Blockchain for CE marking

Purpose and goal

All products sold in the EU must be CE marked. Since the CE-marking is a self-declaration, where the quality is maintained by national control bodies, there is no one who directly checks whether the product meets the CE marking requirements or not, before it is sold. This means that there is room for cheating and quality deficiencies. With a focus on reducing the risk of cheating, the project has developed a prototype where blockchain technology is used to secure every step in the CE marking process where cheating, such as e.g. backdating documents is no longer possible.

Expected results and effects

The project resulted in a working prototype that shows how the blockchain technology can be used to ensure that every step in the certification process has been done and that prevents manipulation of previously completed steps. We hope that in the long run, this can contribute to a safer certification process both for the CE marking but also for other certifications. The vision is that it should no longer be an arbitrary assumption that a product is certified. Instead, it should be possible for an ordinary consumer to verify this by e.g. scan a QR code on the product.

Planned approach and implementation

After first researching the benefits of the various potential the actors, we created a Proof of concept. Once it confirmed that the technology worked as we intended, we built on it to create our prototype. The prototype was then expanded with functionality for industry actors to be able to block chain verify parts of the CE marking process, e.g. so that test labs can "label" their test reports. Finally, the business value of the technology was examined and a scalable business model was developed where we identified potential customer groups and a suitable revenue model for them.