of calculations, and memory such as L1 and L2 cache memories. In particular, a processor may be a multi-core processor. Specifically, a processor may be a central processing unit (“CPU”) or may comprise a CPU. The processor may be a graphics processing unit ("GPU"), a tensor processing unit ("TPU"), a composite instruction set computing microprocessor ("CISC"), a reduced instruction set computing ("RISC") microprocessor, a very long instruction word ("VLIW") microprocessor, a processor that implements other instruction sets, or a processor that implements a combination of instruction sets. The processing means may also be one or more dedicated processing devices such as application-specific integrated circuits ("ASIC"), field-programmable gate arrays ("FPGA"), composite programmable logic circuits ("CPLD"), digital signal processors ("DSP"), or network processors. The methods, systems, and devices described herein may be implemented as software in a DSP, microcontroller, or any other side processor, or as hardware circuitry in an ASIC, CPLD, or FPGA.The term "processor" can also refer to one or more processing devices, such as in a distributed system of processing devices deployed across multiple computer systems (e.g., cloud computing), and should be understood as not being limited to a single device unless otherwise specified.

[0163] Memory 104 may refer to physical system memory that may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination thereof. Memory may include non-volatile mass storage devices such as physical storage media. Memory may be computer-readable storage media such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other physical and tangible storage media that can be used to store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computing system. Furthermore, memory may be a computer-readable medium (also called a transmission medium) containing computer-executable instructions. Furthermore, when program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures reach various computing system components, they may be automatically moved from the transmission medium to the storage medium (and vice versa). For example, computer-executable instructions or data structures received via a network or data link may be buffered in RAM within a network interface module (e.g., "NIC") and then moved to the RAM of the computing system and / or to a less volatile storage medium located in the computing system. Therefore, it should be understood that storage media can be included in computing components that also utilize (or primarily utilize) transmission media.

[0164] Computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n may contain multiple structures 106, often referred to as “executable components or computer executable instructions.” For example, the memory 104 of computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n may be shown as containing an executable component 106. The term “executable component” can be the name of a structure that is software, hardware, or a combination thereof, or a structure that can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination thereof, as is well understood by those skilled in the art of computing. For example, when implemented in software, those skilled in the art will understand that the structure of an executable component includes software objects, routines, methods, etc., that are executed on computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n, whether such executable components reside on many computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n, or whether the executable component resides on a computer-readable storage medium. In such cases, a person skilled in the art will recognize that the structure of the executable component exists in a computer-readable medium so that, when interpreted by one or more processors of computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n (for example, by processor threads), computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n can perform functions. Such a structure may be directly computer-readable by the processor (as if the executable component were binary). Alternatively, the structure may be interpretable and / or compiled (whether in a single or multiple stage) to produce a binary that is directly interpretable by the processor. Such an exemplary understanding of the structure of an executable component is well within the understanding of a person skilled in the art when the term “executable component” is used. Examples of executable components implemented in hardware include hardcoded or wired logic gates implemented exclusively or partially in hardware, such as in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any other dedicated circuits.In this explanation, terms such as "component," "agent," "manager," "service," "engine," "module," and "virtual machine" are used synonymously with the term "executable component."

[0165] The processor 102 of each computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n may instruct the operation of each computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n in response to executing computer executable instructions that constitute the executable components. For example, such computer executable instructions may be embodied in one or more computer-readable media that form a computer program product. Computer executable instructions may be stored in the memory 104 of each computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n. Computer executable instructions include instructions and data that, when executed by processor 101, cause a general-purpose computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n, a dedicated computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n, or a dedicated processing device to perform a specific function or set of functions. Alternatively or additionally, computer executable instructions may be configured to perform specific functions or sets of functions on computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n. Computer executable instructions may be binaries or even instructions that undergo some translation (such as compilation) before being executed directly by the processor, such as intermediate format instructions like assembly language or source code.

[0166] Each computing node 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n may include a communication channel 108 that enables each computing node 101.1, ..., 101.n to communicate with a centralized computing node 101, for example, a network (shown as a solid line between peripheral computing nodes and the centralized computing node in Figure 1a). The “network” may be defined as one or more data links that enable the transmission of electronic data between computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n, modules, and / or other electronic devices. When information is moved to or provided to computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n via the network or another communication connection (either wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless), computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n appropriately consider the connection as a medium of transmission. The transmission medium can be used to carry desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and may include networks and / or data links accessible by general-purpose or dedicated computing nodes 101, 101.1, ..., 101.n. The above combination may also fall within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0167] Computing nodes 101, 101.1 to 101.n may further comprise a user interface system 110 used for interface with a user. The user interface system 110 may include an output mechanism 110A and an input mechanism 110B. The principles described herein are not limited to precise output mechanisms 110A or input mechanisms 110B, for such a limitation would depend on the nature of the device. However, output mechanisms 110A may include, for example, displays, speakers, haptic outputs, holograms, etc. Examples of input mechanisms 110B include, for example, microphones, touchscreens, holograms, cameras, keyboards, mice or other pointer inputs, and sensors of any kind.

[0168] Figure 1b shows an exemplary embodiment of a decentralized computing environment 100' having several computing nodes 101.1'~101.n', shown as solid circles. In contrast to the centralized computing environment 100 shown in Figure 1a, the computing nodes 101.1'~101.n' of the decentralized computing environment are not connected to the centralized computing node 101 and are therefore not under the control of the centralized computing node. Instead, both hardware and software resources can be allocated to each individual computing node 101.1', ..., 101.n' (local or remote computing system), and data can be distributed among the various computing nodes 101.1', ..., 101.n' for task execution. Thus, in a decentralized system environment, program modules can reside on both local and remote memory storage devices. One computing node 101' is enlarged to provide an overview of the components present in computing node 101'. In this example, computing node 101' has the same components as those described in relation to Figure 1a.

[0169] Figure 1c shows an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment 103. In this description, “distributed computing” may refer to any computing that utilizes multiple computing resources. Such use may be achieved through the virtualization of physical computing resources.

[0170] One example of distributed computing is cloud computing. "Cloud computing" can refer to a model that enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services). When distributed, the cloud computing environment can be distributed internally within one organization and / or across multiple organizations. In this example, the distributed cloud computing environment 103 may include the following computing resources: mobile devices 114, applications 116, databases 118, data storage 120, and servers 122. The cloud computing environment 103 can be deployed as a public cloud 124, a private cloud 126, or a hybrid cloud 128. The private cloud 124 may be owned by an organization, and only members of the organization with appropriate access can use the private cloud 126, keeping the data within the private cloud at least confidential. In contrast, data stored in the public cloud 126 may be open to anyone via the internet. The hybrid cloud 128 may be a combination of the private cloud 124 and the public cloud 126, allowing some data to be kept confidential while other data may be made public.

