Celebrating 50 Years of the GS1 Barcode
June 26 marked the 50th anniversary of the GS1 barcode, commemorating the first-ever product scan at a cash registry checkout. Over the decades, billions of products worldwide have been equipped with barcodes, streamlining and standardizing supply chain processes and adhering to GS1 standards.
As consumer demand for product information grew, regulatory requirements became stricter, and supply chain optimization pressures increased, the need for an updated barcode became evident. Enter the GS1 Digital Link, the barcode upgrade designed to provide dynamic access to comprehensive product information. Now, with leading retail and consumer goods companies actively supporting the transition to Digital Link QR codes, the stage is set for the traditional barcode to retire gracefully.
Setting a Strong Foundation for Digital Link with OriginTrail
For products and brands to fully benefit from the GS1 Digital Link transition, a robust, connected, and verifiable data foundation is crucial. Product data is often split across various supply chain partners, including manufacturers, logistics providers, wholesalers, retailers, and others. To connect billions of products to the internet in a meaningful way that provides genuine insights and business value, this scattered product data needs to be interconnected.
Scanning a Digital Link on a product and seeing the manufacturer’s information, such as production date, description, ingredients, and brand details is good. Scanning the same code and accessing comprehensive information about the product’s journey through the supply chain — including whether the ingredients were ecologically produced, if the product was stored at proper temperatures during transport, and how long it was in the supply chain — is much better. This is the true potential of the Digital Link.
Beyond consumer engagement, consider a business operating a rail or plane network being able to access details on a component’s manufacture, testing, and maintenance by scanning a Digital Link code. That would have surely been invaluable with the recent Boeing aircraft incidents.
This is where the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG) and GS1 Digital Link make a match in heaven. The DKG provides a verifiable and interconnected knowledge base encompassing product data, supply chain events, certifications, locations, and more — across organizations and data sources. With the new DKG V8, the OriginTrail introduces the scalability needed to bring billions of products equipped with Digital Link into a world of standards-based, connected, and verifiable data. And the new DKG Edge Node concept empowers organizations and business networks to exchange product and other supply chain data with just a few clicks while maintaining data privacy, verifiability, and connectivity.
As a longstanding partner of GS1, OriginTrail DKG is designed to natively support GS1 standards, including EPCIS, Core Business Vocabulary (CBV), Global Data Model (GDM), and Digital Link. This integration means that consumers, regulators, brands, and other stakeholders can access richer, more comprehensive, and trusted product data. The challenge now is to make this user experience seamless and simple, and there’s a tech perfect for the job — Artificial Intelligence (AI).
OriginTrail, Digital Link, and AI: A Consumer Engagement Power Throuple
Incorporating AI into the mix creates an incredibly powerful technology trio, enabling brands to enhance consumer engagement, based on connected and verifiable data spanning organizations, in unprecedented ways. And with the DKG Edge Node, AI capabilities come natively. Brands can thus offer personalized and tailored experiences by allowing customers to scan a product with a Digital Link QR code and ask anything — from brand details to product origins, sustainability, and environmental impact, all based on verifiable data from OriginTrail DKG.
This combination not only benefits consumers but also provides brands with valuable insights into customer preferences, allowing them to refine their business strategies. As billions of products transition from barcodes to Digital Link, the potential of this technology trio becomes evident. In fact, AI-powered product discovery, based on OriginTrail and Digital Link, is no longer a future concept but a current reality:
Some additional examples to check out:
Simultaneously, organizations can leverage AI to better understand and enhance their supply chains, ensuring they receive accurate and verifiable responses rooted in data from across their business network. By simply scanning a Digital Link QR code on a product, pallet, or shipping container, users are immediately empowered to ask questions and get verifiable answers — from basic queries like “Where was this product manufactured?” to more complex ones such as “Was the temperature in this shipping container in line with expectations?” and “Give me a list of all train wagons that are likely to experience issues with their wheels in the next month.” Exciting stuff indeed.
Where do we go from here?
As billions of products transition from traditional barcodes to Digital Link QR codes, establishing a robust foundation of connected and verifiable data becomes paramount. OriginTrail is at the forefront of this transformation, with the new DKG V8 offering the scalability and simplicity necessary to realize its full potential. When combined with AI, this technology trio unlocks immense opportunities for brands to engage with their customers in a trusted and meaningful way.
But consumer engagement is just one area set to benefit significantly from this transition. Regulatory bodies will gain streamlined access to verifiable product data, and supply chain management will become more proactive and efficient. The coming months and years promise exciting advancements and opportunities, making this a pivotal moment in the evolution of product information and consumer engagement.
We are excited to see OriginTrail at the epicenter of it all, as we — Trace Labs, the core developers of OriginTrai — along with our ecosystem partners get ready to unveil the Digital Link support via the new DKG V8 at the GS1 Industry & Standards Event. Over 1,000 business leaders from 80+ countries will come together virtually to solve today’s greatest business challenges through the development and adoption of the GS1 global standard.
For the GS1 Industry & Standards Event, register at: https://standards-event.gs1.org/
