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Data and trust

What Odal Node can and cannot see.

Odal Node is built on a proof-bound architecture: the manufacturer's raw production data is validated and signed locally, on infrastructure the manufacturer controls, then discarded. Only the signed proof is stored and served. This is a property of the software, not a policy promise — it holds regardless of who operates the node.

Scan telemetry

What a scan count is, and what it is not.

When a passport is resolved, the node can record that it happened — an aggregate count, per passport, per day. That is the whole of it. A scan count records nothing about the person who scanned: no IP address, no device, no location, no identity, no session. The software has no field in which to store any of it, so there is nothing to leak and nothing that could quietly become tracking. Producing a QR-code image is counted separately — it measures label production, not people.

By deployment

The guarantee differs, and stating that plainly is part of the design.

PropertySelf-hostedManaged
Node discards raw inputs; stores only the signed proofYes — architectural invariantYes — architectural invariant
Odal can access stored dataNo — not present in the deploymentConstrained by access controls, audit logging, and contract
Odal can sign on the operator's behalfNoNo — the operator holds the signing keys

How it works

The mechanism, not the promise.

  1. Import. Product data arrives at your node — CSV, Excel, or an ERP export. This happens on infrastructure you control.
  2. Validate. The node validates locally against versioned sector schemas. Validation is a pure function — no network calls, no third-party API.
  3. Sign. Your private signing key — generated and held in-process on your infrastructure — signs the validated passport. The result is a signature cryptographically bound to your publisheddid:web identity.
  4. Publish. Only the signed passport becomes publicly resolvable via QR and GS1 Digital Link. The raw input is discarded.
  5. Verify. Any consumer, authority, or recycler verifies the signature against your public DID Document. Verification does not require Odal to be online or to exist.