[0171] As described in detail above, the methods and apparatus of this disclosure may utilize a distributed ledger. An exemplary distributed ledger 200 is shown in Figure 2. The distributed ledger 200 is a database shared, replicated, and synchronized among member nodes 202 of a decentralized network, such as a P2P network. A distributed ledger application performs computing steps associated with the distributed ledger. Generally, a distributed ledger can record transactions between network participants and thus provide an immutable history of transactions. Updates to the distributed ledger are performed based on a consensus algorithm. When an update occurs, all nodes update themselves with the appropriate updated copy of the ledger. Blockchain applications are a concrete example of distributed ledger applications. The nature of a distributed ledger is that it does not have centralized authority, such as a clearinghouse.

[0172] A distributed ledger, more specifically its transactions, may represent material flows in a material network such as a supply chain, e.g., the introduction of materials into the material network or the movement of materials within the material network. In this case, the distributed ledger may enable the retrieval of transactions, and subsequently enable lookups across multiple intermediate steps in the material network, e.g., a supply chain, thereby ensuring the traceability of material flows and the accountability of each material owner and recipient.

[0173] In Figure 2, as a concrete example, each node is shown to have a database layer 204a (also called a database API) and a distributed ledger control layer 204b that includes a distributed consensus algorithm and functions as distributed ledger anchoring, such as blockchain anchoring. Providing separate layers may be advantageous because the database functionality can be equipped with high throughput for, for example, data loading and retrieval, access and querying, while the distributed ledger functionality, while typically providing lower throughput, still ensures data immutability, tamper resistance, evidence, decentralized consensus over state, and state replication across diverse nodes. However, separation into separate layers is optional.

[0174] A distributed ledger, as shown in Figure 2, can be configured such that database access and query commands on each node are implemented as part of the database layer, and only a few essential database commands that can be implemented by the control layer are implemented. For example, if a material flow is represented by a distributed ledger, the control layer can perform creation and transfer transactions, where creation transactions represent the supply or introduction of material to the material network, and transfer transactions represent material being moved from a material owner to a material recipient within the material network.

[0175] A create transaction may, for example, write an asset object to the ledger and add a pointer to the corresponding metadata, while a move transaction may, for example, perform an append-only write operation to the ledger that requires one or more input transactions (create or move) and one or more outputs (destination addresses).

[0176] Therefore, using only two types of transactions, the distributed tracking and documentation of material flows in the material network, particularly the mass equilibrium of materials, can be performed by distributed consensus.

[0177] Figures 3A and 3B show block diagrams illustrating a method for verifying the movement of material between a material owner and a material recipient in a decentralized network, comprising a distributed ledger 302 including multiple member nodes 304 and a distributed ledger application 306, according to the present disclosure. For simplicity, only one of the member nodes is shown in detail. The member node communicates with a requester computer device 308, also abbreviated as the requester, for example, via a data connection.

[0178] The requesting computer device communicates transmissively, for example, via another data connection, with the storage device 310a, which stores the material owner's encrypted authentication information 312a. The requesting device is configured to retrieve the material owner's encrypted authentication information from the storage device.

[0179] Optionally, the requesting device may also be configured to retrieve the encrypted authentication information 312b of the material recipient from storage device 310a or from a different storage device 310b with which it is communicating. The requesting computer device is configured to send the material transaction request 314 to member nodes, specifically to a distributed ledger application.

[0180] A material transaction request includes material data 318 associated with the material movement to be verified. Furthermore, a material transaction request includes at least the encrypted authentication information of the material owner. Optionally, a material transaction request may also include the encrypted authentication information of the material recipient.

[0181] The distributed ledger application is configured to receive material transaction requests from requester computer devices and to verify the movement of materials.

[0182] Verification of material movement is carried out by verifying the encrypted authentication information of at least the material owner and optionally the material recipient included in the material transaction request.

[0183] Figure 3a illustrates a scenario in which the movement of materials is successfully verified. In this case, the material transaction 318 is committed to a decentralized ledger and, optionally, stored in a distributed ledger. Furthermore, a member node, specifically the distributed ledger application, sends confirmation 320 of the commitment of the transaction request as a transaction to the requesting computer device. In addition, in the same or different steps, the success of storing the transaction in the distributed ledger may also be sent to the requesting computer device.

[0184] Figure 3b shows the same system as Figure 3a. Figure 3b shows a scenario in which the movement of materials is not verified. In this case, the sending of a rejection 322 of the commitment to the transaction request as a transaction is performed by a member node, specifically the distributed ledger application, against the requester's computer device. Also, because the movement of materials is not verified, the material transaction request is not committed as a transaction in the distributed ledger and is not stored. The decentralized network is indicated by reference numeral 324 in Figures 3a and 3b.

[0185] Figure 4 is a flowchart showing the computer-implemented method of this application. In step S21, a material transaction request is transmitted by the requester. The material transaction request includes material data associated with the material owner and optionally the material recipient, along with encrypted authentication information.

[0186] In step S22, the material transaction request is received by the requester via a distributed ledger application.

[0187] In step S23, the distributed ledger application verifies the movement of the material by verifying the encrypted authentication information of the material owner and optionally the material recipient.

[0188] If the authentication information is successfully verified, in step S24, the material transaction request is committed as a material transaction in the distributed ledger, and confirmation of the commit of the material transaction request is sent by the distributed ledger application.

[0189] If the authentication information is not successfully verified, in step S25, a rejection of the commitment to the material transaction request as a material transaction is sent by the distributed ledger application.

[0190] In step S26, confirmation of the commitment to the material transaction request is received, for example, by the requester.

[0191] In step S27, the rejection of the commitment to the material transaction request is received, for example, by the requester.

[0192] According to this disclosure, material transactions may include different types of transactions. For example, a material transfer transaction may be a crafting transaction. A crafting transaction may be a type of transaction that represents the introduction of materials (e.g., raw materials or unprocessed materials) into a production process. The methods of this disclosure may be used to restrict which participants are material owners eligible for crafting transactions. Thus, any point of entry into the production process can be strictly controlled.

[0193] For example, there may be a whitelist or blacklist of parties eligible to create transactions committed to a distributed ledger. It should be noted that a created transaction has no preceding transactions in the transaction chain. Therefore, some checks that may be applied within the transaction chain, such as quality balance, cannot be applied to created transactions, making it all the more important to ensure that transactions are created only for trusted parties.

[0194] Another type of transaction may be a transaction involving the movement of materials in process, which may be any transaction that does not involve the introduction or disposal of materials. These transactions will have preceding transactions, which may allow, for example, the performance of mass equilibrium and ensure that the materials do not simply appear or disappear.

[0195] Figures 5A to 5E show different examples illustrating possible applications of the method of this disclosure in a materials network, such as a supply chain.

[0196] In this example, the participants may include material providers 502, one or more product producers 504, such as parts producers 504a, component producers 504b, module producers 504c, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) 504d, and one or more recyclers 508.

