TransparencyChain: Blockchain and Digital Marketing to Strengthen our Community of Craftspeople and Makers

24 Aug

Words: Miguel Barbot. Photos: Miguel Barbot / Estúdio Ofício Archive. The photos are used merely as an illustration of this text and don't represent the work of participants in the TransparencyChain project.

Are you a craftsperson / maker based in Portugal and would love to joint this project and participate in the training and pilot-programme? Drop us an email at info@barbotbernardo.com

Quito / Oficina Matérica ceramics, handwooven linen cloth - 2019

We’ve been working with craftspeople since 2011, and we know how essential it is to document the origins of materials, the processes behind making, and the values embedded in production. Research and documentation were integral to the very beginning of Saber Fazer, our research and education unit, almost 15 years ago: not only as storytelling and material for beautiful photos and stories, but also as a means to create a lasting technical testimony for future generations of makers. This approach remains a pillar for Saber Fazer’s educational and technical book publishing efforts. It is now our mission as educators to foster and create solid foundations for high-quality knowledge transfer and to offer a fresh perspective on artisanal work and small-scale manufacturing by highlighting good practices, craftsmanship, skill, and provenance.

Saber Fazer is now a key stakeholder in the Portuguese craft sector, and an educational and book publishing project whose main objective is to ensure the transfer of technical knowledge and to educate and raise awareness for environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Darga Crafts, 2019

Our participation in European projects, especially those designed and proposed by us at Barbot Bernardo and Saber Fazer, has also allowed us to introduce essential innovations, without any cost to our publics, such as new educational materials or new methodologies. We recently completed GatewayCrafts, a project that explores the importance of “Social Media Learning” as a gateway to a profession, and are in the final strecht of CommunityCloth, a project exploring “Community Learning” as a way to train educators with access to larger communities to internalise skills and scale knowledge transfer to a broader community of potential craftspeople.

Policy Background

More minor and local production scales are becoming increasingly relevant, and there is an urgent need to renew and disseminate the knowledge, but also to create innovative tools to enable sustainable production and collaboration chains.

We currently face an urgent need to address critical challenges in the European craft sector, particularly around digital technology, sustainability, generational transition, inclusion and competition. The industry primarily consists of family-run businesses and individuals from very diverse backgrounds (Crafting Europe, 2022). The sector’s fragmented nature doesn’t allow a concrete figure for the EU. Still, Italy alone accounts for over 500,000 jobs in crafts, which is a significant number of people! The EU crafts market, valued at €50 billion (according to the EU Crafts Alliance), is increasingly driven by consumer demand for sustainability and authenticity. However, many artisans struggle to meet these demands due to limited access to digital tools, making them vulnerable to threats such as copycats—larger companies replicating designs at lower costs.

The European Commission is moving in the right direction to boost manufacturing as a viable alternative to offshore imports and to promote ethical and sustainable production through initiatives like the Digital Product Passport.

The Digital Product Passport (DPP), part of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, aims to make reliable product data available and accessible throughout the value chain. TransparencyChain, a Erasmus+ KA210 project proposed by Barbot Bernardo and Saber Fazer, having Originn Creative Hub (Izmir, Turkey) and Loonatiks Desgin (Athens, Greece), is aligned with the three partners vision for the future of craft as an economically viable alternative, is not just a response to these developments but an active step towards a more sustainable, transparent and competitive European craft sector.

A Pele do Lobo, Ana Rita de Arruda. 2020.

In this context, traceability and authenticity of raw materials and craftsmanship are increasingly critical in today’s market, where consumers demand transparency and ethical production, but traditional provenance tracking is often unreliable. Blockchain technology offers a solution by providing an immutable, transparent record of the entire supply chain—from raw materials to the final product.

Blockchain can help artisans meet these standards, ensuring tracking of provenance and product lifecycle, assisting consumers in making informed choices. For the craft sector, this trend is significant. While many craftspeople already work with natural materials, sustainable methods, and local supply chains, this information is often not recorded in a way that is verifiable or accessible. The DPP model shows the direction in which markets are heading: producers of all sizes will need to provide structured, trusted product data.

Certifications such as “Certified Organic” are often expensive or technically inaccessible for craftspeople, limiting market access and undermining their work, a concern shared by the Saber Fazer network of craftspeople, artists and educators, and a strong motivation for this project. Even certifications such as “B Corp” are facing some controversy. Still, Blockchain tracking offers a robust solution, allowing craftspeople to protect their work, enhancing trust by enabling transparency (see Infobox).

A relevant benchmark to the craft sector is the Speciality Coffee industry, which has grown 13% annually due to interest in transparency. Blockchain is also being studied and tested in this industry as a way of enabling consumers to trace coffee from developing countries to their cup, with a premium paid for transparency. You can read a very interesting post detailing transparency in the Specialty Coffee industry here.

To put it in simple terms, the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum defines Blockchain as one of the significant technological breakthroughs of the past decade, being a technology that enables large groups of people and organisations to reach agreement on and permanently record information without a central authority. It has been recognised as a crucial tool for fostering a fair, inclusive, secure, and democratic digital economy. A Blockchain is simply a shared database, which is why it is also known as a distributed ledger. The key difference from traditional database technology is that, instead of a single database stored by an owner who maintains and shares the data, in a blockchain network, all participants have their own copy of the database. Thanks to the way Blockchain works, it is possible to ensure that everyone can agree as to the correct contents of the data, that everyone has the exact copy of this agreed-upon data, and that no one can modify the data after the fact.
This enables large numbers of individuals or entities, whether collaborators or competitors, to reach a consensus on information and to immutably store this agreed-upon record of the truth. For this reason, Blockchain has been described as a “trust machine”.

