Provenance & Traceability

In some cases, apart from the data itself, participants also need to know where it came from, how it has been used, and by whom. According to the DSSC, the provenance and traceability building block enables them to provide the evidence trail that supports trust, compliance, and accountability.

• Provenance captures the origin and history of data (who created it, how it was processed).

• Traceability records what happened during a transaction (who accessed it, under what terms, and what actions were performed).

For more in-depth guidance and examples, see the [The DSSC Description].

These mechanisms are especially important in regulated sectors or when dealing with high-value data (e.g., in finance, healthcare, logistics, or AI, where the EU AI Act may apply).

They also play a crucial role in meeting obligations set out in European legislation, including the EU Data Act and the Data Governance Act (DGA), which emphasise transparency, interoperability, and accountability in data sharing.

iSHARE aligns with these European frameworks, ensuring that its trust, governance, and technical specifications reinforce the same goals: legal clarity, accountability, and cross-sector interoperability in data exchanges.

Because provenance and traceability data are valuable in themselves, they must be handled with the same care as the primary data. This includes:

• Clear semantics and structure so it can be understood.

• Access and usage rules so only authorised parties can see or use it.

• A balanced approach to granularity: detailed enough to build trust and meet compliance needs, but not so heavy that it slows down the system.

The iSHARE Trust Framework does not prescribe a single approach here. Data spaces are free to design solutions that fit their governance and legal context, whether centralised, decentralised, or distributed. What matters is that the chosen model supports scalability, security, and alignment with contractual and regulatory requirements.

The guiding questions can help in the co-creation process and in defining this building block, so please see the next section.