[0197] Figure 5A generally shows the information flow of data labeled, for example, “material data” and “product data,” where product data is a specific type of material data related to a product, including, for example, processed or unprocessed forms of material. Specifically, material providers may provide material data to the distributed ledger, and each product producer may provide product data to the distributed ledger 302. In addition, information may be retrieved from the distributed ledger by each participant and / or exchanged between different participants.

[0198] Figure 5B is similar to Figure 5A and illustrates a specific case where the information exchanged between participants may include the movement of material datasets.

[0199] Figure 5C is also similar to Figure 5A. In this particular case, the participants include material providers, part producers, component producers, module producers, and OEMs. Material 506, part 506a, component 506b, module 506c, and original equipment 506d are also shown in Figure 5C. It should be understood that at least a portion of material 506 is found in the part, component, module, and original equipment.

[0200] In the embodiment shown in Figure 5D, for example, the participants include material providers, specifically pigment providers, and two product producers, namely, past producers of pigments and coating material producers.

[0201] In the embodiment shown in Figure 5E, for example, participants include material providers, specifically cathode material providers, two product manufacturers, specifically battery cell manufacturers and lithium-ion module manufacturers, OEMs, and recyclers.

[0202] Figures 5A to 5E show each participant as being able to perform bidirectional data exchange with the distributed ledger and other participants, but it should be understood that this is not necessarily the case. For example, data exchange does not have to be performed for all possible data exchange routes, or data exchange routes may be selectively closed to some participants through access control or other means.

[0203] Figure 6 shows an example of ID-based owner data, ID-based data that may be included at least partially in a material dataset such as a material passport, and a decentralized identification manager.

[0204] An ID can be a decentralized ID (DID). An ID-based material dataset can be a DID document associated with a DID. ID-based owner data can include IDs associated with subjects such as product data and chemical product data, and can include authentication mechanisms. ID-based owner data can include owner data that is electronically owned and controlled by the DID owner. In this context, electronically owned can mean data stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data can be securely stored and / or managed on an organized server or client device. ID-based owner data can include a DID, a private key, and a public key. An ID-based owner can own and control a DID representing the identification information associated with a DID subject, and a private key and public key associated with the DID. A DID can be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to that identifier.

[0205] A DID subject may be a raw material, basic substance, chemical product, intermediate product, component, component assembly, or final product. A DID subject may be a machine, system, or device used in the production of a raw material, basic substance, chemical product, intermediate product, component, component assembly, or final product, or a collection of such machines, devices, and / or systems. A DID owner may be a supplier, such as a chemical manufacturer that produces a chemical, or a participant in the supply chain. A DID owner may be an upstream participant in a chemical manufacturer's supply chain, such as a supplier that provides raw chemical products or precursors for the production of a chemical. A DID owner may be a downstream participant in a chemical manufacturer's supply chain, such as a customer that consumes a chemical to produce an intermediate product, component, component assembly, or final product. A DID owner may be any participant in the supply chain, including raw chemical product suppliers, intermediate chemical product manufacturers, intermediate component manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, or final product manufacturers.

[0206] DID can be any identifier associated with the DID subject and / or DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and / or DID owner. The identifier can be unique at least to the extent expected of the DID in use. The identifier can be a locally or globally unique identifier of any participant in the supply chain, including raw materials, precursors, basic substances, chemical products, intermediate products, components, component assemblies, final products, or collections thereof; machines, systems, or devices, or collections thereof, used in the production of raw materials, basic substances, chemical products, intermediate products, components, component assemblies, or final products; chemical manufacturers producing chemicals; upstream participants in the supply chain of chemical manufacturers; downstream participants in the supply chain of chemical manufacturers, or collections thereof; or raw material chemical suppliers; intermediate chemical manufacturers; intermediate component manufacturers; component manufacturers; component assembly manufacturers; or final product manufacturers, or collections thereof.

[0207] A DID can be a Unified Resource Identifier (URI), such as a Unified Resource Location Specifier (URL). A DID can be an International Resource Identifier (IRI). A DID can be a random string of numbers and letters for enhanced security. In one embodiment, a DID can be a string of 128 characters and numbers following the scheme did:methodName:methodSpecificDID, such as did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1c276e12ec21. A DID can be decentralized, under the control of the DID owner, and independent of any centralized third-party management system.

[0208] A material dataset as a DID document can be associated with a DID. Therefore, a material dataset may contain a reference to a DID associated with a DID subject described by the DID document. A DID document may also contain authentication information, such as a public key. A public key can be used by a third-party entity authorized by the DID owner / subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner / subject. A public key can also be used to verify that the DID owner actually owns or controls the DID. A DID document may contain authentication and authorization information, for example, to authorize a third-party entity to read the DID document or a portion of the DID document without, for example, granting the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.

[0209] A material dataset may include one or more representations that are digitally linked to product data or chemical product data, for example, by a service endpoint. A service endpoint may include a network address on which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, a service endpoint may refer to a service of the DID owner that grants access to product data or chemical product data. Such a service may include a service that reads or analyzes product data or chemical product data. Chemical product data may include chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, certificates of analytical data, emissions data, product carbon footprint data, product environmental footprint data, chemical product specification data, product information, technology application data, production data, or a combination thereof.

[0210] A materials dataset may contain various other pieces of information, such as metadata specifying when the materials dataset was created, when the last modification was made, and / or when it will expire.

[0211] DIDs and material datasets may be associated with a centralized or decentralized data service system, such as a data registry node, including a distributed ledger or blockchain. Possible blockchain systems include Quorum, Hyperledger, and Fabric. A distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the material dataset. The representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain. For example, a DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of a distributed ledger and may point to the location of the material dataset. In some embodiments, the material dataset may be stored in a distributed ledger. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the DID document may be stored in data storage (not shown) associated with a distributed ledger or blockchain.

[0212] A distributed ledger or blockchain can be any decentralized, decentralized network containing various computing nodes that communicate with one another. For example, a distributed ledger may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes. A distributed ledger or blockchain can operate according to any known distributed ledger standard or method. Examples of conventional distributed ledgers corresponding to a distributed ledger or blockchain include, but are not limited to, Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum, and Litecoin.

[0213] Figure 7 shows an example of ID-based certificate data, ID-based material dataset, and an identity manager.

[0214] In contrast to the example in Figure 6, the example in Figure 7 is certificate-based. ID-based certificate data may include authentication data of the certificate owner and certificate issuer. For example, a cryptographic signature from the issuer may bind the data owner's public key to the ID. The ID may be a unique ID (such as a UID) as described in relation to the DID in Figure 6. The certificate may be an X.509 certificate, such as X509v3. An ID-based material dataset may be associated with the data owner's data source. An ID-based material dataset may include an endpoint associated with the ID, authentication data, and product data or chemical product data. Such an endpoint may include any digital representation linked to the data source. The data source may provide product data and / or chemical product data.

