For traceability, ISBE (Spain's blockchain services infrastructure) offers a public-permissioned network on Hyperledger Besu where only identified organisations can write, after a KYB check and with a did:isbe identifier, and where anyone can read what has been recorded in its public block explorer. There is no gas fee per transaction: ISBE's ADM1010 v1.0 fee policy provides for a monthly subscription with a transaction allowance and a price for each transaction above it. Its catalogue lists five cases under traceability, including Digitanimal (livestock), Bikiot (bicycles), Europesip (logistics) and iPASS (digital product passport).
Below you will find what each case does and its status, which data goes on-chain, how verifiable credentials fit in and how a traceability system is deployed. None of the cases cited is an Unknown Gravity project.
What ISBE offers a traceability system
Figures as of 16 October 2026. If you need the background first, start with what ISBE is.
| Component | How it works on ISBE | What it brings to traceability |
|---|---|---|
| Network | Public-permissioned, built on Hyperledger Besu and EVM-compatible. Live since 18 December 2025 and operated by Alastria. | A shared ledger that belongs to none of the companies in the chain. |
| Who writes | Only legal entities from the European Economic Area (EEA) with a KYB check and a did:isbe. | Every event is signed by an identified organisation. |
| Who reads | Anyone, through the Blockscout explorer. | An auditor or a customer can check a record without an account in your systems. |
| Cost | No gas fee per transaction. ADM1010 v1.0 (16 December 2025) provides for a monthly subscription from €500 for 50,000 transactions, plus €0.020 for each transaction above the allowance. | A predictable, volume-based cost. Under the same policy, end users will have no direct financial relationship with ISBE. |
| Contracts | Pre-certified templates or your own approved contract, deployed through ISBE's Factory. | There is a template for recording an asset's events over time. |
It is not publicly stated whether these fees are already being charged. The details are in joining ISBE: requirements and fees, and the overall approach in building on ISBE.
Traceability cases in ISBE's catalogue
ISBE's official catalogue lists 15 use cases as of 16 October 2026, five of them under traceability. There is no separate page per case: each card links to the company's website. "In the catalogue" means ISBE lists it; the catalogue does not publish dates, volumes or contract addresses.
| Case | What it does, according to the catalogue | Status at 16 Oct 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digitanimal | Livestock traceability with GPS collars, including blockchain event logging. | In the catalogue | ISBE catalogue |
| Bikiot | Digital passport for bicycles recording identity, ownership, maintenance, mileage and condition, with ownership transfer. | ISBE announced on 14 Sep 2026 that Bikiot is deploying its passport registry on the network | Catalogue and ISBE news item |
| Europesip | A service that centralises transport, warehousing, invoicing, customs clearance and sales. | In the catalogue; it does not say what is recorded on-chain | ISBE catalogue |
| iPASS (iCommunity Labs) | Digital product passport (DPP) based on digital identity, verifiable credentials and blockchain. | In the catalogue | ISBE catalogue |
| Collisio | Large, traceable and reproducible datasets: data traceability, not physical products. | In the catalogue | ISBE catalogue |
Outside that category, Crossmint (listed under tokenisation) creates digital product passports using non-transferable NFTs. Two caveats:
- Being in the catalogue says nothing about usage. In July 2026 the Community of Madrid spoke of more than twenty applications already in operation; the catalogue gives no volume per case. Since reading is public, ask the provider for its contract address and check its transactions in the explorer.
- The templates have no documented cases yet. ISBE's documentation marks their real-world deployments as still being documented.
Cases in Alastria's catalogue: a different network
Alastria, the association that operates ISBE, has its own catalogue, which predates ISBE. Its T network (Quorum) and B network (Hyperledger Besu) are separate from ISBE, and its ID_Alastria identity is not did:isbe.
| Case | What it does | Network, per the case page | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FORTRA (Government of Galicia, Amtega) | Wood products from forest to market, with a QR code for consumers | Alastria T network (Quorum) and IPFS | The June 2023 page reports 12 active companies; nothing stated since |
| Vottun, with Borges Aceites, Bimbo, Caladero, Eden Fresh, Huevos Montsoliu and Calconut, among others | Origin, processing, handling and transport history of perishable goods | Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Alastria's networks and Oracle | Not stated (page from October 2022) |
| Pevasa and Albacora, with Code Contract | Tuna, from catch to unloading at port | "Other networks", not Alastria's | Not stated (page from October 2022) |
None of them appears in ISBE's catalogue, and no move to that network has been announced. If one did move, our reading is that it would have to redeploy its contracts on ISBE, since these are separate networks, and the provider would have to join as a participant.
