A future where trust travels with official data

Official statistics are downloaded, reused, and cited across research, media, and policy. As data moves beyond the systems that publish it, users need a reliable way to confirm where it came from, whether it has changed, and which version they are using.

This project explores how statistical authorities can attach a tamper-evident record to published datasets, allowing users to verify origin and integrity independently.

Official data becomes harder to verify once it leaves the source

Eurostat publishes datasets that are downloaded, reused, and cited across research papers, news articles, policy documents, and institutional reports. Once a file leaves the original publication environment, it can become difficult for users to confirm that it is unchanged and linked to the correct official version.

Version history can become unclear

Official statistics are revised over time. Users may cite outdated versions, combine figures from different revisions, or lose the context needed to identify which dataset version supported a specific conclusion.

Context can be lost after download

Once data is downloaded, shared, or integrated into other systems, attribution and metadata can become separated from the file. This makes it harder to prove origin, integrity, and publication context later.

Long-term auditability is difficult to preserve

Existing tools such as digital signatures, timestamping, and secure archives can support parts of the process. But public, independent, long-term verification remains difficult when data circulates beyond the publisher's own systems.

Eurostat: exploring verifiable publication for official statistics

Led by Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical office, this pilot explores how EBSI's Track & Trace infrastructure can support dataset integrity and version verification.

The project focuses on a core trust challenge in open data reuse: how to provide a portable, publicly verifiable record of a dataset's origin, integrity, and publication history.

EBSI provides the anchoring layer. When Eurostat publishes or updates a dataset, a cryptographic proof can be recorded on EBSI together with issuer, timestamp, and version metadata. EBSI does not store the dataset itself, it stores the proof that allows users to verify whether a file matches the official published version.

A verifiable record for published statistics

Eurostat has been piloting EBSI as a way to attach verifiable records to published datasets and revisions.

In the pilot, a cryptographic proof of each dataset can be anchored on EBSI, allowing users to check whether a file matches the official version published by Eurostat. The same mechanism supports version history, helping users understand how a dataset has changed over time.

For statistical authorities, this shows how open data can remain verifiable after it leaves the original publication environment. For researchers, journalists, auditors, and policy analysts, it makes the figures they cite easier to check and trust.