[0215] In this certificate-based example, an ID-based material dataset includes one or more certificates associated with the data owner. The certificates may be associated with an identity manager, which may include, for example, a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service that provides dynamic attribute tokens (e.g., OAuth access tokens). The information required for certificate verification is provided through an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or dynamic provisioning service. For example, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, version 3.0 April 2019, prior to the execution of data exchange (not shown), connectors associated with the data owner, a certificate authority (CA), a dynamic attribute provisioning service (DAPS), and a connector associated with a data consumer service are used to verify identity. For this purpose, such connectors include one or more certificates, such as X.509 certificates. Thus, the connectors possess a unique identifier embedded in the X.509 certificate that identifies the connector instance.

[0216] Figure 8 shows an example of a production facility that produces chemical products associated with a materials dataset.

[0217] The production facility shown in Figure 8 can manufacture chemical products. The production facility can, for example, manufacture organic chemical products obtained by reacting organic chemical reactants. The production facility may include one or more production plants. For example, a production facility for manufacturing chemical products may include at least one precursor / intermediate product production plant.

[0218] Physical inputs to a production facility may include materials such as raw materials, intermediate materials, or components to be assembled. Raw materials may be raw materials in their raw state or recycled materials.

[0219] Physical inputs can be associated with decentralized identifiers as described above. Physical inputs can be registered with production facilities. Registration may include providing decentralized identifiers associated with the physical inputs. Providing decentralized identifiers may include reading physical identifier elements that are physically linked to the physical inputs as described above. Providing decentralized identifiers may include accessing a database using decentralized identifiers and fetching decentralized identifiers associated with the physical inputs.

[0220] Based on the provided decentralized identifier, chemical product data associated with such decentralized identifier may be accessed. Access may be permitted through authentication and authorization based on authentication and authorization information associated with the decentralized identifier. Based on the decentralized identifier, chemical product data such as chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, analytical data certificates, emissions data, product carbon footprint data, product environmental footprint data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, production data, performance data, quality data, material composition data, recyclable content data, or combinations thereof may be accessed. Chemical product data may be accessed through data services that request access to chemical product data associated with each decentralized identifier and controlled by the physical input data owner. The data owner may be the producer of the physical input. The data service may include computer executable instructions that operate in at least part of a decentralized computing environment. Such computer executable instructions may be based on a JSON Web Token (JWT) containing authentication information, authorization information, and / or a digital representation pointing to chemical product data or a portion thereof. A digital representation may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service endpoint), which is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. A digital representation referring to chemical product data or a portion thereof may be uniquely associated with a decentralized identifier. Chemical product data may be used in the production processes of a production facility.

[0221] A production facility may produce a physical output based on one or more physical inputs. The physical output of a production facility may be associated with a physical identifier. The physical output of a production facility may be physically linked to a physical identifier element as described above. A physical identifier may be assigned to identifier information associated with a decentralized identifier. For such assignments, the physical identifier element may be read, or a database using the physical identifier may be accessed. A request to provide a decentralized identifier may be triggered, allowing a physical identifier to be assigned to a decentralized identifier.

[0222] Thus, decentralized identifiers can be assigned to physical outputs. Providing decentralized identifiers may involve accessing a database using decentralized identifiers and related information such as authentication credentials. Providing decentralized identifiers may involve accessing a decentralized service that provides decentralized identifiers and related information such as authentication credentials. In response to a request, a materials dataset can be generated that includes decentralized identifiers and data related to chemical product data for chemical products. Data related to chemical product data may include representations such as pointers or links to chemical product data. Decentralized identifiers can be associated with data related to chemical product data of physical outputs. Decentralized identifiers can further be associated with, assigned to, or linked to decentralized identifiers of physical inputs. Materials datasets can be provided to a decentralized network for access by other participants or producers in the network. Thus, the chain of materials from input to output can be traceable and usable in further manufacturing steps without exposing chemical product data in an uncontrolled manner.

[0223] The above processing steps may be performed via the operating system of the production facility. In this embodiment, the operating system includes a collector configured to collect chemical product data and / or physical identifiers as described above. The collector may be configured to collect chemical product data related to a chemical product, or chemical product data related to the production of a chemical product, where the chemical product is associated with a physical identifier or comprises a physical identifier. The operating system may include, in particular, an ID reader configured to provide physical identification information for a physical input or physical output as described above. The system may further include an assigner configured to assign decentralized identifiers and associated information to a physical output as described above. Furthermore, the operating system may include an ID provider configured to provide decentralized identifiers and associated information as described above.

[0224] Figure 9 shows another example of a production facility that produces chemical products associated with a materials dataset.

[0225] The processing steps described in the context of Figure 8 may be performed via an operating system of the production facility interacting with an assigner, collector, or reader, or an ID provider. In this embodiment, the operating system may be communicably connected to the production facility and the assigner, collector, ID reader, or ID provider. The operating system may be configured to provide chemical product data from the production facility. The operating system may include a collector configured to provide chemical product data from the production facility. The operating system may include an ID reader configured to read physical identifier elements physically associated with a physical input or physical output. The assigner may be configured to assign decentralized identifiers and associated information to a physical identifier of a physical output, as described above in the context of Figure 8. The ID provider may be configured to provide decentralized identifiers and associated information, as described above in the context of Figure 8. The ID reader may be configured to provide physical identifiers and associated information to a physical input or physical output, as described above in the context of Figure 8. The assigner, collector, ID reader, and / or ID provider may be configured as a decentralized service or application running over a decentralized network.

[0226] Figures 8 and 9 show only two exemplary embodiments, and any combination of the system components shown in Figures 8 and 9 is possible. For example, the ID reader may be configured as part of the operating system, while the ID provider and assigner may not be configured as part of the operating system.

[0227] Figure 10 shows an example of tracking materials from raw materials to the final product in the production of chemical products.

[0228] Raw materials may be provided as physical inputs to produce chemical products. Raw materials may include precursor materials. Raw materials may include raw materials or recycled materials. Raw materials may be associated with a decentralized identifier. A decentralized identifier may be associated with a digital twin of the raw material. A decentralized identifier may be associated with raw material data, such as tags for raw materials or recycled materials, material properties related to environmental impact, or material properties related to origin.

[0229] The production of chemical products may involve a two-step process, namely, 1) the production of precursor materials and 2) the production of the chemical product. Raw materials may be used as physical inputs to produce precursor materials. The operating system for precursor production may access data related to raw materials based on a decentralized identifier, e.g., a decentralized identifier from the raw material provider. Such data may be used to operate the production. For example, if the raw materials are recycled materials, a production step of purifying the recycled material may be included. For example, if the raw materials are raw materials, the purification step may be omitted. Precursor materials may be formed by coprecipitation of raw materials. Production data from precursor production may be stored and / or associated with a decentralized identifier.

[0230] In the second stage, precursor materials may be provided for the production of chemical products. These precursor materials may include precursors produced by precursor production. They may also include recycled precursor materials or precursor materials produced by different entities. Such precursor materials may be associated with a decentralized identifier, through which data related to the precursor materials may be accessible.

