2026 Seminar Series: Digital Identity for Markets and Ecosystems in Logistics: Traceability, Coordination, and the Last Mile

Written By Irene Ng

This is a seminar series on digital identity for markets and ecosystems in various challenge areas. 2026 series focuses on logistics.

The seminar is 3 hours long.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

  1. Explain why identity is a coordination technology in markets.

  2. Distinguish between exchange, markets, and ecosystems.

  3. Understand traceability as a mechanism for value creation — not just compliance.

  4. Evaluate competing digital identity architectures (platform, federated, self-sovereign).

  5. Analyse real-world cases of logistics and ecosystem traceability for the last mile.

  6. Design a basic identity-enabled traceability framework for an inclusive market.

Structure Overview (3 Hours)

  • Part I — Foundations: Coordination & Identity

  • Part II — The Traceability Problem in Logistic Networks

  • Break (10 mins)

  • Part III — Digital Identity Architectures & Design Approaches

  • Part IV — Case Studies + Design Exercise

PART I — Foundations: Coordination in Markets & Ecosystems (45 min)

1.1 Exchange vs Markets vs Ecosystems (15 min)

Key distinction:

  • Exchange = transaction

  • Market = patterned exchange

  • Ecosystem = interdependent patterned exchange

Introduce:

  • Markets as coordination systems

  • Institutions as stabilisers of expectations

  • Identity as a precondition for coordination

Core idea:

Identity reduces uncertainty. Reduced uncertainty enables exchange. Repeated exchange becomes a market.

1.2 The Coordination Problem (15 min)

Markets must solve:

  1. Discovery – Who are you?

  2. Trust – Can I rely on you?

  3. Verification – Is what you claim true?

  4. Accountability – What happens if you fail?

  5. Continuity – Can we transact again?

In logistic networks, these become:

  • Provenance

  • Chain-of-custody

  • Certification

  • Compliance

  • Risk allocation

Highlights:

Industrial-era coordination = hierarchical

Digital-era coordination = networked and programmable

1.3 Identity as Market Infrastructure (15 min)

Identity types:

  • Personal identity

  • Organisational identity

  • Asset identity

  • Transaction identity

Core concept:

Digital identity is not about login. It is about the persistence of attributes across transactions.

Without persistent identity → traceability collapses → value cannot be surfaced.

PART II — The Traceability Problem in Logistic Networks (45 min)

2.1 Why Traceability Matters (15 min)

Traceability turns:

  • Coffee → ethically sourced coffee

  • Fish → sustainably caught fish

  • Lithium → responsibly mined lithium

  • Data → consented, compliant data

Traceability makes:

  • Risk visible

  • Quality visible

  • Ethics visible

  • Externalities visible

In other words:

It makes the invisible economically valuable.

2.2 Structural Challenges (15 min)

Logistics networks suffer from:

  • Fragmented actors

  • Data silos

  • Asymmetric incentives

  • Cost concentration vs value distribution

  • Lack of shared identity infrastructure

Important tension:

Those who bear the cost of traceability often do not capture the value.

Examples:

  • Smallholder farmers

  • Sub-tier suppliers

  • Port operators

2.3 The Limits of Current Solutions (15 min)

Common approaches:

  1. Centralised platforms

  2. ERP integration

  3. Blockchain-based traceability

  4. Certification databases

  5. API federations

Problems:

  • Governance capture

  • Lack of interoperability

  • Data duplication

  • Weak identity binding

  • No asset-level continuity

Key insight:

Most traceability systems track data.

Very few track identity and attributes across locations and time.

BREAK (10 min)

PART III — Digital Identity Architectures (50 min)

3.1 Three Identity Models (20 min)

1. Platform Identity

  • Controlled by a dominant intermediary

  • Example: Amazon seller ID

  • Pros: scale

  • Cons: dependency & enclosure

2. Federated Identity

  • Shared authentication (e.g., GS1, OAuth)

  • Pros: coordination

  • Cons: still institutional gatekeeping

3. Self-Sovereign / Decentralised Identity

  • Verifiable credentials

  • Wallet-based architectures

  • Asset-level identifiers

  • Pros: portability, persistence

  • Cons: governance complexity

3.2 Designing for Traceability (15 min)

Design principles:

  1. Persistent identifiers (entity + asset)

  2. Verifiable credentials

  3. Event logging across lifecycle

  4. Incentive alignment

  5. Privacy-preserving verification

Important shift:

Traceability must be designed as a market, not as a database.

3.3 Making the Invisible Valuable - Last Mile Challenges (15 min)

Invisible attributes:

  • Carbon intensity

  • Labour conditions

  • Compliance history

  • Data provenance

  • Repair history

Mechanisms to monetise invisibles:

  • Differential pricing

  • Risk-adjusted finance

  • Preferential procurement

  • Secondary markets

  • Tokenised claims

Key framing:

Identity transforms attributes into tradable signals.

PART IV — Case Studies + Design Exercise (30 min)

Case Study: Food Supply Chain Traceability

  • Farm → Aggregator → Exporter → Retailer

  • Identity gaps at aggregation layer

  • Who owns the data?

  • Who benefits from the premium?

Discussion question:

How would you redesign identity so farmers capture more value?

Is regulation substituting for missing market coordination?

How do you deal with 

  • Consent traceability

  • Data portability

  • Cross-platform interoperability

Interactive Design Exercise

Divide participants into groups:

Design a traceability framework for:

  • Seafood

  • Fashion supply chain

  • Carbon credits

  • Medical devices

They must define:

  1. Who has identity?

  2. What is persistent?

  3. Who verifies?

  4. Who pays?

  5. Who captures the value?

Conclude:

Digital identity is the coordination layer of post-digital markets.

Optional Reading List

  • Elinor Ostrom – Governing the Commons

  • Oliver Williamson – Transaction Cost Economics

  • Jean Tirole – Platform Economics

  • W3C Verifiable Credentials

  • EU Digital Product Passport Framework

My books

Ng, Irene C.L. (2025) The Great Sleepwalk, ISBN-13-979-8275799019, Innovorsa Press

Ng, Irene C.L. (2014) Creating New Markets in the Digital Economy: Value and Worth, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ISBN No. 9781107049352 (hardback)

Digital version: Value and Worth: Creating New Markets in the Digital Economy, Innovorsa Press, Cambridge, ISBN No. 978-0-9573553-0-9 (digital rights to Innovorsa Press, released Jan 2013)

Papers (published)

Ng, Irene C L, (2024) “Edge markets for the usage of data and digital assets: the Dataswyft data wallet,” : IET Conference Proceedings, Volume 2024, Issue 7, https://doi.org/10.1049/icp.2024.2531

Danatzis, I., Chandler, D. J., Akaka, A. Irene C L Ng, (2024)“Designing Digital Platforms for Social Justice: Empowering End-Users Through the Dataswyft Platform.” MIS Quarterly

Papers (In preparation)

Ng, I.C.L. (2025) A market design for data assets. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/192882/

Ng, I.C.L. (2025) A market design framework for digital assets: guidance for policymakers on data, identity, and emerging market structures. Working Paper, WMG Cybersecurity Group. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/195000/

Ng, I.C.L. (2026) Claims as institutional objects: designing markets for coordination. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/196079/

Irene Ng
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