A shared language that lets people, applications, devices, robots, and autonomous systems understand one another and coordinate across the food economy.
Shared standards let different systems coordinate without giving one company control. FoodBlock provides that neutral layer for food: a common format anyone can implement, use, and build upon.
Every FoodBlock follows the same three-part structure: what it is, what is true about it, and what it connects to. That simplicity lets every participant create blocks in the same way, whether it is a multinational supply chain, a market stall trader, a robot, or an autonomous vehicle.
Each FoodBlock gets its identity from the information inside it. Change any detail and the identity changes too, so different systems can be sure they are seeing the same record.
A record cannot be quietly rewritten. If any detail changes, it becomes a new record with a new identity.
A farmer, fisher, driver, or inspector can create a record without internet access. It can be shared and checked when connectivity returns.
No company or government needs to issue the identifier. The record creates its own identity, so different systems can recognise the same information.
Every FoodBlock connects to the people, places, ingredients, events, and claims around it. Together, those connections create trust and transparency across the whole food economy.
Like reputation in a social network, trust grows from signed interactions between people, businesses, inspectors, machines, and certifiers over time. Choose what you want to evaluate to see which evidence matters.
A common format lets businesses, devices, and agents contribute to one connected record of the food economy.
FoodBlock only defines the structure of a shared food record. It does not define the application around it. Each developer adds to a pool of data that other tools can use and build upon.
Cold-chain status verified. Added to the shared pool for other applications to use.
No single entity can own the standard through which an economy records its food data.
Autonomous systems are first-class actors in the FoodBlock protocol.
FoodBlock is an MIT-licensed protocol with three fields (type, state, refs) and six base types (actor, place, substance, transform, transfer, observe). It is federated, content-addressed, and append-only. Anyone can implement it without permission.
Anyone. The protocol is open and permissionless. Developers, businesses, machines, and autonomous systems can all write FoodBlocks without needing approval from a central authority.
Each FoodBlock gets its identity from the information inside it. Change any detail and the identity changes too, so different systems can be sure they are seeing the same record. The hash is derived from the content using SHA-256.
FoodBlock is federated like email. Operators run their own servers and exchange blocks with peers. There is no central authority that can deny access or revoke participation. This prevents any single entity from owning the food economy's operational record.
Actor (people, businesses, machines), Place (locations and facilities), Substance (ingredients, products, materials), Transform (processes that change substances), Transfer (movements of ownership or goods), and Observe (measurements, reviews, certifications). These types can be extended with subtypes.
Yes. The specification and all reference implementations are public and permissively licensed. Start with the SDK and documentation available on GitHub. No permission is required to implement FoodBlock.
Autonomous systems register through signed actor FoodBlocks with Ed25519 keypairs and scoped capabilities. They can create blocks within their permissions, with high-value actions requiring human approval and routine actions auto-approving within defined limits.
The protocol is governed through an open-source, consensus-driven model. No single entity can own the standard. Changes to the core specification require community consensus. Individual implementations can add features, but the base protocol remains stable and backward-compatible.
Open protocol. Three fields. Anyone can write the shared food record.