[0231] Chemical products that are produced and packaged may be assigned decentralized identifiers and associated information as outlined above. Packaged electrode active materials may have physical identifier elements, such as a QR code physically attached to the packaging. Such physical identifier elements may be assigned decentralized identifiers. The assignment of physical identifier elements and decentralized identifiers may be performed in decentralized and / or distributed systems through locally operating ID generators / assigners.

[0232] For example, a packaging line may be equipped with a detector that detects the physical identifier of each package. Based on such recognition, the operating system for chemical product production may request the provision of a decentralized identifier, which may then be assigned to the physical identifier. Upon request, a material dataset containing the decentralized identifier and data related to the chemical product may be generated.

[0233] In such production, data related to the chemical product recorded before and / or during the production of the chemical product may be collected or accessed. Such data may be provided by the operating system for chemical product production, or by a storage environment connected to the operating system for chemical product production. This may include data collected and stored during the production of precursor materials.

[0234] Data related to chemical products may include identifiers of raw materials used to produce those chemical products. Data related to chemical products may also include data related to raw materials that are accessible, for example, through decentralized identifiers of those raw materials.

[0235] Data related to chemical products may include data related to the material composition of the chemical products. Material composition data may relate to the chemical composition of the chemical products. Material composition data may specify at least one constituent substance of the chemical composition of the chemical products.

[0236] Data related to chemical products may include data related to environmental impact characteristics, such as CO2 footprint or recyclable content. For example, data related to chemical products may specify the recyclable content of their components or raw materials.

[0237] Such recyclate content may be directly associated with a decentralized identifier of the chemical product, or it may be indirectly associated with a decentralized identifier of the chemical product, for example, through a decentralized identifier of a raw material or precursor material. Data related to the chemical product may include data related to production conditions provided by the operating system for chemical product production. Data related to the chemical product may include data related to operating conditions provided by the operating system for chemical product production. Data related to the chemical product may include producer-related data such as producer name, producer brand, or producer identifier. Data related to the chemical product may include product-related data such as product name, product brand, or product identifier.

[0238] Figures 8 to 10 show examples of providing access to data through one or more material datasets.

[0239] Through the decentralized setup described above, various supply chain participants or producers, from the end consumer to the end consumer, can access data from those participants or producers. Access to such data may include transferring the data to the requester, or processing the data and transferring the processing results to the requester.

[0240] Figure 11 shows a block diagram illustrating a method for verifying the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient in a decentralized network comprising a distributed ledger 1102 including multiple member nodes 1104, as described herein. For simplicity, only one of the member nodes is shown in detail.

[0241] As shown in Figure 11, a transaction 1106a is stored on each member node of the distributed ledger. One transaction is shown in detail. The transaction includes a transaction ID 1106b and transaction metadata 1106c. In this embodiment, the transaction metadata includes a decentralized (material) identifier. The material identifier is associated with one or more material datasets 1110, as indicated by the arrows in Figure 11. The transaction metadata may include additional data, such as material production data, which is not shown for simplicity.

[0242] Also shown in Figure 11 are the material owner 1108a, also called the owner, and the material recipient 1108b, also called the recipient.

[0243] In Figure 11, randomized authentication information associated with the owner and recipient is also shown, as an example, as a pair of private and public keys for each of the owner and recipient. The recipient may provide their public key to the material owner. The material owner may then send a transfer transaction request, which in this embodiment includes the material data, the owner's public key, and the recipient's public key.

[0244] Next, a transaction can be created. The transaction may also optionally be signed using the owner's (transaction-specific) private key.

[0245] In this embodiment, the public keys of the material owner and recipient are included in the transaction. Furthermore, transaction metadata, such as transaction metadata obtained from the material data of the transfer transaction request, may also be included in the transaction.

[0246] A transaction also includes a transaction ID that uniquely identifies the transaction and is provided to the owner. The owner provides the material recipient with the owner's (transaction-specific) public key, the recipient's transaction ID used to create the transaction (optionally), and transaction metadata (optionally).

[0247] The material recipient or a third party may use one of the transaction IDs and public keys received from the owner to verify that a transaction using the said transaction ID and public key is recorded in the public ledger.

[0248] Additionally or alternatively, the recipient or a third party may determine, based on the owner's (transaction-specific) public key, whether a transaction was signed using the owner's private key. For example, the owner's signature in a transaction may correspond to the signature on a message received from the owner.

[0249] Authentication information is transaction-specific, and its association with specific parties for movement is known only to the parties involved in the transaction and is documented off-chain; therefore, a high degree of privacy can be provided with respect to related parties, especially since randomization does not allow any conclusions from pattern analysis. At the same time, an audit given access to information indicating the identification of related parties or involved parties may perform additional verification that requires knowledge of the identification of the parties associated with the transaction.

[0250] It should be noted that decentralized identifiers included in transaction metadata may be used by the requesting party 1108c to retrieve material datasets associated with a specific material movement associated with the transaction. In some cases, additional data included in the transaction metadata, such as material production data, may be used to retrieve material datasets. For example, a decentralized identifier may identify a chemical substance, and from among multiple material datasets associated with the material identifier, the material dataset associated with the specific movement may be selected and retrieved using the additional data. For example, each material dataset may contain data relating to a separate batch of the chemical substance. A decentralized identifier may indicate, based on the additional data, such as material production data, that the transaction is associated with the movement of the chemical substance, while the material dataset for a specific batch of the substance may be retrieved, i.e., the material dataset for the batch being moved in the material movement may be retrieved.

[0251] Figure 12A is a flowchart showing the computer-implemented method of this application. In step S111, randomized encrypted authentication information of the material owner and / or material recipient, as well as identification information of the material transfer transaction, is received, for example, by the requesting party. The requesting party may be the recipient or a third party.

[0252] Randomized credentials may mean that each public / private key pair is unique to a single transaction. This increases the level of data privacy, particularly in terms of avoiding pattern analysis.

[0253] In step S112, the material transfer is verified by verifying the randomized encrypted credentials of the material owner and / or material recipient based on the received randomized encrypted credentials and the received identification information of the material transfer transaction.

[0254] Figure 12B is a flowchart illustrating a more detailed example of how such a computer might perform the process. For example, step S111 may include step S111A, which involves receiving the public key of the material owner and / or the public key of the material recipient. Step S111 may further include step S111B, which involves receiving a unique identifier for the material transfer transaction associated with the transfer of the material.

[0255] Step S112 may include step S112A, which searches for material transfer transactions from a distributed ledger based on identification information. Step S112 may further include step S112B, which verifies the cryptographic authentication information contained in the material transfer transaction using the public keys of the material owner and / or material recipient.

[0256] As a more detailed example, when creating a transaction, unique, randomized credentials may be generated for the material owner and / or material recipient, which are generated and used only for that single transaction. The material recipient may provide the material owner with a portion of their randomized credentials, such as their public key.

