# Self-sovereign proof of event attendance

> As part of the European BLING project, BlockchainLab Drenthe developed a decentralised application for self-sovereign attendance records based on the IOTA Tangle. Participants could use a QR code to verify their attendance at events such as the North Sea Conference 2022 independently and with privacy safeguards. The proof of concept was tested at several events but did not progress to widespread production use.

**Sector:** Tertiary sector · **Industry:** Event management · **Organisation:** BlockchainLab Drenthe, Province of Drenthe, Interreg North Sea Region BLING · **Maturity level:** Pilot

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/blockchainlab-drenthe-veranstaltungsanwesenheit-selbstbestimmt-nachweisen

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Pilot
- **Evidence:** Evidence medium
- **Editorial review:** pending

## Description

Together with partners in the BLING project, BlockchainLab Drenthe demonstrated how event attendance can be documented in a tamper-proof manner without organisers having to keep central lists containing personal data. Participants independently register their attendance via a QR code scan, securing the proof directly on their device. This decentralised approach eliminates the data protection risks of traditional paper or Excel lists and simplifies the verification of continuing education obligations or conference attendance.

In the European Interreg project BLING, BlockchainLab Drenthe, together with the Province of Drenthe, developed a practical prototype for self-sovereign attendance documentation. The technical foundation is the IOTA Tangle, which enables fee-free transactions and cryptographically verifiable signatures. Instead of recording names and personal details in central organiser databases, visitors scan a specific QR code on-site and receive a cryptographic token as proof. The application was successfully field-tested, amongst others, at the North Sea Conference 2022. Although the system was proposed as a viable replacement for analogue attendance lists, it remained a field-tested proof of concept and has not yet been transitioned into widespread production.

## Benefits

- Reduction of compliance and liability risks under GDPR
- Reduced manual verification effort after the end of an event
- Complete data sovereignty on the part of the participants
- Avoidance of central targets for data leaks
- Faster on-site registration processing
- Direct digital possession of the training certificate
- No media disruptions caused by analogue attendee sheets

## Challenges

- Organisational transition effort from traditional registration methods
- Hitherto unproven scalability for large-scale events with tens of thousands of guests
- Requires compatible devices and acceptance among participants
- Lack of interfaces to established congress management systems
- Familiarisation with unfamiliar mechanisms of cryptographic proofs

## Technology foundation

The solution is based on the distributed ledger technology IOTA Tangle, which enables fee-free transactions and cryptographically secured proofs. This architecture is particularly suited to lightweight identity credentials and decentralised confirmations without central storage of personal profiles.

## Sources

- [Niels Annema on the Self-sovereign Attendancy App](https://northsearegion.eu/bling/3-blockchain-questions-to/niels-annema/)
- [IPS-X Self Sovereign Attendancy](https://ipsoeu.github.io/ips-explorer/case/10841.html)
- [Pilot Story BlockchainLab Drenthe](https://northsearegion.eu/media/16508/pilot-story-blockchainlab-drenthe-3.pdf)