Ricardo Gil Studio (2021), Ideal & Co (2025), Black Merino at Monte dos Cedros (2020), Ricardo Gil Studio (2021)

Why This Project Is Necessary

The craft sector is increasingly affected by issues such as:

Risk of designs being copied by larger producers, reducing market value for independent makers.
The need to respond to consumer demand and regulatory frameworks like the Digital Product Passport, and the difficulty in accessing affordable and practical certification for provenance and sustainability.
Limited access to digital training and tools—especially for those in remote regions, older professionals, and those with less formal education.
Lack of skills to use digital marketing effectively, meaning many artisans often struggle to reach audiences willing to value and pay for authentic, sustainable work.

TransparencyChain addresses these critical issues by giving craftspeople the tools to:

Record their product’s origin and lifecycle securely using Blockchain.
Demonstrate compliance with emerging sustainability standards.
Communicate verified provenance information directly to consumers and retailers.

With TransparencyChain, we are not just developing and testing a blockchain-based provenance tracking platform: we are creating tools to empower craftspeople, small suppliers, and vocational educators, allowing them to thrive in a digital age. Alongside the platform, we are introducing training and learning materials on digital marketing, enabling participants and all those interested in the topic to enhance their visibility and competitiveness in the marketplace and capitalise on the opportunities that come with being part of a network of craftspeople utilising this blockchain platform.

The project and learning programme aims to make both Blockchain and digital marketing accessible to all professionals in the craft sector, regardless of their digital experience (even to those intimidated by terms such as Blockchain, crypto, etc). We believe that even complex concepts, when simplified, taught in an accessible and inclusive way, and with proper follow-up, can be applied effectively in day-to-day practice.

Also, the project is a framework to boost the adoption of sophisticated concepts by a wide range of professionals, including those typically excluded from this type of technology.

The project is a collective effort from the three partners involved to level the playing field. Remember how social media provided an advantage for the younger makers when accessing the mainstream market, leaving many skilled professionals behind?

Throughout the project, we will:
1. Develop a blockchain provenance tracking platform to record data on raw materials, production stages, and sustainable practices in a format that is easy to input and retrieve.
2. Train four vocational education and training (VET) educators in both the use of the platform and digital marketing strategies, enabling them to teach and support others. These educators will play a crucial role in disseminating the knowledge and skills gained from the project to a broader audience within the craft sector.
3. Work directly with 30–40 craftspeople and small suppliers to adopt the platform and apply it to real products and processes. This will involve hands-on training, troubleshooting, and continuous support to ensure the successful integration of provenance data into their marketing strategies.
4. Create new digital training materials on Blockchain (and the TransparencyChain platform) and on Digital Marketing for Transparent Value Chains.
5. Run a one-year pilot programme to test the platform, the training materials, and the combined methodology. The participants in the pilot will have permanent assistance and follow-up by the four educators trained by our team. We will also organise various events, providing participants with opportunities to meet and network with other counterparts. During the pilot, we will also set up communication tools in a way that the participants, educators and the project technical team will exchange ideas, cooperate and help each other during the process.
6. Evaluate and document the results in a TransparencyChain Blueprint to guide future use and new projects addressing the same topics.
Item desBy the end of the project, we expect to have:
- A functioning blockchain provenance tracking platform in English and Portuguese.
- A group of trained educators capable of teaching blockchain use and digital marketing in the craft context.
- 30–40 craftspeople and suppliers equipped to implement provenance tracking and promote it effectively online.
- Open-access digital training resources suitable for adaptation in other regions and sectors.
- A tested methodology, documented in the TransparencyChain Blueprint, to guide replication.
Our intention is that this work will help craftspeople prove the value of their work, strengthen sustainable and transparent value chains, and ensure that the sector can meet both digital and regulatory requirements while also improving market visibility.cription
In the next few weeks, we will launch an open call for participants. At this stage, we are prioritising craftspeople based in Portugal or able to attend the on-site training to be held in Porto in the first quarter of 2026.
Interested? Drop us an email at info@barbotbernardo.com

Quito / Oficina Matérica ceramics (2019), Darga Crafts (2019), Wooo / Pedro Barros (2022)

Technical Recommendations from Our Preliminary Blockchain Study

The assessment, prepared by the Originn Blockchain team, advises a proof-of-concept platform: lightweight, modular, and simple for non-technical users. The key recommendations related to user experience are:

Blockchain design:

Two smart contracts — one for non-transferable certificates (product, materials, emissions data) and one for traceability (state changes).
All queries will be in real time, being fetched from blockchain and IPFS.
A testnet will allow issuing and updating certificates without real costs for the users or project during the pilot programme (at least for some of the actions, like the cost to use more characters on the “Notes” field). Each participant will have a wallet with cryptocurrency to use during the test phase, to simulate the costs associated with the issuing and updating of the certificates.

User experience:

Roles: admin, producer, transporter, seller, end-user.
States: production, transit, warehouse, store.
Each change is timestamped, geolocated, and may include optional photos.
End users will access the provenance data via product ID or a QR code.
Interfaces must meet accessibility standards (WCAG, screen readers).
The platform will be available in English and Portuguese.

Strategic considerations:

The choice of Blockchain is to be defined later (cost, environmental impact, and inclusivity).
Prioritise simplicity, environmental responsibility, and inclusivity.
We pretend a fully decentralised blockchain, like Etherium. This option would require all users to use crypto wallets, meaning the pilot programme will need to include a training module on how to use them.

Are you a craftsperson / maker based in Portugal and would love to joint this project and participate in the training and pilot-programme? Drop us an email at info@barbotbernardo.com