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Core Concepts

Assets​

An asset is a digital twin of a physical product. Each asset has a cryptographically signed serial number, a vertical classification, and an optional metadata payload. Assets are created once, can be verified unlimited times, and can be revoked if compromised.

Serials​

Every asset gets a globally unique serial — a compact, URL-safe string that encodes the asset's identity and cryptographic signature. Serials can be embedded in QR codes, NFC tags, or printed labels.

Keysets​

Keysets are Ed25519 signing key pairs managed by the Optropic API. Each asset is signed with a keyset. You can create multiple keysets for different product lines, environments, or business units. Key rotation is supported — old assets remain verifiable.

Provenance Chains​

A provenance chain tracks every significant event in a product's lifecycle: manufacturing, labeling, shipping, receiving, verification, and more. Events are cryptographically linked — each event hashes the previous one, forming a tamper-evident chain.

manufactured → labeled → enrolled → shipped → received → verified
     ↓             ↓         ↓          ↓          ↓          ↓
   hash₁ ← ─ ─ hash₂ ← ─ hash₃ ← ─ hash₄ ← ─ hash₅ ← ─ hash₆

Document Enrollment​

Document enrollment captures the physical fingerprint of a substrate (paper, packaging, fabric) at the fiber level. This fingerprint is unique and cannot be reproduced — it's a physical unforgeable function (PUF). Enrolled documents can be verified later to confirm they are the original physical item.

Digital Product Passport (DPP)​

The EU Digital Product Passport is a regulatory requirement under ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation). Every product sold in the EU will need a DPP containing sustainability, composition, and lifecycle data. The Optropic SDK provides typed metadata structures for battery, textile, electronics, and general product passports.

The EU DPP Registry goes live 19 July 2026.

Verticals​

A vertical is a product category or industry domain. Optropic supports custom verticals with configurable schemas. Built-in verticals include pharmaceuticals, wine, luxury, electronics, and dpp (Digital Product Passport).

Offline Verification​

Offline verification allows checking asset authenticity without an API call. The SDK downloads a compact revocation filter (Cuckoo filter) that enables local verification. This is critical for defence, field inspection, and air-gapped environments.

EPCIS 2.0​

The Optropic SDK maps provenance events to GS1 EPCIS 2.0 (Electronic Product Code Information Services) — the global standard for supply chain event data. This enables interoperability with SAP, Oracle, TraceLink, and other enterprise systems.