What goes on-chain and what stays off-chain
On ISBE anyone can read the chain, and its ECO1020 policy makes the rule explicit: the proof goes on-chain, not the data.
| Data | Where it goes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Documents: certificates, lab results, delivery notes | Off-chain. On-chain, their hash combined with a secret random value (a salt) | It proves the document has not changed without exposing it. ECO1020 requires a salt for every piece of evidence. |
| Batch events: who hands over, to whom, when, in what condition | The full event off-chain (for example, as EPCIS 2.0). On-chain, an opaque identifier, the status, the date and the hash | GS1's CBV 2.0 vocabulary provides for storing an event's fingerprint for notarisation. |
| Each organisation's identity | On the network, its did:isbe and public keys; the KYB check, off-chain | Every write is tied to a verified organisation. |
| Personal data, prices and suppliers | Always off-chain | ECO1020 bans personal data on-chain, even encrypted, and the European Data Protection Board recommends keeping the original data off-chain (Guidelines 02/2025, version 2.0). Commercial data is confidential and the chain is readable by anyone. |
At volume, hashes are grouped into a Merkle tree and only the root is recorded: you use less of your allowance and each document can still be checked on its own.
The limit is the input data. The chain guarantees that a record has not been altered since it was written, not that it was true. If a sensor fails or someone declares a batch wrongly, the chain stores the error as faithfully as a correct entry. This is the oracle problem, and it is mitigated off-chain: identified signatures, calibrated sensors, inspections and lab testing.
Verifiable credentials for products and operators
The digital product passport under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is not open to everyone on the same terms. Article 11 says each actor gets access "based on their respective access rights", that those rights also restrict who can modify data, and that the Commission may adopt implementing acts on how the digital credentials of those with access rights are issued and verified. The EU passport registry has been live since 20 July 2026 and requires each operator to be identified through a verification process. None of these rules requires blockchain.
- Operator credentials. They state who an organisation is and who acts on its behalf. On ISBE, the did:isbe is linked to a qualified eIDAS certificate; a LEAR credential (a digital power of representation) is issued on top of it, and the organisation then issues and revokes credentials for its staff without their personal data reaching the chain, according to ISBE. This is how you decide who may write each type of event.
- Product credentials. They state something about a batch or a unit: that a lab tested it or that it passed an inspection. They are issued by whoever is accountable for the data, and the recipient checks the signature and that they have not been revoked. To know the issuer is authorised, ISBE's identity layer includes a Trusted Issuer Registry.
The credential itself is kept off-chain; the network holds the issuer's identifier and keys. And a credential tells you who is making a claim, not that the claim is true. How this fits the passport is covered in our digital product passport guide, and identity in digital identity management.
How a traceability system is deployed on ISBE
On ISBE you don't deploy a contract on your own: everything goes through ISBE's Factory and, according to ISBE's documentation, its staff deploy a custom contract.
- Onboarding of every company that will write: a legal representative certificate, KYB check, did:isbe and membership agreement. Without your own node, access is through the BaaS service in the portal.
- Template or your own contract. Pre-certified templates only need configuring. Three are useful for traceability: AssetEventTracker (records an asset's state changes, returns its history and checks whether a transition is allowed; only holders of ASSET_EVENT_TRACKER_ROLE can write), HashTimestamp (timestamps a document's hash) and ERC-721 (a unique identity per physical unit). Template code cannot be modified; if you need custom logic, the contract goes through approval, which takes 2 to 12 weeks depending on the level.
- Development and testing on a local Besu network, even before onboarding is complete. We walk through it with code in how to deploy a smart contract on ISBE.
- Deployment. A template is deployed from ISBE's wizard: your company signs the transaction and the contract is deployed immediately. A custom contract goes through a technical review and ISBE staff deploy it to PRE and then PRO; it must grant ISBE's governance the role that allows pausing it (PAUSER_ROLE).
- Integration. Your systems create the event, store it, compute its salted hash and record it. The product's QR code, ideally using GS1 Digital Link, takes the customer or inspector to the data and the proof.
When ISBE fits and when it does not
| Criterion | ISBE | Consortium network | Anchoring on a public chain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes | EEA organisations with KYB and did:isbe | Members admitted by the consortium | Anyone with funds for fees |
| Who reads | Anyone | Members, with private channels if needed | Anyone |
| Identity | Provided by the network | Built by the consortium | Built by you |
| Cost | Planned subscription, no gas | Nodes and operations | Network fee per anchor |
| Governance | ISBE's, which can pause contracts | Whatever the members agree | The public network's |
ISBE fits when the companies writing are based in the EEA, you want verified identity without building it, you do not want to run nodes, and it helps that an auditor can check records in a public explorer. It does not fit, or not on its own, when:
- You have suppliers outside the EEA who must sign their own data, such as coffee or cocoa cooperatives preparing for the EUDR: they cannot join ISBE. Its ECO1010 membership policy makes a participant that deploys an application responsible for verifying that application's users, so our reading is that their data would come in through a European participant's application. Check this with ISBE before you design around it.
