CommonsDB Feasibility Study: Verified, Decentralized, Trustworthy
Open Future, in collaboration with Liccium, Europeana Foundation, Wikimedia Sverige, and the Institute for Information Law, has released the second part of the CommonsDB Feasibility Study.
This milestone report assesses the real-world performance of the CommonsDB prototype as it transitions from theoretical design to active deployment, providing detailed insights into the technical, legal, and operational aspects of creating a trustworthy, decentralized registry for Public Domain and openly licensed works.
The Purpose of the Study
The second part of the CommonsDB Feasibility Study evaluates the system’s performance as it handles live data from project partners. Building on the initial analysis presented in part 1, this instalment examines how the prototype operates in practice following the launch of active testing, public APIs, and the CommonsDB Explorer.
This study provides transparency on our progress and gathers community feedback as we refine the registry based on operational experience and share key insights:
- The Prototype is Operational: The core workflow operates reliably. Over 250,000 declarations from Europeana Foundation and Wikimedia Sverige confirm that our decentralized approach works.
- Trust Architecture Implemented: eIDAS-qualified trust services, combined with Verifiable Credentials, ensure that every declaration is cryptographically signed, machine-verifiable, and linked to a verified Data Supplier identity.
- Delegated Conflict Resolution: Rather than central arbitration, the system detects conflicting rights information and will signal Data Suppliers to correct their records, preserving data provenance and accountability.
Next Steps for CommonsDB
This study validates our technical architecture and legal framework for CommonsDB. Moving forward, we will focus on the following priorities through July 2026:
We will expand the registry by inviting new Data Suppliers to participate, increasing the scale and diversity of CommonsDB data. To support this growth, we will publish an online resource in April documenting best practices for ISCC generation, rights modeling, and declaration submissions.
Simultaneously, we are exploring institutional options for the long-term stewardship of the registry within the wider EU data space and copyright ecosystem. This work will culminate in a final strategy paper and a public event in mid-2026.
Learn more at the CommonsDB website.
