Some time ago there was a guy who supposedly worked on a place that issued a bunch of these code things and managed them and he wanted to make them on Nostr, I don't remember exactly.
The guy has vanished, but his spirit came back and now nostr:npub10000003zmk89narqpczy4ff6rnuht2wu05na7kpnh3mak7z2tqzsv8vwqk has wrote this nice proposal.
Except for the fact that real-world implementation will take a million years I like it very much (except for the 'nproduct' new bech32 code).
When people open an item I sent them, they look at it and use it and throw the package away. On the off chance someone tries the QR code and are directed to NOSTR, their reaction as a normies will be "wtf is this" and leave. No one does the 2nd step to get an NPub. If they are normies is what I'm saying.
Just like 99% of people throw the tags with the barcodes away when they bring a product home. And I don't think we're talking about the end consumer here, an nproduct ID could be used by the Supply Chain to track materials and the manufacturing, shipping and distribution process of a product or service. If we could get this worked out, it could be a huge part of a global VAT system.
I work in retail, and I'll have to take a look at the NIP. Before I do, just some brainstorming notes.
The standard for item identity right now is the UPC, which is a global standard that has worked really well since it was launched in 1973. The EAN-13 version of the barcode could be incorporated into an NPC (Nostr Product Code) that includes additional information about ... anything really. It's all a hash that can include any number of embedded documentation and details. Items with the same UPC but coming from different factories in different countries around the world could be properly identified with source data, materials composition, labor details, applicable laws and Value Added Tax details, transportation logs, etc. and it would all fit in the nproduct hash via something like IPFS content hashing.
Thank you :)
