The Trace Crystal Story

The seed for Trace Crystal was born in 2014 when materials physicist Jan Lagerwall and computer scientist Gabriele Lenzini, both professors at the University of Luxembourg, joined forces to investigate the potential of a new material invented in Lagerwall's lab for creating unique, unclonable and untransferable artificial "fingerprints" for verifying the authenticity of physical objects. Lenzini, a leading expert in cybersecurity, realized that the material generated so-called Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs): depending on how the material is illuminated and viewed, a different colorful pattern arises, uniquely defined by the particular uncontrollable arrangement of the components. PUFs are extremely powerful for secure authentication, but they can be difficult to use in practice. The new PUF is exceptionally easy and robust to use. The video below (courtesy of University of Luxembourg) presents the team at the time of their first joint scientific publication.

Meanwhile, reports on previously unimaginable cases of counterfeiting and fraud appeared to be exponentially increasing (read more here). The consequences for individuals, companies and societies are disastrous, from financial loss to tarnished brand reputation, to illness and death. The Covid-19 pandemic supercharged this development as online sales exploded and a giant market for fake face masks, medicines and vaccines flourished. Lagerwall and Lenzini realized that their unclonable, untransferable and unique artificial fingerprints hold enormous potential in fighting this development, as their material and hard- and software solutions would allow any parties along a complex globalized supply chain, from producers to refiners to shippers to retailers to customers, to reliably verify the authenticity of a product of concern.

The duo successfully acquired Proof-of-Concept projects from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Luxembourgish Research Council (FNR) for demonstrating, first, the potential to track and trace sustainably produced agricultural products in such a way that the end customer could be absolutely certain of its origin, and, second, a unique traceability solution for the high-end jewelry market that replaces incomplete solutions such as external tags of QR-/barcode or RFID type. Based on the output of this project and supported by the core team members Hakam Agha and Mónica Arenas, former postdocs with Lagerwall and Lenzini, respectively, we are founding Trace Crystal in April 2024, offering secure authentication and track-and-trace solutions for high-value, low-volume markets such as high-end jewelry and art. In parallel we are developing a version of our technology suited for the medium-value, high-volume market of many supply chains that we expect to be able to secure in 2025. We are also developing a temperature-sensitive version of our fingerprints, allowing to secure cold chains as well.