Blockchain-Protected Designs As the Enabler to Distributed 3D Printing

In theory, 3D printing is the perfect production method for distributed manufacturing. Digital files can travel easily, without the challenges of shipping cargo across borders or around the world. A 3D printer equipped with the proper material and capabilities can print any design, without the need for the proper mold, cutting tool or other fixturing. Printers can be located anywhere, and production shifted between them at will.

This is the distributed manufacturing vision, but its realization faces roadblocks. From the designer or OEM’s standpoint, distributing a 3D printable file to far-flung manufacturers or individual users comes with risk — the risk that the file may be corrupted or tampered with; that more prints than are authorized will be made; and that intellectual property will be stolen. Designers have been largely unable to control how many times a design might be printed once it is sold; this means they are often forced to sell designs at higher prices regardless of whether the manufacturer intends to print one or thousands. 

The party receiving such files therefore may have taken a financial risk in purchasing them, and may also have doubts about their authenticity, origins or completeness. (Any millennial who remembers the questionable music files available on peer-to-peer sites in the early 2000s can likely relate.)

Blockchain is the possible solution, offering a way to establish trust on both sides, says Johannes Schweifer, founder and CEO of CoreLedger. With locations in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, CoreLedger provides affordable blockchain solutions to businesses. “We allow companies of all sizes to use blockchain without needing their own blockchain development teams,” Schweifer says. Through a combination of ready-made blockchain infrastructure and customizations specific to each use case, CoreLedger customers can implement the technology to document and tokenize assets, govern the use of digital artifacts, make items tradeable,  build smartphone apps and much more.

CoreLedger previously partnered with and provided the base blockchain infrastructure to Ambitorio, a Swiss company that supports secure file exchange based on blockchain technology. In 2021, Ambitorio became involved in a project from Interreg, a European Union initiative that supports cross-border collaborative projects to address common challenges among EU nations. Together they collaborated with the other members of an Interreg-funded initiative to find new business models with 3D printing. The group created a solution for distributing additive manufacturing files that accomplishes three main objectives:

1. Securing 3D printable files via file hashing. A cryptographic algorithm generates a unique hash, or fingerprint, for each file based on its contents. The blockchain does not store the files themselves, but the hashes that verify their authenticity. No two files will have the same hash unless they are absolutely identical; changing anything about the data will result in a different hash. While this technique is not entirely new, the collaborators iterated on the technology to easily turn a 3D printable file into a digital artifact on the blockchain. Each artifact’s unique fingerprint makes it easy to verify proof of authenticity and uniqueness. 
2. Protecting access to the data. In this system 3D printable files are encrypted and the access right is tokenized and tied to the stored hashes. When a printable object is shared, the receiver obtains a token that enables access. It is impossible to decrypt the file without this token asset, which ensures that only authenticated parties can use the 3D printable data. 
3. Accounting for printing runs. This was the most challenging part of the project, Schweifer says, but one of the most valuable pieces to figure out. The blockchain solution developed makes it possible to restrict the number of prints that can be made from a given asset by requiring each print to “cost” a token. (But, recognizing that scrap is often a reality of production, the system makes exceptions for parts that fail a quality check; if the blockchain data can prove that a certain part is bad, the manufacturer can get the leeway to print a replacement.) Companies can do production runs based on these tokens rather than paying for full access to own a particular file, which makes 3D printing more viable and  affordable for both commercial and non-commercial users. 

To test the solution CoreLedger and Ambitorio collaborated with Fabru GmbH, a Swiss company that manufactures 3D printers and filament in addition to providing production services. As the pilot site, Fabru integrated the blockchain system with its Plastjet 3C-855 fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer by way of a Beelink mini PC. The company has successfully used the solution to send printable files to the machine and control batch sizes of those parts.

Benefits to 3D Printing with Blockchain

Implementing a system like this could have advantages to both industrial manufacturers and the consumer world. On the industrial side, blockchain-protected 3D printing files ensure trust between creator and manufacturer. The designer, brand or OEM knows that their IP will be protected, and the manufacturer is assured that it is receiving authentic, unadulterated files to print from. “It becomes about trusting the token, not the person who sells the token,” Schweifer says.

Having such a system in place alongside 3D printing capability could help establish local manufacturing as an attractive option; rather than risk sending IP overseas where parts or products will be made with expensive tooling, a manufacturer can instead opt for local production near customers. If trustworthy, protected 3D printable files exist, spare parts will become easier to obtain because they will not need to be made, shipped and stored but can be produced locally as needed. Localizing manufacturing brings sustainability benefits as well; producing near the need reduces transportation and associated CO₂ emissions, while on-demand production avoids the creation of waste. More local manufacturing enabled by blockchain may also help protect local production jobs and even expand these opportunities.

(The sustainability objections to blockchain, by the way, are mostly associated with mining of Bitcoin cryptocurrency, one specific and energy-intensive use of blockchain technology that depends on the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Other activities supported by blockchain use different mechanisms such as proof of stake and proof of authority which consume far less energy.)

But on the private user side, the solution has the potential to expand democratization of 3D printing, in the sense that it could give home and independent 3D printing users sanctioned access to authenticated designs. Though files would come at a price, their availability might help alleviate the design barrier to entry; a 3D printing operator would not need to be an expert in design or design for additive manufacturing to successfully manufacture goods and parts. Makers wishing to print objects protected by copyright might be able to legitimately purchase these designs through such a system. OEMs and consumer brands may even be motivated to sell printable files for replacement parts, customizations and accessories, or even exclusive product lines to customers, knowing their IP will be protected via blockchain.

Next Links in the Blockchain

Since its kickoff in 2019, the Interreg project has completed its initial objectives and established that the system works via the Fabru pilot site. The collaborators have begun to have conversations with other 3D printer manufacturers about how to integrate this solution into their equipment. But growing implementation of blockchain will not be the end of this initiative.

“The next stage is to make everything tradeable,” Schweifer says. The intersection of 3D printing and blockchain creates the opportunity to treat 3D printable objects like tokens (fungible or not) that can be bartered. For example, if a manufacturer purchases the ability to 3D print 1,000 units but only makes 900, the remaining 100 could potentially be bartered or transferred to another manufacturer. Expanding beyond 3D printing, machine utilization could be tokenized in a similar fashion — manufacturers could market and sell available machine time in the form of tradeable tokens.

For now, there is more work to do. “The use cases are in the making,” Schweifer says. “We are maybe two years ahead of broad implementation.”