[0257] Some of the aforementioned authentication information, such as a public key, may be written to the transaction, and the material owner may also sign the transaction using their private key.

[0258] Each created transaction will be assigned a unique transaction ID provided to the material owner, which may then be passed to the material recipient, either separately or together with the material owner's public key used in the transaction, and optionally the recipient's public key used in the transaction. The latter is not mandatory, but may be advantageous for consistency checks in some cases.

[0259] If a transaction is signed by the material owner, the material recipient may verify the signature using the material owner's public key, which is generated and used in the transaction.

[0260] After a transaction is committed to and stored in a distributed ledger, the requesting party may wish to verify the movement of materials. To this end, the requesting party may receive the authentication credentials and transaction ID used for the transaction. The transaction ID can then be used to retrieve the transaction from the distributed ledger. The movement of materials can then be verified using the received authentication credentials.

[0261] A more detailed example of the method of this disclosure is provided below. Before creating a transaction for a commitment to a distributed ledger, contract partners may, for example, establish a supply contract and exchange public keys to establish an asymmetrically encrypted communication channel. PGP encryption may be used as an example.

[0262] However, other methods of secure data exchange may be used. Each party may maintain a key vault containing asymmetric keys that match a particular communication channel, for example, via a communication channel ID (sender plane ID, receiver plane ID, contract plane ID).

[0263] Before creating a transaction for a commitment to a distributed ledger, a public / private key pair PubK-S / PrivK-S may be created by the material owner and sender of the transaction, and a key pair unique to the transaction may be created. The public key PubK-S may be sent to the material recipient. Furthermore, a request may be sent to the recipient to provide the sender with the public key PubK-R unique to the transaction. PubK-S and the request may be sent over an encrypted communication channel.

[0264] Upon receiving the public key and / or request, the recipient may create a new public / private key pair (PubK-R / PrivK-R). The key pair is stored at the recipient along with the communication channel ID (e.g., sender plane ID). The recipient's public key (PubK-R) is provided to the sender, for example, via the communication channel. The order can also be reversed if the recipient initiates the transfer.

[0265] Next, the sender may create a transaction, optionally sign it using the sender's private key PrivK-S, and address the transaction to the recipient's public key PubK-R.

[0266] The sender may, for example, store in a private database, which may also optionally hold a private copy of the transaction and the private key PrivK-S used to sign the transaction, i.e., the sender's transaction signature. The sender may, as part of or separately from the private copy of the transaction, store the recipient's public key PubK-R, i.e., the recipient's transaction address and transaction ID, and optionally the transaction metadata and / or a hash of the metadata.

[0267] The sender may optionally send the sender's public key PubK-S, i.e., the sender's transaction address, and the recipient's private key PubK-R, i.e., the recipient's transaction address, transaction ID, transaction metadata, and / or a hash of the metadata, to the recipient, for example, via a private communication channel. In particular, the sender may refrain from submitting the transaction metadata and may only provide information that allows the recipient to perform read-only access or lookups (e.g., to the sender's database and the mapping to the transaction).

[0268] The recipient may verify the transaction, for example, by performing an on-chain attestation. For example, the recipient may look up the transaction ID and use the sender's public key PubK-S to verify that the transaction is signed using the sender's private key PrivK-S, i.e., that the private key is encoded in the transaction.

[0269] Optionally, confidentiality verification may also be performed by a third party, such as an authorized or regulatory body. The third party may initiate a key exchange with the sender to establish a private communication channel, or establish some other kind of secure communication channel. The third party may then request the sender's public key for one or more transactions, for example, based on one or more transaction IDs, via the communication channel. The regulatory body may then verify, for each transaction, that the sender's respective private key PrivK-S is encoded in the transaction, i.e., that the transaction is properly signed, using the transaction's respective PubK-S.

[0270] According to this disclosure, material transactions may include different types of transactions. For example, a material transfer transaction may be a crafting transaction. A crafting transaction may be a type of transaction that represents the introduction of materials (e.g., raw materials or unprocessed materials) into a production process. The methods of this disclosure may be used to restrict which participants are material owners eligible for crafting transactions. Thus, any point of entry into the production process can be strictly controlled.

[0271] For example, there may be a white list or black list of parties eligible to create transactions committed to a decentralized ledger. Note that a creation transaction has no preceding transaction within the transaction chain. Thus, some checks that may be applied within the transaction chain, such as mass balance, cannot be applied to a creation transaction, which makes it even more important to enable transactions only for trusted parties.

[0272] Another type of transaction can be a processing-in-transit transaction that does not introduce or dispose of material. These transactions will have preceding transactions, which can enable, for example, performing mass balancing and ensuring that material does not simply appear or disappear.

[0273] FIG. 13 shows a block diagram illustrating a decentralized material network 1314 that can be used by the method of the present disclosure. The decentralized material network comprises a distributed ledger 1302 including a plurality of member nodes 1304 and a distributed ledger application according to the present disclosure. For simplicity, only one of the member nodes is shown in detail. Each transaction includes transaction IDs 1306b, 1306c. In addition, each transaction includes material data or material metadata 1306d of the material, in which case the transaction can be called a material transaction, or product data or product metadata 1306e of the product, in which case the transaction can be called a product transaction.

[0274] A member node can communicate, for example via a data connection, with a requesting party 1310, for example a requester computer device, also referred to briefly as a requester. The requesting party, for example the requester computer device, can also communicate communicatively, for example via another data connection, with a participant 1312, for example a participant computing device.

[0275] The requesting party may be configured to receive a material or product dataset 1308a, such as one or more material datasets 1308b, 1308c, each including identification information of a transaction associated with the material, such as a transaction ID. Alternatively or additionally, the requesting party may be configured to receive one or more product datasets 1308d, 1308e, each including identification information of a movement transaction associated with the product, such as a transaction ID. That is, the requesting party may receive a dataset including at least the identification information of the associated movement transaction for a given material or product. Thus, the requesting party may use the identification information included in the material product dataset to find the information stored in the associated movement transaction.

[0276] The requesting party may be further configured to determine the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the product associated with the material based on the received material dataset. This may be done for only one or each of a plurality of movement transactions each associated with the product associated with the material. In other words, the requesting party may be configured to identify the movement transaction associated with the product associated with the material, such as the product including the material. Thus, the destination of the material may be determined. If the material is a reused material, its origin may be similarly determined by identifying the associated product. The requesting party may, for example, obtain the ID of the transaction associated with the material from the material dataset and, based thereon, obtain the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the product associated with the material. For this purpose, as an example, a chain of transaction IDs may be determined to track the movement associated with the material and / or product.

[0277] The requesting party may be further configured to receive product characteristic data for a product, which may be determined by determining the participants in the movement chain associated with the product and receiving product characteristic data from said participants. Optionally, the requesting party may provide product characteristics to participants. Product characteristic data received from participants may be retrieved based on determined identification information of movement transactions associated with the product and, optionally, based on product characteristics provided to participants. Product characteristics may help to retrieve relevant data more efficiently by, for example, providing a pre-selection from available material characteristic data.