- Members must not see each other's data and confidentiality by design is not enough: look at a permissioned consortium network.
- A single company controls the data end to end: a database with an audit log is cheaper.
- You only need proof of existence without onboarding or a subscription: anchor the root of your hashes on Ethereum or another public EVM chain.
Whatever the network, require that data and proofs can be exported and verified outside the platform. That is the lesson of IBM Food Trust and TradeLens, covered in blockchain in supply chain: real use cases and limits.
ISBE and EBSI: what is planned
EBSI, the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, gives as a traceability example an import declaration verified by customs at Liège airport. ISBE describes itself as aligned with EBSI, but the connection is not in place: its 2026 roadmap includes building the interoperability tools to connect them. Do not design on the assumption that it already works. We explain the differences in ISBE, Alastria and EBSI: how they differ.
How we approach it at Unknown Gravity
Unknown Gravity is a member of Alastria, the association that operates ISBE. We are not an ISBE node, operator or partner, and we are not in its catalogue. We design the system (which events are recorded and who signs them, what stays off-chain, which template fits and which credentials each operator needs), integrate it with your systems and support each company through onboarding. If ISBE is not the right network for your chain, we will tell you. Our approach by sector and regulation is in blockchain traceability for supply chains and, for food and livestock, in our food traceability system page.
Frequently asked questions
What traceability cases are there on ISBE?
As of 16 October 2026, ISBE's catalogue lists five under traceability: Digitanimal (livestock), Bikiot (bicycles), Europesip (logistics and customs), iPASS (digital product passport) and Collisio (data). In September 2026 ISBE announced that Bikiot is deploying on the network. The catalogue does not publish volumes.
How much does it cost to record traceability events on ISBE?
There is no gas fee per transaction. The ADM1010 v1.0 policy provides for a subscription from €500 a month for 50,000 transactions and €0.020 per extra transaction; it is not publicly stated whether it is already charged. Grouping hashes in a Merkle tree reduces the number of transactions you need.
Can a supplier outside the EEA write to ISBE?
Not as a participant: only legal entities from the European Economic Area can join. The ECO1010 policy makes the participant responsible for verifying the users of its application; our reading is that this is the route for a non-EEA supplier's data, but ISBE does not spell it out. The joining requirements are in joining ISBE: requirements and fees.
Can ISBE be used for the digital product passport?
It can be the integrity and credentials layer, but neither the ESPR nor the EU registry requires blockchain. Once a delegated act requires a passport for your product, registering it in the EU registry and making a back-up copy of the passport available through a digital product passport service provider (Article 10(4) ESPR) will be separate obligations; as of 16 October 2026, no ESPR delegated act requires one yet.
Is what I record on ISBE public?
Reading is: anyone can look at the chain in ISBE's explorer. That is why the ECO1020 policy bans personal data on-chain, even encrypted, and requires salted hashes. Documents, prices and personal data stay in your own systems.
Sources
- ISBE: use case catalogue
- ISBE: Bikiot, bicycle traceability on ISBE (14-09-2026)
- ISBE: verified identity for economic operators (27-08-2026)
- ISBE: home page and roadmap
- Smart contract template catalogue (docs.redisbe.com, in Spanish)
- Deployment modes (docs.redisbe.com, in Spanish)
- DIDs on ISBE (docs.redisbe.com, in Spanish)
- ISBE network parameters (docs.redisbe.com, in Spanish)
- Onboarding process (docs.redisbe.com, in Spanish)
- ECO1020 v1.0 use case and smart contract policy (ISBE GitHub, in Spanish)
- ADM1010 v1.0 fee policy (ISBE GitHub, in Spanish)
- ISBE policies and framework membership agreement (ISBE GitHub)
- Community of Madrid: press release on the ISBE network (22-07-2026, in Spanish)
- Alastria: use case catalogue
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 on ecodesign for sustainable products (ESPR), EUR-Lex
- Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 on the digital product passport registry, EUR-Lex
- European Commission: Digital Product Passport Registry now live (20-07-2026)
- EDPB: Guidelines 02/2025 on processing of personal data through blockchain
- GS1: Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) 2.0
- EBSI: about us
Each Alastria case page is linked in its table.
Cases and ISBE data verified as of 16 October 2026. This article is for information only and is not legal advice; check the current text of each regulation on EUR-Lex. Want to know whether your supply chain fits ISBE? Let's talk.