Overview
OriginateNavio is a free, open-source toolkit that lets companies prove where a product came from and how it was certified. Producers, regulators, or auditors record key supply chain events using the software, and shoppers can check the result by scanning a QR code on the package. Think of it as a passport stamping system for products: each step of the journey adds a verified stamp that anyone can read later. The toolkit is built and maintained by the Cardano Foundation, the non-profit that supports the Cardano network1.
OriginateNavio writes each certification event to Cardano, a shared record book that prevents records from being changed after the fact. It pairs that with everyday databases for the rest of the data and a mobile app field workers can use to scan items, so the full system fits how real supply chains operate12.
Key Features
- Trustworthy product history. Every batch event is signed and written to Cardano, creating a record that cannot be quietly edited later. This is useful for audits, recalls, and customs inspections23.
- Free to use and free to change. The full code ships under the Apache 2.0 license, so a winery, brand, or government agency can run, change, and host it themselves without paying a license fee1.
- Mobile scanning for the field. A companion app for phones lets workers log events in warehouses, vineyards, or shipping yards, and lets shoppers verify a product by pointing their camera at a QR code1.
- Connects to existing back-office systems. A standard web hookup lets enterprise software, such as a winery's stock-keeping system, push events into OriginateNavio without rewriting back-office workflows1.
- Production-tested with Bolnisi wine. The Cardano Foundation has run the toolkit live with Georgia's National Wine Agency, the Bolnisi Winemakers Association, and Scantrust to trace wine from grape to glass across participating Bolnisi wineries24.
What to Expect
OriginateNavio is best understood as infrastructure for businesses, not an app for individual users. If you are a winery, a national agency, a coffee brand, or any organisation that wants verifiable supply chain records, you can deploy it on your own servers and connect it to your existing systems. The Cardano Foundation publishes case studies and a public Digital Product Passport solution page that walks through how the same approach maps to the European Union's product passport rules3.
If you are a developer, the GitHub repository is the front door. You will find a Spring Boot service, a React dashboard, a mobile app built with Ionic, and a separate component called Metabus that batches and submits transactions to Cardano. The license is Apache 2.0, the activity is centered around Cardano Foundation engineers, and the project was renamed from Originate to OriginateNavio in early 20261.
If you are a shopper, you will most likely encounter OriginateNavio without ever knowing its name, by scanning a QR code on a wine bottle and seeing a page that confirms the bottle is genuine and lists where the grapes were grown, when it was certified, and by whom4.