[0278] To receive product characteristic data from a participant, the requesting party may send the participant a request including determined identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the product, encrypted authentication information of the material owner of the material, and optionally, product characteristics. After the participant verifies the encrypted authentication information, if the authentication information is valid, the participant may provide the product characteristic data to the requesting party. Otherwise, the participant may refuse the request.

[0279] Therefore, in the manner outlined above, the requesting party can determine the material flow in the moving chain using the decentralized material network 1314. Specifically, the requesting party can therefore determine the origin or destination of the material.

[0280] Alternatively or additionally, the requesting party may be configured to determine, based on the received product dataset, the identification information of movement transactions associated with materials associated with a product, for example, those contained in the product or taken from the product for reuse. This may be done for one or each of several movement transactions, each associated with materials associated with a product. In other words, the requesting party may be configured to identify movement transactions associated with materials associated with a product. In this way, any material that became part of a product or was obtained from the recycling of a product can be determined. The requesting party may, for example, retrieve the identification information of transactions associated with a product from the product dataset and, based on that, obtain the identification information of movement transactions associated with materials associated with the product. To this end, as an example, a chain of transaction IDs may be determined to track the movement associated with the material.

[0281] The requesting party may be further configured to receive material property data of a material, which may be determined by determining the participants in the movement chain associated with the material and receiving material property data from said participants. Optionally, the requesting party may provide material properties to participants. Material property data received from participants may be retrieved based on determined identification information of the movement transaction associated with the material, and optionally based on material properties provided to participants. Material properties may help to retrieve relevant data more efficiently, for example, by providing a pre-selection from available material property data.

[0282] To receive material property data from a participant, the requesting party may send the participant a request including determined identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the material, encrypted authentication information of the product owner of the product, and optionally the material properties. After the participant verifies the encrypted authentication information, if the authentication information is valid, the participant may provide the material property data to the requesting party. Otherwise, the participant may refuse the request.

[0283] Therefore, in the manner outlined above, the requesting party can determine the material flow in the moving chain using the decentralized material network 1314. Specifically, the requesting party can therefore determine which materials flow into and out of a given product.

[0284] Figures 14A to 14D are flowcharts showing the methods implemented by the computer in this disclosure.

[0285] Figure 14A illustrates how product characteristic data for products associated with a given material is determined. While this is shown for a single product, it can be applied to multiple products associated with a material, particularly all products associated with the material.

[0286] The present disclosure provides a method for determining material flow in a moving chain using a decentralized material network 1314 comprising a distributed ledger 1302 including a plurality of member nodes 1304, wherein the distributed ledger 1302 includes moving transactions 1306a. Each moving transaction 1306a is associated with a material and includes material data for the material, or associated with a product and includes product data for the product.

[0287] In step S11, a material dataset containing identification information of the movement transaction associated with the material is received, for example, by the requesting party.

[0288] In step S12, based on the received material dataset, the identification information of the mobile transaction associated with the product associated with the material is determined, for example, by the requesting party.

[0289] In step S13, the product characteristic data of the product is determined based on the identification information of the mobile transaction associated with the product. This can be performed, at least in part, by the requesting party. Optionally, participants in the mobile chain may also perform part of this step.

[0290] Figure 14B illustrates how material property data for materials associated with a given product is determined. While this is shown for a single material, it can be applied to multiple materials associated with a product, particularly all materials associated with the product.

[0291] The present disclosure provides a method for determining material flow in a moving chain using a decentralized material network 1314 comprising a distributed ledger 1302 including a plurality of member nodes 1304, wherein the distributed ledger 1302 includes moving transactions 1306a. Each moving transaction 1306a is associated with a material and includes material data for the material, or associated with a product and includes product data for the product.

[0292] In step S14, a product dataset containing identification information of the mobile transaction associated with the product is received, for example, by the requesting party.

[0293] In step S15, based on the received product dataset, the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the materials associated with the product is determined, for example, by the requesting party.

[0294] In step S16, the material property data of the material is determined based on the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the material. This can be performed, at least in part, by the requesting party. Optionally, movement chain participants may also perform part of this step.

[0295] The methods in Figures 14a and 14b can also be combined. For example, product property data for a product associated with a given material can be determined, and material property data for (other) materials associated with the product can also be determined.

[0296] FIG. 14C shows a method according to the present disclosure, including the steps outlined in the context of FIG. 14B. Accordingly, with particular reference to steps S11 to S13 themselves, the above description is incorporated herein by reference. Steps S12 and S13 are shown in more detail in FIG. 14C, and optional steps are also shown therein. S12 may include steps S12A and S12B. Alternatively or additionally, step S13 may include steps S13A, optionally step S13B, and step S13C. As a specific example of an optional step, step S13C may include steps S13C-1, S13C-2, S13C-3, and / or S13C-4.

[0297] In step S12A, the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the material is retrieved from the received material dataset, for example, by the requesting party.

[0298] In step S12B, the identification information of the movement transaction associated with the product associated with the material is retrieved, for example, by the requesting party, based on the retrieved identification information of the movement transaction associated with the material.

[0299] In step S13A, the movement chain participants associated with the product are determined, for example, by the requesting party.

[0300] In optional step S13B, the product characteristics of the product are provided to the participants, for example, by the requesting party.

[0301] In optional step S13C, product characteristic data is received from the participants based on the determined identification information of the movement transaction associated with the product and optionally based on the provided product characteristics.

[0302] More specifically, in step S13C-1, a request including the determined identification information of the movement transaction associated with the product, the encrypted authentication information of the material owner of the material, and optionally the product characteristics of the product is transmitted to the movement chain participants.

[0303] In step S13C-2, the mobile chain participant verifies the authentication information. In step S13C-3, if the authentication information is valid, product characteristic data is provided, for example, by the participant, based on the determined identification information of the mobile transaction associated with the product, and optionally based on the product characteristics.

[0304] In step S13C-4, if the authentication information is invalid, the request will be rejected, for example, by the participant. In particular, the material owner may be the requester.

[0305] In the above method, instead of performing each step themselves, the requesting party and / or participant may have another party, such as a service provider, perform some or all of the steps on their behalf.

[0306] Figure 14D illustrates the method according to the present disclosure, including the steps outlined in the context of Figure 14B. Therefore, the above description is relevant, particularly with respect to steps S14-S16 themselves. Steps S15 and S16 are shown in more detail in Figure 14D, where optional steps are also shown. S15 may include steps S15a and S15b. Alternatively or additionally, step S16 may include step S16A, optionally step S16B, and step S16C. As a specific example of optional steps, step S16C may include steps S16C-1, S16C-2, S16C-3, and / or S16C-4.

[0307] In step S15A, the identification information of the mobile transaction associated with the product is retrieved, for example, by the requesting party from the received product dataset.

[0308] In step S15B, the identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the material associated with the product is retrieved, for example, by the requesting party, based on the retrieved identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the product.

[0309] In step S16A, the participants in the moving chain associated with the material are determined, for example, by the requesting party.

[0310] In the optional step S16B, the material properties of the material are provided to the participant, for example, by the requesting party.

[0311] In the optional step S16C, material property data is received, for example, from a participant, based on the determined identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the material, and optionally, based on the provided material properties.

[0312] More specifically, in step S16C-1, a request is sent to the move chain participant that includes determined identification information of the move transaction associated with the material, encrypted authentication information of the product owner of the product, and optionally the material properties of the material.

[0313] In step S16C-2, the mobile chain participant verifies the authentication information. In step S16C-3, if the authentication information is valid, for example, material property data provided by the participant is received by the requesting party based on the determined identification information of the transfer transaction associated with the material, and optionally based on the material properties. In step S16C-4, if the authentication information is invalid, the request is rejected by, for example, the participant. In particular, the product owner may be the requesting party.

[0314] In the above method, instead of performing each step themselves, the requesting party and / or participant may have another party, such as a service provider, perform some or all of the steps on their behalf.

[0315] This disclosure has been described in conjunction with several preferred embodiments and examples. However, those skilled in the art who practice the claimed inventions will be able to understand and implement other variations by examining the drawings, this disclosure, and the claims. In particular, any of the steps specifically presented can be performed in any order, i.e., the invention is not limited to any particular order of these steps. Furthermore, it is not required that the different steps be performed in a specific location or on one node of a distributed system, i.e., each step may be performed on different nodes using different equipment / data processing devices.

Claims

1. A computer-based method for controlling the introduction of materials into a production process by verifying the movement of materials between material owners and material recipients in a decentralized network (324) comprising a distributed ledger (302) including multiple member nodes (304) and a distributed ledger application (306), - The requester (308) transmits a material transaction request (314) to the distributed ledger application (S11), wherein the material transaction request (314) - Material data (316) associated with the material, which includes the amount of the material transferred from the material owner to the material recipient, and - Encrypted authentication information of the material owner (312a) and optionally, encrypted authentication information of the material recipient associated with the transfer of the material (312b) This includes, - Receiving confirmation (S16) or rejection (S17) of the commitment to the material transaction request (314) as a material transaction to the distributed ledger, The steps include, The aforementioned distributed ledger application (306) - Having received the material transaction request (314) from the requester (308) (S12), -By verifying the encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner and optionally the encrypted authentication information (312b) of the material recipient included in the material transaction request (314), the movement of the material associated with the material transaction request (314) is verified (S13). - (If the movement of the material has been verified) commit the material transaction request (314) as a material transaction (318) to the distributed ledger (302) and send the confirmation (320) of the commitment to the material transaction request (314) (S14), - (If the transfer of the material has not been verified), send the rejection (322) of the commitment to the material transaction request (314) (S15), A method that is structured in such a way.

2. The material is a chemical raw material, and / or The method according to claim 1, wherein the material is moved in a linear production process or a circulating process.

3. The aforementioned material data includes transaction metadata, In particular, the method according to claim 1, wherein the transaction metadata includes a material identifier, at least one material classification, material production data, or a combination thereof, and the material identifier optionally includes a digital representation that points to a material dataset or a portion thereof.

4. The aforementioned material dataset is received from a data provision service, and / or The method according to claim 3, wherein the material dataset includes a decentralized identifier and data relating in particular to the material, and the material dataset further includes data relating to one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier, or data relating to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier.

5. The data relating to the material includes one or more digital representations that refer to the material dataset or a portion thereof. In particular, the method according to claim 4, wherein the material dataset includes the name of the material, the ID of the material, the composition of the material, the chemical and / or physical properties of the material, the release data of the material, the recycled content of the material, the biobased content of the material, further material production data, material declaration data, chemical material safety data, a certificate of analytical data associated with the material, or a combination thereof.

6. The encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner includes a public key, and optionally, the private key and / or encrypted signature of the material owner, and / or The method according to claim 1, wherein the encrypted authentication information (312b) of the material recipient includes the public key and optionally the private key and / or encrypted signature of the material recipient.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the confirmation (320) or rejection (322) of the commitment to the material transaction request (314) is received by the requester (308).

8. Verifying the encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner includes searching a list containing encrypted authentication information and comparing the encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner with the encrypted authentication information included in the searched list. In particular, the method according to claim 1, wherein the movement of the material is verified if the encrypted authentication information included in the material transaction request (314) does not match the encrypted authentication information included in the searched list.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the distributed ledger (302) includes material transactions, each material transaction is associated with the movement of material from a material owner to a material recipient, and the material transaction includes transaction identification information and material data associated with the material.

10. Verifying the encrypted authentication information of the material owner includes searching a list containing transaction identification information for material transactions and comparing the transaction identification information associated with the material transaction request (314) with the transaction identification information included in the searched list. In particular, the method of claim 9, wherein the movement of the material is verified if the transaction identification information associated with the received material transaction request (314) does not match the transaction identification information included in the searched list.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein verifying the encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner and the encrypted authentication information (312b) of the material recipient includes verifying the encrypted signatures of the material owner and the material recipient.

12. The distributed ledger application (306) is stored on each member node (304) of the distributed ledger (302), and / or The method according to claim 1, wherein the distributed ledger application (306) is a smart contract.

13. A device for controlling the introduction of materials into a production process by verifying the movement of materials between material owners and material recipients in a decentralized materials network (324) comprising a distributed ledger (302) including multiple member nodes (304) and a distributed ledger application (306), One or more computing nodes (101, 101.1, ..., 101.n), and when executed by the one or more computing nodes, the device, - The requester (308) transmits a material transaction request (314) to the distributed ledger application (S11), wherein the material transaction request is - Material data (316) associated with the material, which includes the amount of the material transferred from the material owner to the material recipient, and - Encrypted authentication information of the material owner (312a) and optionally, encrypted authentication information of the material recipient associated with the transfer of the material (312b) This includes, - Receiving confirmation or rejection of a commitment to the material transaction request (314) as a material transaction to the distributed ledger (302) (S16), A computer-readable medium storing computer executable instructions configured to perform steps consisting of the following: The aforementioned distributed ledger application (306) - Having received the material transaction request (314) from the requester (308) (S12), -By verifying the encrypted authentication information (312a) of the material owner and optionally the encrypted authentication information (312b) of the material recipient included in the material transaction request (314), the movement of the material associated with the material transaction request (314) is verified (S13). - (If the movement of the material has been verified) commit the material transaction request (314) as a material transaction (318) to the distributed ledger and send the confirmation (320) of the commitment of the material transaction request (S14), or - (If the transfer of the material has not been verified), send the rejection (322) of the commitment to the material transaction request (314) (S15), A device configured in such a way.

14. A computer program that, when executed on one or more computing nodes, causes the computing nodes to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

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